Sunday, November 24, 2013

Obedience to avoid chaos (and love)

I recently got a link for the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church for their report on the recent meeting of the Council of Bishops. This is the meeting that called for charges be brought against Bishop Talbert for conducting a same-sex ceremony in Alabama. This post has some more details.

Before the ceremony Talbert informed the Council President and the bishop of Northern Alabama (where the ceremony was to be held) of what he intended to do. Both of them requested he not do the ceremony. He did it anyway. That's why the Council of Bishops want him charged with "undermining the ministry of a colleague." The other recommended charge is the more obvious "conducting a ceremony to celebrate the marriage of a same-gender couple."

It appears the full Council voted to approve this recommendation to bring charges. The vote tally isn't recorded. However, it is the "offended" bishop and/or the Council President who must actually bring charges, which are taken to the much more liberal Western Jurisdiction where the decision of what to do with Talbert is made.

The full resolution the Council voted on is more than a statement that they didn't like what Talbert did. While they say Talbert is in clear violation of the Book of Discipline and therefore charges should be brought, they also say the denomination as a whole and (more importantly) the Council of Bishops are "not of one mind" on the issues around homosexuality. The resolution includes a recommendation "for a task force to lead honest and respectful conversations regarding human sexuality, race and gender." Yeah, we get to be "studied." Again.

The Council also discussed the letter that requested the bishops stop holding trials. There were two responses from observers at the meeting. One was from Good News the conservative counterpart to Reconciling Ministries Network (the folks working for gay inclusion and other progressive issues). Good News is against a moratorium on trials. They essentially said if we don't have obedience to the Book of Discipline there will be chaos and anarchy. So, yeah, obedience trumps love. A very Power way of looking at it.

The other response was from Amy DeLong, a pastor who was put on trial in 2011 for conducting a same-sex ceremony and for being a lesbian in relationship. She is also against the moratorium. All it does, she says, is push the issue under the rug. We will be a divided church until we deal with the exclusionary language.

I disagree with DeLong because we can't officially change the policy until 2016 with no guarantee that it will happen then. If we continue the trials we'll get a public relations black eye, we'll lose a lot of good pastors, and we'll lose a lot of members.

Three other clergy are facing charges that might go to trial.
* Rev. Thomas Ogletree officiated at the wedding of his gay son.
* Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy is accused of being a lesbian in relationship.
* Rev. Stephen Heiss officiated at several same-sex weddings, including that of his daughter.

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