I've been struggling to find the right words since learning yesterday that the United Methodist Church voted down two constitutional amendments aimed at ensuring the rights of women throughout the church. Please don't take these reflections as the last word, just as a word for this moment while I keep working on myself.
1. We should be ashamed that our lack of trust has caused harm.
My Facebook feed was full yesterday of people, mostly women, who were hurt by this action. The nearly universal response to them was "we support you as women and as female clergy, but the language in these amendments could have been used to push the LGBT agenda." To that, let me say two things.
First, even if that were true this action still caused harm.
Second, let me share a brief insight into amendment 2. I was in the subcommittee that worked on this amendment at General Conference. Some of us actually did want to do broaden the amendment to include some protection for LGBT individuals in the amendment. Not in a sneaky way - we were explicit about it. And for one day we succeeded. Our subcommittee voted in favor of the change by two votes. The next day, our subcommittee magically acquired three new members who switched from another subcommittee to ours. Coincidentally, all three were opposed to our recommended change. Coincidentally, these additions to the subcommittee mean that the "conservative" delegates now had a one-vote majority. So coincidentally our amendment to the amendment was reversed and defeated.
That's a dirty trick.
But I continued to work with a group to add language protecting LGBT individuals back into the amendment until it became clear that even if somehow it were to pass at General Conference it would never pass the whole constitutional process. So, operating in completely good faith, we stopped those efforts. It was not a trap. It was not a covert plot. It was a legitimate amendment.
I can't speak to other situations. In this situation, I can promise you that despite a dirty trick by traditionalists the moderates and progressives should have been trusted.
2. We risk becoming more Southern Baptist than the Southern Baptists.
In a column that was completely devoid of sympathy for those who were hurt, John Lomperis said, "The defeat of Amendment #1 would seem to indicate that this movement has crested, and is now mercifully fading within the United Methodist Church. Thanks be to God!"
It's interesting that Lomperis and others want us to move away from inclusive language while the Southern Baptist Church, widely seen as the most conservative Protestant denomination, actually expanded the use of inclusive language last year.
Those who know me from seminary can tell you that I was not a fan of inclusive language. I'm still not a fan of political correctness simply for the sake of political correctness. To the dismay of some in the congregation I serve, when we use the Communion liturgy we end with "all glory is yours Almighty Father" instead of "Almighty God" because the Great Thanksgiving is a prayer in the Trinitarian form and at that moment we are addressing the first person of the Trinity. To be clear, our understanding of the Trinity was never in doubt. It is enshrined in the Articles of Religion, which cannot be changed.
There is an argument from traditionalists that we are on a slippery slope towards all kinds of heresy. Using that same argument, the slope may have reversed. Another flashback to General Conference 2016. A lay leader of a U.S. annual conference told me point blank that 90% of churches in his conference would not take a woman as a pastor. That conference voted more than 2 to 1 against both of the failed amendments.
I'm not a gambler (gambling is a menace to society according to the Social Principles), but if I were I would bet the house that if the UMC splits into liberal and conservative groups the conservative wing's version of General Conference will consider the question of women's ordination in the next 16 years. I'm not saying it will pass, but it won't be laughed off the table. Evidence? Barna says that 39% of evangelicals in the U.S. reject the idea that women should be pastors. Barna's definition of evangelical is entirely consistent with United Methodists' traditionalist wing and at odds with many progressives. A split denomination gives extremists at both ends a greater percent of membership and vote.
3. We really have become a reflection of our culture
Just not in the way that some assert. It's not that we are a reflection of culture because we have caved to cultural norms for sexuality. In fact, we haven't.
Here's how we have come to reflect culture. We do not trust each other, much less our institutions. We resort to dirty tricks to win instead of ethical processes. We insist that our way must be correct and refuse to compromise. We have resorted to calling each other names instead of engaging in real conversation. Many have chosen to take an "ends justify the means" approach that is clearly not biblical. The soul of our church is dying. And it has nothing to do with sexual orientation or gender identity. Jesus said we have one job - Love God and Love our neighbor as ourselves. We've forgotten our job. We've forgotten that love is a verb - it means taking loving actions. In that sense, maybe we all have become heretics. Maybe we've all quit following Christ as closely as we ought to.
