General Conference – Move to Adopt

I wrote yesterday about Will Green lamenting that conservatives were running roughshod over us. Today I got another link to the General Conference Legislation Tracker, so I decided to see how badly we had lost some of those committee votes that Green mentioned. I found we … didn't lose.

The first petition I checked was 60820, "A Third Way on Human Sexuality," the one that proposes changing prohibitions to historical guidance. The Church and Society 2 Committee moved to recommend that the full plenary adopt by a vote 36-34 with two abstentions. It is possible that those 34 will demand a minority report be brought to the full plenary for a vote.

Green had mentioned 60114, "Culture and Identity, " which says all of us have multiple identities that form our complete self. It calls on the church to challenge any hierarchy of cultures or identities. Sexual orientation and gender identity is not specifically mentioned. The same committee moved to adopt by a vote of 43-28-1.

The third one I mentioned yesterday was 60841, "Reducing Harm for LGBTQ Children and Youth" This asks the church to seek to educate families how to respond to their LGBTQ children and maintaining safe spaces. It also asks the church to "work with local schools to encourage and support educational opportunities, best practices for creating safe spaces, policies for reducing bullying, and to support youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who question their sexual orientation or gender identity." This one was passed by the same committee by a vote of 39-31-2.

However...

I scanned a list of petitions before the Church and Society 2 Committee. Through that I found the big one, 60824, which seeks to overturn the "incompatibility" clause that underpins all the anti-LGBT language in the Book of Discipline. This one was Not Supported by a vote of 33-32.



Mike Tupper is a Michigan pastor who officiated at two same-sex weddings. One of those was for his daughter. Since Nov. 30 Tupper has been sleeping in a tent outside. Much of the time the tent was outside his church or home. Other times he went to where he thought there should be some protest. He has been doing this to raise awareness that LGBTQ people are frequently left outside the church. Tupper is now sleeping outside the convention center where GC is being held. Last night Tupper was joined by Frank Schaefer and his son Tim. Schaefer was put on trial for officiating at Tim's wedding. His credentials were revoked at that trial, then restored on appeal.
http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/schaefer-son-join-campout-for-lgbtq-rights