In recent years, Christian churches have taken strikingly divergent views on sexuality. Some, such as the Catholic, Orthodox, and many Evangelical churches, have taken explicit institutional stances against LGBTQ inclusion.
Others, like the Episcopals, Presbyterians (PCUSA), and Lutherans (ELCA) have taken explicit stances in support of LGBTQ inclusion. Of course, individual members of these institutions will have diverse views on the topic, and the stance of an institution does not always reflect the stance of an individual member; The United Method Church (UMC) is a perfect example of this complexity.
The UMC is a global Protestant denomination which has significant membership in North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. While historically originating in the United Kingdom, the largest population of Methodists now lives in the United States, where it is the third largest religious group after Catholics and Baptists.
Every four years, the UMC meets at what they call the Methodist General Conference—a democratic body of representatives from across the world which gathers to make church decisions. In 1972, the Conference voted to add language to the church’s law, stating “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” and that gay ministers and marriages are not allowed in their churches.
Even then, this stance was controversial, and the issue has been taken up again by every General Conference since. While the UMC position against LGBTQ inclusion has not changed, significant numbers of clergy and lay people have protested these church policies. UMC pastor Sanford Brown of Seattle called the church’s anti-gay position “wrong, stupid, and evil.” In 1999, minister Jimmy Creech performed the first Methodist same-sex marriage ceremony and was subsequently defrocked by the UMC—or deprived of his status as a member of the clergy. Many other pastors followed Creech’s lead, including Franklyn Schaefer, who was famously defrocked by the church in 2013 after he presided over the marriage of his gay son. Schaefer was reinstated in 2014 after being disciplined.
In addition to speaking out and performing gay marriage ceremonies, many ministers of the UMC have come out as LGBTQ in recent decades. In the lead-up to the 2016 General Conference, over 150 American Methodist ministers had come out as gay. Also in 2016, the UMC elected its first openly gay bishop when Karen Oliveto was elected bishop in the Western Jurisdiction. In June of 2017, the UMC appointed its first transgender deacon in Illinois.
However, many in the UMC continue to support the church’s current policies and have demanded that the church crack down on members who resist the denomination’s anti-LGBTQ stance. For example, Rob Renfroe, head of the conservative “Good News” group of the UMC, stated that the election of Bishop Oliveto was a “crisis” and called on Methodists to “denounce this schismatic action,” and force her resignation. In the spring of 2017, the UMC’s Judicial Council—the supreme court of the UMC—ruled that Bishop Oliveto’s election violated church law, though a final sentence was yet to be set pending further proceedings.
Changes to the church’s policies have consistently been voted down by the global General Conference, with the delegates largely split along geographic and cultural lines. While a majority of American Methodists prefer to recognize same-sex clergy and marriages, conservative American Methodists have been joined by African and Asian Methodists who generally oppose LGBTQ recognition. The growing population of Methodists in Africa and Asia, coupled with the declining population of Methodists in the United States, have caused some to predict that church policies will be difficult if not impossible to change.
Additional Resources
Primary Sources:
• UMC pastor excluded from worship over LGBTQ issues (2016): http://bit.ly/2sEiBYN
• The Western Jurisdiction of the UMC explains why they voted for an openly gay bishop (2017): http://bit.ly/2rvGRNf
• Conservative leader of the “Good News” organization in the UMC speaks out against openly gay bishop (2016): http://bit.ly/2rAQOnq
• Pro-LGBTQ inclusion group Reconciling Ministries Network on reaching out to African Methodists in the UMC (2017): http://bit.ly/2rB5lj6
Secondary Sources:
• PBS video news story on “Methodist Gay Marriage”: http://to.pbs.org/1dYdWCc
• PBS Documentary on sexuality in the UMC: http://to.pbs.org/2sEgggE
• NYT on the UMC’s defrocking of Franklyn Schaefer: http://nyti.ms/2rpi9tw
• NYT on the Judicial Council’s ruling against Bishop Oliveto: http://nyti.ms/2qn18jM
• WP on the UMC’s first transgender deacon: http://wapo.st/2tbCRhK
Discussion Questions
• How would you respond to a friend who told you, “Christianity is anti-gay” or “Christianity is pro-gay,” based on this case study?• What does this case study say about the idea that religions are “internally diverse” in terms of Christianity as a whole, and in terms of specific denominations or sects within Christianity?
• Watch the primary source videos above, particularly the videos from the Western Jurisdiction and the Good News organization.How do these people of faith justify their divergent views? What about their context and faith may lead them to hold these views?
• While church policies have remained consistent, how do you see religion changing over time in this case study?
• How do you see religion being embedded in culture in this case study?
• Why might African and Asian Methodists largely vote against LGBTQ inclusion? Why might American Methodists be so divided?
• Watch the Reconciling Ministries Network video above. How do the Africans in this video complicate the idea that African Methodists generally vote against LGBTQ inclusion?