Despair Or Hope Directions On A Signpost
Despair Or Hope Directions On A Metal Signpost
What is it about the human psyche that demands domination? Could it be the human lust for power? Could it be the fear of change, or fear of vulnerability?
United Methodists are examining their co-religionists' motivations – though not always their own – now that the Council of Bishops has made its Way Forward recommendation. Even more than the dismay over the Council of Bishops' decision on Way Forward proposals, clergy and laity alike are disheartened by the rejection of two constitutional amendments meant to protect equality and justice for women and girls. Conversations on social media have speculated that the votes on those amendments, which came so close to being ratified, could reflect homophobia or misogyny, or both. What's clear is that domination is at work throughout the church as delegates prepare for the special General Conference in 2019.
Human institutions have long decreed that second-class status should be occupied by women, by people of color, by immigrants, or by people of non-binary sexual orientation, but never by men. I sometimes think this urge to dominate was the real reason that Jesus was crucified: he taught that all are equal – and equally loved – in God's eyes, confronting both Jewish religion of his time and Roman politics. Jesus proclaimed that those who oppress others commit acts that God despises, even as God's love for them never wavers.
The message of those who speak truth to power often lives on, but the speakers themselves too often are sacrificed. Domination holds formidable weapons: power to say what the Holy Bible means; power over political processes that determine agendas and outcomes; power to enforce whatever rules are adopted; power to cast out as heretics and apostates those who refuse to bow down to domination.
As far as The United Methodist Church is concerned, the presenting issue for the 2019 General Conference really isn't unity, or the authority of scripture, or the official rejection of homosexuality, which originated in the 1970s in reaction to the emergence of gay men's efforts for equality and justice. (These attitudes are reflected in the denomination's current prohibitions, which consistently single out "homosexuality" with a subtext that means "gay men"). No, the true issue for 2019 is maintaining dominance.
We can't fault the Commission on A Way Forward or the Council of Bishops for following good Methodist tradition in how they've tried to frame the argument. There have been plenty of resources, readings, scholarly treatises and the like to engage minds around the issue. What has been missing from the start, however, has been the courage to bear witness against the underlying evil: the institution's will to dominate. As the great black author James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
If only the Way Forward commission had opened its doors to public observers, we could have seen firsthand how those faithful Christians handled their discussions about our differences. We needed to see and to hear their deliberations, and yet the church at large was shut out of the spiritual examples it most needed. How much damage those closed doors have done to our global conversation will become more evident over the next months in preparation for the 2019 General Conference.
Social media conversations offer clear evidence of high levels of mistrust around the denomination. The amendment vote totals from several conferences in Africa particularly spark suspicion. When has any United Methodist conference in recent memory voted unanimously for or against anything, as the voting records show? Didn't one bishop challenge those curiously one-sided voting records? If there's a process for investigating those vote totals, especially now that the Council of Bishops has certified the vote, it's not immediately clear in the Book of Discipline.
In the end, fear may be what lies behind our will to dominate. Fear, not faith, certainly played a prominent role in the Way Forward process to this point, as the continued secrecy of both the commission's and the bishops' deliberations attest. This isn't godly "fear," more accurately translated as "awe" or "reverence," but the kind of fear that demands dominance.
A slender thread of hope remains in the coming months: whether rank-and-file United Methodists can accomplish what leadership has not, namely to demonstrate publicly the spiritual competence of Jesus' followers in frank, open conversation to discern God's will for the church. This means engaging in discussions across boundaries, across differences. General Conference delegates must participate in the conversations, so that they know – not speculate – what a broad cross-section of United Methodism discerns. Only then can we hope to heal the denomination of its fear and will to dominate, so that the world will know and follow the teachings and example of Jesus, the Christ.
For examples of how one annual conference, Holston, has approached the concept of difficult discussions and bridge-building across differences, see these articles on the conference website.
Peace Conference Teaches Value of Holy Conversations
Peace During Polarization: 6 Tips for Bridge Builders
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.