Oops. He Did it Again

John Lomperis of the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD) just wrote a piece on legislation passed in July by the South Central Jurisdiction of the UMC. The first several paragraphs are largely an accurate and fair representation of what happened. Then Lomperis inexplicably went on to attack me and an alternative resolution that I proposed along with Andrew Ponder Williams. Since Lomperis recently called me out for asserting that IRD and other right wing leaders intentionally distort the truth without my citing of specific examples of the practice, I am pleased that I've been given the perfect opportunity to demonstrate exactly how they do it.

Let's go line by line in his attack.

"I have never met the Rev. Livingston, but know of him primarily through his expressing his commitment to “unity in diversity” and “improving relationships” in such ways as defending a clergywoman recklessly breaking the covenant that serves as our basis of unity..."  When I was asked by Rev. Meyer to serve in the role of advocate as defined by the Book of Discipline I did so. She has that right, as guaranteed by our Constitution. As someone who seeks to uphold the Book of Discipline, I'm not sure why this would bother Lomperis.

"...(even to the point of snark-tweeting his own bishop)..." He may be right. I'm not on twitter enough to know what qualifies as snark-tweeting. But what I can tell you is that I have had many conversations with Bishop Jones and I'm confident that he would not be surprised at the content of any of my tweets or other social media. I follow the protocol of assuming anyone could see anything I put out there.

"...and for offering such pastoral love and grace as broadly accusing folk in the evangelical renewal movement of “constant lies and intentional deception.”  and this is where he really does it. Please follow the link he gives. Lomperis apparently intends to make this my own "bucket of deplorables" kind of comment by going back to this twitter conversation from three years ago. Please note that I am specifically making reference to Lomperis himself. In fact, in all my writing about the right wing of the UMC, my concern is not with the "rank and file," it's with the leadership of the renewal groups like IRD. I have many relationships and ongoing conversations with those who are theologically much more conservative than I am. In private conversations some of them have expressed the same frustration. In fact, my first experience with this was in 1999 when I serve on GBCS and first proposed a resolution to General Conference seeking a middle ground on homosexuality. Mark Tooley, who at that time held the position Lomperis holds today, promptly found the one line in everything I said that could be construed as controversial and published that comment alone. Here's what Tooley doesn't know: I was with him at the time - I only wanted space for others in the denomination who disagreed with us. As a seminary student I was even branded by some as "ultra-conservative." While that was never a label I would claim for myself, I don't think any of my seminary classmates would dispute that I was among the most conservative in our class. It was Tooley's casual relationship with the truth that started my movement towards the middle. Lomperis is simply continuing that tradition. It is a demonstration of the worst of church politics. It is wrong. And, to be clear, it has nothing to do with 99% of theological conservatives. It has to do with some of the mouthpieces for that view.

To Continue, "On his blog, Livingston explicitly described this second motion as “an alternative resolution” that he and others submitted in intentional response to Gilt’s, since “upholding the Book of Discipline has become code language for what those on the left see as prosecuting (persecuting?) LGBT pastors...” Lomperis says all of this as if it's not really true. Of course it was an alternative resolution, and of course "upholding the Book of Discipline" is code language. Look no further than...Lomperis for that. It is, in fact, the language of upholding the Book of Discipline that Lomperis appreciates about the resolution that passed. He says this multiple times in the very same post, just three paragraphs before taking me on. Lomperis criticizes me for saying precisely the same thing as him.

"...and according to Livingston, the simple fact that the first resolution’s author was from Texas, which has a “well known conservative bent,” is “[p]articularly” sufficient basis to judge the resolution as “seem[ing] divisive rather than uniting.”  This is a significant mischaracterization. What I said is that the first resolution came from the Texas Conference. If you're not familiar with UMC polity, that is one of five conferences in Texas. It is widely known that the Texas Conference delegation is almost entirely traditionalist. Saying that is no more controversial than Lomperis saying the Western Jurisdiction is liberal - which he does and I do not dispute. It is almost indisputable that multiple resolutions have come out of the Texas Conference that seem divisive. I can't speak to their intent, but I can speak to the perception.  And this is not a perception that Lomperis is unfamiliar with.

The final irony

Lomperis' post finishes by affirming the compromise resolution that we reached and which I celebrated as a victory for the centrists in the denomination. But he claims it was a win for the traditionalists. Here's what really happened. The author of the Texas petition, Rev. Kip Gilts, met with Andrew Ponders Williams (I was unavailable to meet with them due to a committee responsibility). They shared their concerns with each other. They came to a mutual agreement about a good path forward that alleviated our concerns without compromising the integrity of Rev. Gilts original petition. I spoke with Rev. Gilts later (but before the vote) and we both expressed gratitude that we could actually agree on a petition even though we have very different views on human sexuality. Andrew and I got what we wanted. Rev. Gilts got what he wanted. That's called a win-win. That actually is a kind of unity in diversity, that many of us on the left and right hope for. Lomperis can't make it otherwise no matter how he tries to re-frame the truth.