Minister Claims UMC Sends Mixed Messages on Homosexual Issues
by Jim Brown
August 30, 2005
(AgapePress) - A former homosexual who now runs an evangelical ministry in North Carolina contends that the United Methodist Church has a twisted view of church discipline. However, a prominent United Methodist bishop is disputing that idea.
Tim Wilkins of North Carolina-based Cross Ministry is accusing the UMC of employing a double standard. That is because the denomination recently suspended one Virginia minister for denying membership to an unrepentant homosexual, yet the church leaders failed to discipline another UMC clergyman who allowed two homosexual ministers to address a Duke University Chapel audience.
United Methodist bishop Will Willimon, who was elevated to Bishop of North Alabama last year, was serving as Dean of the Duke University Chapel when, according to Wilkins, he violated the UMC's Book of Discipline by inviting the two openly homosexual ministers to speak in the chapel.
"The United Methodist Church has stated clearly in their Book of Discipline their belief that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," Wilkins asserts. "However, when it comes to action they fail to live up to that Book of Discipline." Instead, he says, "The UMC appears to be rewarding disobedience and punishing obedience, which is extremely hard to understand."
Because of this, the founder and director of Cross Ministry is accusing the UMC of being inconsistent in its administration of church discipline. But Willimon protests that Wilkins criticism is "unfair and uninformed" and might just as well be "comparing apples and oranges." He contends his actions at Duke University did not violate UMC teaching, because Duke's Chapel is not a Methodist congregation.
"I'm a United Methodist minister," Willimon says, "and as such, was bound by the discipline. But Duke University Chapel is an ecumenical, all-denominational sort of chapel and tries to invite ministers from all different denominations." Meanwhile, the bishop points out, he has voiced strong opposition to the pro-homosexual rally being held this weekend at the United Methodist Retreat Center in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.
Willimon says he has been faithful to the UMC's teaching on homosexuality, and he maintains that Wilkins' charges regarding his "disobedience" and violation of the church's discipline are unwarranted.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
