Methodist Policies on Homosexuals Remain at Forefront in Pittsburgh
by Jim Brown
May 6, 2004
(AgapePress) - A decision by the United Methodist Church's Judicial Council to let stand a church trial verdict in favor of a lesbian pastor is getting mixed reviews from a conservative group.
The Judicial Council, the UMC's top court, ruled that it did not have authority to review the findings of the Methodist trial court in the Karen Dammann case. Dammann, a minister from Washington state, was recently acquitted of the charge of "engaging in practices incompatible with Christian teaching."
Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy disagrees with the ruling, but says it is not entirely unreasonable.
"The Judicial Council does not usually overturn the verdict of a lower court in terms of a trial of a clergy person," Tooley explains. "As in secular law, if the clergy person is acquitted, the Judicial Council doesn't claim the authority, typically, to overturn that acquittal."
The Judicial Council also ruled that a bishop may not appoint one who has been found by a trial court to be a self-avowed, practicing homosexual.
Need for Accountability
Meanwhile, United Methodists who want to stop the appointment of homosexual clergy have won some new tools to do so at their quadrennial General Conference this week in Pittsburgh. Among the legislation they have adopted is a measure making it a chargeable offense for clergy to perform weddings for same-gender couples and for ministers to have sex outside of marriage.
In addition, the Judicial Court weighed in with two rulings that reaffirm the ban on ordaining and appointing homosexuals -- and warned that disciplinary action could be taken against violators. But Associated Press reports that opponents of the church's rules may continue to defy them, resulting in more church trials that further divide the denomination.
A theologically conservative pastor in the UMC says the denomination has made good on one of two wishes he had going into this week's conference. Dr. Maxie Dunnam is a Kentucky delegate and president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore. Since the UMC's Judicial Council recently clarified its stance on the appointment of self-avowed practicing homosexuals, Dunnam is now hoping the denomination will take one more step forward after communicating through the Book of Discipline.
"But second to that, which is crucial in a practical way, is that we come out of here with some systems of accountability that will be better than those we presently have, to hold people accountable for abiding by the discipline of the church," he says.
Dunnamm says he is greatly concerned that liberal activists will one day succeed in amending the Book of Discipline to approve homosexual ministers. "I go back and forth in my heart on that," the Asbury president says. "I do have fear because I think it's so crucial to the Kingdom and to what we're about in the church, so I'm just praying that we won't [approve homosexual clergy]."
No one knows exactly how many homosexuals serve as Methodist clergy and in leadership positions, but both sides agree they are working throughout the church. It was Dr. Dunnam who requested earlier this week that the United Methodist Judicial Council issue a declaratory ruling about the verdict in the church trial of Karen Dammann.
Activists Busy on All Sides
During the 11-day General Conference, several former trans-gender and homosexual people who are now Christians have gathered outside the David Lawrence Convention Center to call on the United Methodist Church to reach out to those who struggle with same-sex attraction and want to change.
Karen Booth, executive director of the group Transforming Congregations, contends the denomination is ignoring the people who are crying out for help. "They have to go other places. They have to go to Exodus [a ministry for ex-homosexuals], they have to go to para-church ministries, they even have to go to secular therapies to get the help they need," she says.
At the same time, members of the group Soulforce have been holding up protest signs that read "Stop Spiritual Violence." Cindy Hadden from Seattle says the United Methodist Church is persecuting homosexuals. "Spiritual violence is the misuse of religious policies and teachings to sanction condemnation and discrimination against God's gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender children," Hadden says.
Soulforce supporters were also successful in interrupting proceedings at the conference for about 20 minutes on Thursday. The group reports that after the interruption, "hundreds of protestors and several delegates" moved to the third floor of the convention center and continued their rally.
Activists from the pro-homosexual special-interest group Reconciling Ministries are also making their presence known at the entrance of the convention center.
