Delegates to General Conference seek removal of anti-gay language
ON THE OUTSIDE | Mary Lowrance, minister of congregational life at Northaven, surrendered her ministerial orders when she came out as a lesbian and cannot perform weddings, confirmations or baptisms. Lowrance said if anti-gay language isn’t removed this year, ‘we’ll be in a period of darkness.’ (Dallas Voice file photo)
In 1990, Shirley Cooper and her husband walked out of Oak Lawn United Methodist Church, at Cedar Springs Road and Oak Lawn Avenue, after a pastor told members gays and lesbians weren’t welcome there.
Twenty-two years later, Cooper, one of the founders of PFLAG Dallas, is in Tampa this week, where the UMC is holding its General Conference.
Cooper, who joined Northaven UMC after leaving Oak Lawn UMC, is one of several local Methodists who continue to push for the church to become more inclusive of LGBT people.
Even her former church, while not officially open and affirming, now describes itself as “amazingly diverse in its people’s culture and lifestyles.”
Eric Folkerth
The UMC’s General Conference in Tampa began on April 24 and continues through May 4. The two-week meeting is held every four years.
Methodist opposition to discrimination is clear, but so are the UMC’s policies discriminating against its gay and lesbian members. The Rev. Eric Folkerth, the straight senior pastor at Northaven UMC, calls those contradictory policies “maddening.”
For example, the 2008 Book of Resolutions includes a statement opposing “all forms of violence or discrimination based on gender, gender identity, sexual practice, or sexual orientation.”
Yet the General Council on Finance and Administration “shall be responsible for ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.”
Folkerth said that as much as he would like to see his church’s policies toward gays and lesbians change, he doesn’t think a lot of time will be devoted to the issue at this year’s meeting.
“It’s disheartening,” he said. “People’s minds are elsewhere. More than anything, this conference has to do with restructuring.”
Among the restructuring proposals are one that would do away with guaranteed appointments for ministers and one that would give bishops the power to remove clergy.
Folkerth called that an unchecked power that would allow a bishop to remove clergy for any reason including disliking women or older men, or being too liberal or too conservative. Folkerth fears he could lose his position because he could be viewed as too pro-gay, if the rule change is adopted.
The Rev. Troy Plummer is the executive director of the Chicago-based Reconciling Ministries Network. Plummer said on LGBT issues, the American church is becoming more tolerant.
He thinks that there is no consensus on restructuring.
“It will take heavenly intervention for us to find a path forward on restructuring,” he said.
But he’s more hopeful on the gay and lesbian issue.
“I am absolutely convinced with all my heart, if you took a vote of American delegates, the exclusive language would be removed,” he said.
The wording he referred to states, “The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”
That language is the basis for not ordaining “practicing” homosexuals, refusing to allow clergy to marry same-sex couples and even excluding gays and lesbians from church membership in isolated cases. Plummer thinks a resolution to remove the offending language has a chance of passage. He said his organization will have hundreds of volunteers working at the conference.
Mary Lowrance is the minister of congregational life at Northaven UMC but she surrendered her orders when she came out and she cannot perform weddings, confirmations or baptisms.
She said that at the 2008 conference, held in Fort Worth, the resolution to remove the Incompatibility Clause was defeated narrowly.
“It’s got to happen this year, or we’ll be in a period of darkness,” Lowrance said. “It’s a critical year.”
Lowrance said she was cautiously optimistic but doesn’t know what the chances are.
If it does pass, she could seek reinstatement.
“I left in good standing,” she said.
But exactly what the process would be or how long it would take for ministers like her to be reinstated she doesn’t know.
“It would have to follow a long period of prayer before I’d put my family through that,” she said.
Meanwhile, Cooper will be quietly trying to influence the delegates.
“We’ll be wearing stoles that represent the church being inclusive,” Cooper said.
She said that in Fort Worth in 2008, the stole she wore started a number of conversations. One person sat down with her for dinner and told her she knew there would be someone friendly at the table.
Cooper said the strategy of this conference is narrower than in the past. They want to just pass one thing. “Take out those very insulting words in the [Book of] Discipline,” she said.
Of the 988 voting delegates to the conference, 40 percent are from outside the U.S. Folkerth said the group of delegates of most concern to him will come from several countries in Africa that have oppressive laws against the LGBT community. Countries such as Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Tanzania will have quite a bit more representation this year.
Those delegates are expected to hold much more conservative views on sexual orientation than American delegates.
Plummer said his group will be providing translators and will be engaging the international delegates.
Lowrance said, “Younger members of the African Conference understand the issue better.”
“After the last conference, we lost members,” Folkerth said, and he’s bracing for that again.
He said it isn’t practical to change everyone’s heart on the issue of inclusion immediately, adding that he’d be happy with a local option.
“For the sake of mission, unleash the holy spirit so churches who want to be fully inclusive at all levels may do so,” he said.
Committee work continues through the first week of the conference, and resolutions will be brought to the floor for a vote of the delegates the second week.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 29, 2012.
As a lifelong United Methodist, I have always encountered extremely accepting clergy. While at St. Andrew UMC in Plano, my partner and I had a wonderful pastor who met with us regularly and was very affirming of our relationship. When we came to San Antonio for grad school we reached out to local Methodist churches, and a very kind pastor took us both to lunch and welcomed us to the congregation.
The American UMC is extremely welcoming all-in-all. For students of this issue, it is overwhelmingly the African delegates who block the removal of discriminatory language. Several years ago the UMC started evangelizing in Africa, which was rather successful. Now, since populations simply grow so fast over there, they are entitled to a lot of delegates at General Conference, and for the past several conferences, they have been responsible for blocking progressive efforts within the entire UMC. As a result you have official church policy which does not mirror the local churches we see here in the states.
The American UMC is shrinking slowly, and it’s a shame, but I have to say, for the first time in my life, I’ve considered leaving the denomination if it continues to let delegates thousands of miles away hijack the church’s mission of sharing a loving, accepting, and inclusive God.
Justin, thank you for your informative post.
When will all the good Christian folks realize that on this issue, the train has left the station?
The path that the UMC is following is very similar to the path of some other, more conservative denominations. It is a proven, documentable fact that America is becoming more secular. This is due in large part to the primary message of most conservative churches–a very hate-filled, fear-based (and false) teaching. Bottom line: the church is already destroying itself. The only question that remains is how much longer it will be.
In 1972 I was a lay delegate to Annual Conference in Atlanta. At that time a contingency of gay and lesbian people made their presence known. They were promoting a statement of acceptance for the U.M. Discipline. It is hard to believe that 40 years have passed and we still marginalize and discriminate against some of God’s own children. By the way, they are our children as well.
Doing a lot of reading now that I see the direction Methodists have taken in Tampa. I think we have made a mistake. I am not gay, but an over 70 year old man with 4 children. It seems to me that we our bigoted and this is one of the last movements or tenets to be changed. Seems the few scriptures people use to condemn homosexuality are right there with the same laws against working on Sunday, marrying a divorced person (adultery), etc. We seem to have dismissed what The Bible says about women ministers (except in Catholicism and the Baptist denomination). So just seems the church should be a little more loving and accepting…or do they want me to follow the example they are setting…and be spiteful and move my membership and money to a more loving church?