Methodist Pastor: Bishops Off-Base on Membership/Homosexuality Stance
by Jim Brown
November 9, 2005
(AgapePress) - - The head of a United Methodist renewal group says he's troubled that the denomination's bishops have unanimously declared that homosexuality is not a barrier to church membership in the United Methodist Church.
In a pastoral letter to the people of the United Methodist Church, the United Methodist Council of Bishops affirmed that church membership is open to all people, including practicing homosexuals. The statement comes despite a recent ruling by the United Methodist Judicial Council -- the denomination's highest court -- which reinstated a conservative Virginia pastor who was suspended without pay for denying membership to an unrepentant homosexual. (See earlier article)
Pastor Jeff Switzer with the Mississippi Fellowship of United Methodist Evangelicals fears the bishops' letter leaves the door open for people to form their own impressions as to where the church stands. And while Switzer says church doors should be open to all individuals, he feels membership should not be given to individuals who are in active defiance of God's Word and the denomination's Book of Discipline.
"That is not what our Book of Discipline clearly states," Switzer says emphatically in reference to the bishops' statement. "It seems the bishops just can't seem to unambiguously embrace what the Church has taught for 2,000 years, and to embrace what most United Methodists believe."
Switzer, who pastors Sandtown United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi, is convinced the letter will only create more confusion in the denomination. He feels the bishops are attempting to speak with one voice -- "but they're struggling to do that," he says.
"I know that a number of the bishops, especially in different parts of the country, will take this statement to their annual conferences and to their churches and to their pastors and say, 'You see? You can still do what you want to do,'" the Mississippi pastor states.
Switzer says for some United Methodist bishops, the letter on homosexual membership was an act of defiance against the Judicial Council. And because of the bishops' statement, he predicts the ruling handed down two days earlier by the Judicial Council will have "minimal effect" on day-to-day practices or decisions at the local church level.
Read United Methodist News Service story on bishops' announcement
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
