Theologian Says United Methodists Will Not Go Way of Episcopal Church
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
November 18, 2003
(AgapePress) - Despite the recent choice of the Episcopal Church USA, a United Methodist theologian says a self-declared homosexual will never be ordained a bishop in his denomination.
The ECUSA's controversial decision to confirm practicing homosexual V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire has reverberated throughout the denomination and the worldwide Anglican Communion. Nor have non-Anglican churches in the U.S. and beyond been able to escape the repercussions of the divisive action.
Since Robinson's consecration, several denominations have distanced themselves from or made official statements of censure against the ECUSA. A recent denunciation comes from the Russian Orthodox Church, which has suspended ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church over its installation of the homosexual bishop.
According to Associated Press, the Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate issued a recent statement, saying, "Biblical passages that condemn homosexuality are clear and unequivocal," and calling the consecration of Robinson "deeply anti-Christian and blasphemous." Nevertheless, the Russian church hopes to maintain ties with Episcopalian dissidents who hold to traditional biblical teachings on homosexuality.
For some conservative leaders of mainline U.S. churches, the ECUSA's embrace of homosexuality at the leadership level is particularly foreboding because of the fear that their own churches may move in a similar direction, thus leading to similar ruptures.
However, United Methodist theologian Tom Oden is confident that will not happen in his denomination. He says the majority of the official decisions at United Methodist General Conferences have been very favorable to classical Christian teaching. "By 75- to 80-percent margins, our church has written rules into the [Book of] Discipline that say self-declared homosexuals cannot serve in ministry," he says.
And unlike some evangelicals, Oden says, conservative Protestants do not separate over doctrinal differences in their denomination, as a rule. Rather, they appeal to church law, and if necessary, to civil law.
According to the theologian, members of his denomination are clear on its doctrine and policies. However, he feels they have not yet learned how to enforce them -- a reality evidenced by the fact that orthodox Methodist churches in Kansas, California, and Alaska have left the denomination after encountering false teachings in their conferences.
"We know what our Discipline is, but we do not know how to impose it, how to make it stick," Oden says, "and that's where the issues lie in Kansas, California, and Alaska. All of these are about not what the church discipline says, but whether it will be followed in the face of those who overtly neglect it."
In one recent case, two United Methodist committees decided not to discipline a lesbian pastor. However, the denomination's judicial council has remanded the case.
