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    Feb 01, 2015

    Part 4: Same Sex Marriage

    Passage: Luke 10:25-37

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: Modern Problems

    Category: Current Events

    Keywords: current, homosexuality, marriage, modern problems, same sex

    This week in Part 4 we will be exploring the topic of same sex marriages in the United Methodist Church.

    Reference: Finding Our Way: Love and Law in The United Methodist Church, Edited by Rueben P. Job and Neil M. Alexander.

    1968 was a highly significant year for Methodism. Some of you will remember that Reisterstown United Methodist Church is the result of a merger of the Methodist Episcopal Church on this property that began in 1777 and the Methodist Protestant Church that used to be in the Long and Foster building across the street. The churches were from different strands of the Methodist Church that resulted from a split over slavery and church polity (governance – not politics).

    The 3 strands of Methodism – The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church – had reunited in 1939, but that union did not erase racism from our church. It was at that time that racism was institutionalized into the Central Jurisdiction in the U.S. All of the Black or African-American Churches were organized into segregated conferences while the majority White churches were in other, more powerful conferences.

    In 1968, the Central Jurisdiction was abolished, bringing the Black churches into the historically White conferences.

    That same year, the Methodist Church merged with The Evangelical United Brethren Church. As you can imagine, it was a time of deep change in the church – just as it was a time of deep change in the culture of our country as the Civil Rights movement reached a new climax with the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. In fact, those two historic events happened in the same month!

    Many aspects of church had to be worked out following the sometimes emotional negotiations that resulted in the Plan of Union and the reuniting of Black and White conferences. Just imagine for a moment the joy of the reuniting of those conferences as well as the stumbling around that to “get it right” so that the African American values and leaders and the EUB values and leaders were not simply absorbed into the larger, more powerful Methodist and/or White church and thereby often discounted or ignored altogether. It was a great moment for the church but not without its challenges.

    It was in that context that our story for today begins. In 1972 our church was drafting the new Social Principles for the new denomination – one of the pieces that had not been worked out by 1968. Many United Methodists had grown up in an environment that was very negative and often hostile toward gay and lesbian people. Even those who had been very recently embroiled in the struggle for civil rights were unlikely to see gay rights as a civil rights issue because they had – at the very least – written them off.

    Bishop Melvin Talbert was a young man involved in the preparation for the 1972 General Conference, and he says that the people drafting the Social Principles “came to the conclusion that ‘mother dominance’ was the primary cause for homosexuality, so [they] drafted a statement to account for that theory. Fortunately for us,” he writes, “The New England Journal of Medicine released its findings on the causes for homosexuality. That medical report shot holes in our report and destroyed with scientific evidence” that theory of ‘mother dominance.’ So we chose to prepare a general statement similar to the statement in the 2012 Book of Discipline, ¶161F, which reads, ‘We affirm that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God.’”

    Bishop Talbert continues with his recounting of that event:

    When we presented a new statement of Social Principles to the 1972 General Conference, a motion was made from the floor and adopted, which amended the report. This action added a new barrier of exclusion. We intervened in 1968 to correct an action taken in 1939 which segregated Black people into a separate jurisdiction. And in 1972 we created a General Commission on the Status and Role of Women to advocate for and monitor the process of full inclusion of women in our church.

    But in 1972 we acted to construct another wall. We voted to identify homosexual practice as “incompatible with Christian teachings.” This derogatory language is directed toward our sisters and brothers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (LGBT).

    In ten subsequent General Conferences, efforts were made to remove the offensive language regarding homosexual persons from the Book of Discipline. During these years, rather than remove the disparaging language, the General Conference chose to harden its position…

    Bishop Talbert is referring to the now explicit language in the Book of Discipline that prohibits UM clergy from performing same-sex marriages or civil unions while at the same time declaring that gay and lesbian people are of sacred worth and not denying them membership or leadership roles.

    There are clergy, including bishops, who are challenging that stance to the point of disobedience to church law. There are also lay and clergy people who are working to find a way through this debate that will soften the law and end what they see as discriminatory. Some UM congregations have made the formal decision to be Reconciling Congregations, and they have decided to disobey the law to allow their facilities to be used for same-sex weddings. That has not been discussed or decided among the leadership of RUMC. In a number of highly publicized cases, clergy men and women as well as one bishop have been brought to church trial because of their disobedience. In most cases, a just resolution has been achieved, allowing the clergy to return to ministry.

    Our time is very limited this morning, so I can’t go into deep analysis or comparison of sides in this struggle. What I’m going to do, however, is share part of my personal struggle with this issue.

    As my witness last Sunday indicated, my heart and mind are clear that gay and lesbian people are God’s beloved children, and healthy, loving, committed LGBT relationships are within God’s eternal and timeless will. So, it follows that our church law is unjust and discriminatory. I pray often for a change in our Discipline.

    I am deeply concerned for our young people. My own children are alienated from the church because of this issue. They both know my heart. They do not understand why the church puts up such barriers to their friends. One of our son’s best friends is a transgendered male who was the Best Woman at his wedding before his transition. He could not be a better friend to our son and his family – and Tommy loves him, especially since he taught him to love kimchi!

    This single issue is causing young people to leave the church in droves. They see the discrimination and believe the church is mired in bigotry and hypocrisy.

    As of today, I have never been asked to perform a same-gender wedding or civil union. For me as your pastor, no matter who you are or what your sexual orientation, it is a holy privilege and responsibility to be able to offer the rites and sacraments of the church – God-acts, if you will – to all of the parishioners that I love and care for. To deny one of those acts to a parishioner would cause me deep pain and conflict. Until the civil law changed in Maryland, we were not faced with this challenge in this way.

    It is time that we start talking about this as a congregation. As I said last week, I am certain that we will not all agree. There are those of you who would like to become a Reconciling Congregation. There are others that I’m just as certain would not want that to happen. There are those of you who would be willing for us to allow our facilities to be used for same-gender weddings and others who would not.

    As I said last Sunday, I hope that we will be able to agree to disagree and allow there to be grace as well as respect between us.

    Jesus told the lawyer, “The greatest commandment is this: love the Lord your God with you heart and soul and mind and strength. And a second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.” He didn’t say we have to agree with each other or be like each other. He said we have to love. Thanks be to God.