Rachel
is Wailing
by Rev. Joe Agne (12/4/04)
As the Rev. Beth
Stroud's trial began so too did a violent storm. The wind
roared and the power went off at Camp Innabah in Pughtown,
Pa. As I listened to the storm, I thought I heard an angry
God. Listening more, I heard Rachel wailing.
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…
The Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take
the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there
until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy
him.”
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night,
and went to Egypt….
When Herod saw that he had been tricked… he was infuriated, and
he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were
two years old or under…. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken
through the prophet Jeremiah:
A voice was heard in Ra'mah, wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
~Matthew 2:13-18
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Rachel has wailed throughout the ages since.
• During the Crusades, Rachel wailed when the Church perpetrated
acts of violence against Jews and Muslims.
• In 1844, Rachel wailed when the Methodist Episcopal Church
split as bishops, clergy and laity misused Scripture to justify
slavery.
• In 1888, Rachel wailed when church leaders refused to seat
women elected to General Conference, misusing Scripture to
justify their exclusion.
• In the 1930s and 1940s, Rachel wailed when church leaders
were silent as Jews, Gay Men and Lesbians, communists and
Roma (gypsies) were loaded into boxcars for extermination.
Rachel wails today.
Dec. 1, Rachel wailed when a bishop testified he had to bring
charges against the Rev. Stroud. Rachel wailed when a United
Methodist clergy prosecutor compared his pain in bringing charges to
the Rev. Stroud's
pain in facing charges.
Today, Rachel wails when those of us who seek to be allies
of oppressed persons claim to be powerless if continuing
to stand with the oppressed threatens our privileges and entitlements.
When I heard Rachel's lament in the wind at Camp Innabah,
I heard the United Methodist Church loading boxcars of LGBT
clergy to send them into exile.
Our leaders are not powerless. The power they use to enforce
unjust church laws can be used to change unjust church laws.
Our church leaders participated in civil disobedience during
the Civil Rights Movement and in protesting wars in Vietnam
and Iraq. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., they have believed
the “moral
arc of the universe bends toward justice.”
We need church leaders today who believe the church can be
transformed to bend toward justice. We need ecclesiastical
disobedience. We need clergy, board and agency leaders, district
superintendents and
bishops to say, “We can't keep exiling LGBT people. We will risk
our own exile instead.”
We have a clash between our baptismal vows and our interpretation
of order within the United Methodist Church. Order is neither
infallible nor unchanging. Our responsibility to order cannot supersede
our baptismal
vows, which ask:
• Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject
the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?
• Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist
evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present
themselves?
• Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole
trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord,
in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations
and
races?
In response to these questions, we did not say “Yes, but…” or “Yes,
except when keeping these vows risks our institutional privileges
and entitlements.”
We are not powerless. We can change the United Methodist
Church. We must take the risks of ecclesiastical disobedience.
If we don't, we will continue to hear Rachel lamenting for her LGBT children:
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“ A voice was heard in Camp Innabah, wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
She refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
It is the United Methodist Church that was on trial at Camp
Innabah.
By the Rev. Joe Agne, pastor of Memorial United Methodist
Church in White Plains, N.Y., and national co-president of
the Methodist Federation of Social Action.