Here We Stand
P.O. Box 15750
Washington, DC 20003
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 6, 2005

Washington, DC - Church leaders call on the United Methodist Church to “embody God’s love” by ending discrimination against homosexual persons and reversing alarming Judicial Council decisions

In a statement released today, a group of United Methodist church leaders, call on the United Methodist Church to “embody God’s love and justice.” Specifically they call on the United Methodist Judicial Council to reconsider and reverse a recent decision (#1032) in which a United Methodist pastor was allowed to refuse membership to a gay man in his congregation.

The group expresses concern that the Judicial Council ruling removes the denomination’s constitutional guarantee of open membership, deprives lay persons of their rights, and further puts minorities in the church at risk of discrimination and exclusion.

“ Whenever history, tradition, practice and culture declare in deed or word that some category of persons are less than others, there will be those who feel they have been given impunity to separate, segregate, exclude and sometimes harm those persons,” according to declaration signer Rev. Gilbert Caldwell of United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church.

The leaders contend that the recent ruling cannot be viewed in isolation. Decisions in recent years have served to “enshrine discriminatory policies” in United Methodist church law, they claim, ultimately threatening the United Methodist heritage of openness. Decision 1032 is the next step, say the leaders, on a “slippery slope” that began with claiming that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and policies that bar the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”

“ The fact that the church has singled out one group of people and discriminated against them on the basis of their status, in this case their sexual orientation,” says statement signer Jeff Spelman, Chair of the Reconciling Ministries Network board of directors and lay delegate to General Conference in 2000, “was bound to lead to the situation in which we find ourselves today.”

“ I am confident that a large majority of United Methodists are stunned and outraged that a ruling by the Judicial Council gives pastors total authority to grant or deny membership in local congregations,” said Rev. Kathryn Johnson of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. “It is imperative that we move back from the precipice on which we find ourselves if we are going to move into the future as a church which extends God’s hospitality and healing grace to the world around us.”

The statement ends with a challenge to the United Methodist Church including a call for Judicial Council Decision 1032 to be reversed, a call for United Methodist Bishops to advocate for a “fully inclusive church” and a call for “all discriminatory language” to be removed from the Book of Discipline at General Conference 2008.

The full statement, signatures can be viewed below and at: http://www.HereWeStandUMC.org

Here We Stand
Calling the United Methodist Church to
Embody God’s Love and Justice

. . . neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 (NRSV)

Preamble

We, the undersigned church leaders, have come together to take a stand in response to recent decisions by the United Methodist Judicial Council. We are United Methodists committed to following Jesus Christ as we embody God’s love and justice through The United Methodist Church. We share a mutual love for the United Methodist tradition, a common passion for justice, and an unshakable conviction that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, mediated through our church, is for all persons. We strongly affirm the assertion in our Book of Discipline that “inclusiveness denies every semblance of discrimination.” (par. 138) We are ashamed for those times that the law of our church has codified discriminatory language and practices, whether in relation to women, ethnic minority persons or any other person or group.

Especially grievous to us at this time in history is the discrimination created by the statement in the Social Principles that holds that the practice of homosexuality is not condoned and is considered incompatible with Christian teaching. This statement contradicts in the same paragraph the affirmation that homosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth and our commitment to be in ministry for and with all persons (par. 161 G). We are drawn to follow Jesus, who is the living Word of God for our lives. So centered in God’s unconditional love and justice was Jesus that he offered an inclusive embrace of all people. As he empowered those marginalized and excluded by the dominating social barriers and practices of his time, he made visible the Reign of God. Jesus calls us and our church to do the same through personal and social reconciliation and transformation. In Jesus’ call, we ground our challenge to United Methodism to embody God’s love and justice.

Judicial Council Decision 1032

Bishop Charlene P. Kammerer ruled, in June of 2005, that a pastor could not prohibit a baptized gay man who is in a covenant relationship with another man, from becoming a professing member in the United Methodist Church. In reversing that ruling in October 2005, the Judicial Council held in Decision 1032 that the pastor in charge “is solely responsible for making the determination of a person’s readiness to receive the vows of membership.”

This judgment is fatally flawed. The phrases, “is solely responsible for” or “readiness to receive the vows” do not occur in our Book of Discipline. Nowhere in the Book of Discipline is the pastor given “sole” discretion to make membership decisions. The Judicial Council has made a flagrant, harmful mistake by making up rules not established by General Conference legislation.

In addition, our Book of Discipline does not authorize a pastor to bar homosexual persons from membership. Being a self-avowed, practicing homosexual is not a chargeable offense that can be applied to laity. Nor does the Discipline authorize a pastor to question the validity of a person’s baptism on any basis. In fact, paragraph 340.2 (3) indicates that it is the responsibility of the pastor “To encourage people baptized in infancy or early childhood to make their profession of faith, after instruction, so that they might become professing members of the church.”

We, therefore, categorically reject the understanding of our tradition, our polity and the Gospel reflected in Judicial Council Decision 1032.

The Implications

Decision 1032 cannot be viewed in isolation from the recent history of our church. Numerous warnings have been sounded that the decision to enshrine discriminatory policies in our Book of Discipline would lead us down a slippery slope, ultimately threatening much of what we cherish in our Methodist heritage. Until now, this discrimination has been largely directed at clergy, depriving countless gifted servants of God from pursuing their call to ordained ministry. Such is the case of the removal of ordination credentials from Rev. Irene Elizabeth (Beth) Stroud in the recent Judicial Council Decision 1027, a decision made solely on the discriminatory policy of not allowing ordination for non-celibate homosexuals. In Decision 1032, we see both a continuation and an alarming acceleration of this discrimination. This decision authorizes pastors to discriminate against laity without any accountability to the Bishop and/or District Superintendent.

Judicial Council Decision 1032:

Our Pledge

We will:

Our Challenge

We challenge the United Methodist Church to embody God’s love and justice, as we call upon:

Signed:

Joe Agne and Marilyn Outslay
Co-Presidents
Methodist Federation for Social Action

Gil Caldwell and Traci West
Co-Conveners
United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church

John A. Carr, Executive Director
Association of Physically Challenged Ministers

Inday Day, Executive Director
National Federation of Asian American United Methodists

Peggy Gaylord and Kenneth Rowe
Co-Spokespersons
Affirmation: United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns

Kathryn Johnson, Executive Director
Methodist Federation for Social Action

Jerry Longwell, Facilitator
Parents Reconciling Network

Mark Nakagawa, Chair
National Federation of Asian American United Methodists

Troy Plummer, Executive Director
Reconciling Ministries Network

Chett Pritchett and Robbie Gill
MOSAIC: Methodist Students for an All Inclusive Church

Jeffrey Spelman, Chair
Reconciling Ministries Network

Christina Wright and Jayson Dobney
Co-Chairs
On Fire

Cathy Knight, Executive Director
Church Within A Church Movement

David Meredith, Convener
Reconciling Ministries Clergy

Metodistas Associados Representando la Causa de Hispano-Americanos (MARCHA) assembly in Puerto Rico, 11/19/05
Howard W. Hallman, Chair
Methodists United for Peace with Justice

Cheri Holdridge
Church Within A Church Move

Organizational Affiliations listed with individual names are for information purposes.

For information links and an opportunity to join the list of signers, see Here We Stand at http://www.HereWeStandUMC.org

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See Why Judicial Council Decision 1032 Must Be Reversed or Overturned: An Open Letter to the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church by Rex D. Matthews, ThD.

See United Methodism@Risk:A Wake-Up Call by Leon Howell, © 2003; MFSA Plumbline 2004: Judicial Council Elections available @ www.mfsaweb.org; “Opinion: Restoring Integrity to the UMC’s Supreme Court”, Donald E. Messer, Zion’s Herald, Jan/Feb 2004.

See the dissenting opinion to 1032 by Judicial Council member, Jon Gray.

December 1, 2005