Inclusiveness of the Church — The United Methodist Church is a part of the church universal, which is one Body in Christ. The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth and that we are in ministry to all. All persons without regard to race, color, national origin, status or economic condition shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, and upon baptism be admitted as baptized members,. and All persons, upon taking vows declaring the Christian faith and relationship in Jesus Christ, shall be eligible to become professing members in any local church in the connection. In the United Methodist Church no conference or other organizational unit of the Church shall be structured so as to exclude any member or any constituent body of the Church because of race, color, national origin, status or economic condition.
(Key: Bold = added text; Italics = deleted text)
This amendment originated with a caucus group in Texas dedicated to liberalizing the denomination’s standards and teachings on sexual morality, particularly with regard to homosexual practice. It is being heavily promoted by the Reconciling Ministries Network and the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA).
On the other hand, the Rev. Walter Fenton, new leader of the denomination’s oldest evangelical caucus, analyzed this proposal from another perspective a few months ago and analysis from a similar perspective is offered by prominent evangelical UM leader and civil rights veteran Maxie Dunnam. Meanwhile UM pastor, blogger, and UMReporter contributor Andrew Thompson has a thoughtful essay on the amendment apart from the baggage of the emotionally charged homosexuality debates (this link should get you there eventually).
Much of the discussions seem to involve a significance confusion about the significance of church membership, with the idea of that if you don’t grant immediate church membership that must mean that you don’t love or will not minister to them. This often seems quite devoid of any recognition of church membership as a serious matter, involving a solemn commitment to a covenant community of sisters and brothers, and eligibility for leadership in this community, and that it is quite possible to love and minister to people within your church without granting immediate membership.
It seems that much of this confusion comes out of the unfortunately myopic experience of some Amendment #1 proponents having only seen congregations in which membership is not treated that seriously and membership numbers are many times higher than that of weekly church attendance—with little appreciation for how dramatically contrary this is to historic Methodist practice as well as to the present reality of many thriving congregations of various denominations throughout the United States and the world. (In my last job I wrote more on this theme in advance of the 2008 General Conference).
The burden of proof is always on those making a positive truth claim or proposal, such as Amendment #1. Yet I have yet to see advocates of this amendment address some very key questions. Given my conviction that no annual conference delegate should vote for this amendment without having these questions first answered, and for the sake of promoting civil and substantive discussion of the issues, I post the questions here and would especially appreciate responses from those who have supported Amendment #1:
-Early voting results have shown significant opposition to this amendment. While this should of course not be binding on the rest of the annual conferences, should this at least give annual conference delegates some pause, and justify scheduling plenty of time for thorough and substantive debate rather than rushing to vote (as so often happens)?
-If the goal is really just to address questions related to homosexuality, why not come back in four years with another Constitutional amendment narrowly tailored to just address that, rather than this much more broadly-worded amendment?
-I recently spoke with a UM pastor who had an actual case of a man seeking to become a full member of his church for the sole purpose of seeking to organize a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan—in New Hampshire of all places! Other cases recently faced by pastors include someone seeking immediate church membership solely for the purpose of being able to participate in an upcoming congregational vote on a land sale in which this person had an interest and a man seeking to join a local congregation solely to harass and cause discomfort for his ex-wife that he had recently divorced in a mean-spirited and vindictive manner. Yet if this amendment passes the minister would be force to grant full membership (and hence leadership eligibility) to these persons upon demand. What positive good is served by depriving pastor’s of their historic role of compassionate pastoral oversight in these specific cases?
-The amendment seems to essentially change the Constitution from saying that no one who takes the vows can be denied membership because of race, etc. to saying that no one who takes the vows can be denied membership for any reason. Wouldn't the somewhat vague wording at least arguably conflict with the practice of many UMC congregations of having required new members' classes?
-Anyone who's seen motions get debated and amended at annual or General Conference can tell you this is often a very rushed process resulting in some embarassingly sloppy wording. This appears to be the case with Amendment #1. If "all persons," period, are eligible to receive the sacramentS," and this is placed in a separate sentence from the one mentioning "taking vows declaring the Christian faith," would this not mean that "all persons" demanding adult baptism shall be entitled to this sacrament, regardless of whether or not they profess Christian faith (as long as they don't seek membership)?
-Would removing the non-discrimination criteria from the final sentence of Paragraph 4 conflict with United Methodist Women and United Methodist Men excluding some UMC members on the basis of gender? What implications would this sentence change have for the myriad of sensible structural rules that, for instance, limit participation in certain "organizational units of the Church" to those affiliated with the annual conference related to this organizational unit?
-In my quiet time last night, I made it to Romans 15 and was struck by verse 7: "Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." This seems to raise some very fundamental theological questions underlying the Amendment #1 debate, such as: How exactly does Christ accept people? Do all individuals have personal sin to repent of, or is Christ's message simply one of affirming us as we are and not daring to call us to any sort of life change? How, if at all, should the Church have a structurally built-in expectation of human fallenness? And in the course of these debates, is our ultimate goal "to bring praise to God," or is it something else?
-This amendment would initially seem to firmly establish for all UMC congregations a divide in which no "self-avowed, practicing homosexual" can ever be ordained as clergy OR denied membership as laity. What exactly is the justification for establishing a rigidly two-tiered system of moral expectations for different members of the body?
-Many proponents of Amendment #1 have seemed to very unlovingly demonize the Rev. Ed Johnson of Virginia, in the course of their 4-year crusade to have this evangelical pastor defrocked, of which Amendment #1 is a part. Some of the rhetoric about him has been so distorted as to qualify as bearing false witness. Has anyone in the MFSA/Reconciling Movement spoken out against such unloving and truth-stretching treatment of him?
2 comments:
Wise and useful commentary. Thank you. I have another issue with this amendment: Churches that have high commitment levels and high member expectations tend to do better in many measures than those with low expectations. Methodism has welcomed people to the Lord's table and even into membership with minimal spiritual preparedness, but in the vital years, this was admittance into a body that had high member expectations about moving on to holiness/perfection. (You can start out a mess---and who doesn't, but we expect you to work with us to grow and regenerate into a New Creation.) UMC churches that are explicit about this expectation will be prevented from holding members accountable to these sorts of expectations, and the UMC will become just another club with declining membership and effectiveness. I would argue even---that this amendment is in violation of the General Rules which speak explicitly of members meeting weekly and being accountable to a leader for doing the good, avoiding the evils and attending the ordinances of grace. If we cannot hold people to this, are we in fact Methodist? Accountability in the means of grace can never be forfeit to politics and keep membership worth obtaining. As Groucho Marks is reputed to have said: " I would never join a club that would have me as a member." sic transit ecclesia.
Thanks for sharing your reflections on amendment 1. Many people share your concerns. The NC Annual Conference has just overwhelmingly defeated this amendment.
Alan Swartz
hermeneutic.org
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