Not long ago, a Methodist church near Seattle acquitted its minister of any wrong-doing when she publically admitted her long-term relationship with her lesbian partner.
A group of Methodist bishops in Atlanta disapproved strongly of the church trial’s verdict, writing, “It is a clear sign of rebellion when a group chooses to flagrantly ignore The Discipline [the Methodist Church’s official statement of doctrine], substituting their own perspective for the corporate wisdom of the General Conference [the Methodist Church’s annual hoo-haa, where issues are debated and verdicts rendered].”
At the time, I responded to the Bishops with the following letter.
They have never replied.
My name is Mark McElroy. I grew up in the ultra-conservative Churches of Christ. In our church, our leaders routinely (and conveniently) confused their own conclusions about God’s Will with the Will of God. (As one church official put it, “We are not here to teach our people how to think about Scripture, but what to think about it.”)
I eventually left that church — and my position as a respected minister within it — because I could no longer in good conscience play a role in perpetuating its tradition of emotional and spiritual abuse.
You can imagine, then, how refreshed I was during my first visit to a Methodist Church. Even now, years after joining St. Mark and years after becoming a Methodist, the practical emphasis on personal accountability — the core, I think, of modern Methodism — continues to delight me.
An example: recently, during a Sunday School class, I heard Pastor Keith Tonkel say, “In the Methodist church, it’s okay for different people to reach different conclusions … As a church, we encourage you to read the Scriptures for yourself and decide what you, to the best of your ability, believe they teach on a given subject.” Such powerful words! Perhaps you’ve grown accustomed to them … but to this day, sentiments like these move me almost to tears.
It saddens me, then, to read your condemnation of the Seattle-area church members. These people are clearly acting in accordance with the guidance of their conscience and the conclusion of their hearts. In condemning them, you conform to a pattern of behavior that, given my personal history, is all too familiar.
It is a mistake, I think, and a matter of misplaced emphasis, to see this issue as a call to rally to the defense of The Discipline. In the end, The Discipline represents nothing more than human conclusions about Divine teachings; unlike the Word of God, these conclusions must be regarded as fallible … and therefore subject to challenge and change.
To dismiss as “flagrantly rebellious” those who in good conscience feel led to challenge The Discipline is both judgmental and smug. Appealing to the General Conferences’ “corporate wisdom” reinforces the tyranny of the majority … and conveniently avoids consideration of the larger questions of fairness, humanity, and Christian charity raised by the issue at hand.
(Perhaps I am mistaken, but I don’t recall the Christ ever once directing His followers to bow to “corporate wisdom.” But then again, the religious leadership of His day characterized Him as flagrantly rebellious, too!)
When time has reduced the this moment in Church history to little more than a footnote, I believe our words and deeds right now, today, with regard to this issue, will lead future generations to determine whether we were true to the highest principles of Christ’s mission … or whether we were merely slaves to dogma, enforcers of codified prejudice, and blind followers of outdated tradition.
My prayer for you is that you will recognize the importance of this moment, that you will open your hearts, and that you will allow yourselves to be led more by the Spirit of God than by any human consensus.
Instead of rising to the defense of The Discipline, I pray that you will find the courage to rise to the defense of Children of God who, due to nothing more than human bigotry and prejudice, are suffering terrible abuse at the hands of the Church.
In Christ,
Mark McElroy
Jackson, MS
In a related story: today, the Methodist Church’s General Conference ruled that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
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