Karen Oliveto is a pastor in the United Methodist Church and, in seeming conflict with the denomination’s lawbook the Book of Discipline, is married to a woman. United Methodists in San Francisco and in much of the Western Jurisdiction (WJ, the region essentially Colorado and west) don’t worry about such things. So, last summer Oliveto was elected to be a bishop. She was assigned to be the guiding leadership of the churches in Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and a bit of Idaho.
Given that the United Methodist Church could not agree on what to do with LGBT people and disagreed so thoroughly they almost blew up last spring’s legislative General Conference it was expected that Oliveto’s election as bishop would be challenged. And it was, by Dixie Brewster, a delegate to the South Central Jurisdiction (SJC, New Mexico to Arkansas, Nebraska to Texas). The SJC approved Brewster’s petition.
Brewster’s petition is now before the Judicial Council (JC), the equivalent of the denomination’s supreme court. Brewster claims that in making Oliveto a bishop the WJ’s actions “negate, ignore, and violate” provisions of the Book of Discipline.
Oral arguments were heard yesterday. The JC may not issue its ruling until the end of its session at the end of the week.
This isn’t the only LGBT issue before the JC. Two petitions, from New York and northern Illinois, ask whether the boards that approve candidates to be pastors are required to ask those candidates if they are a “self-avowed practicing homosexual,” which would disqualify the candidate from being a pastor in the denomination. Several regions are defying the Book of Discipline and its ban on lesbian and gay pastors by refusing to ask this question.
The rest of this post is about the Oliveto case and is going to get technical, summarizing the arguments of both sides. This may mean little to those outside the denomination. Most members, those sitting in the pews, won’t care either, though many will care whether a lesbian bishop is affirmed or thrown out and what that says about the prospect of the denomination as a whole, whether or not it will be split over the issue. Meaning they won’t care until their local church is affected.
So, if you’re still reading, into the weeds we tread.
The legal brief for Brewster were written by Rev. Keith Boyette, a conservative who has previously called for denomination schism. The WJ brief was presented by Richard Marsh. Links to the original briefs are in a sidebar to a news article from the United Methodist News Service. I read Marsh’s oral arguments on the blog Hacking Christianity.
Boyette says the JC has jurisdiction to hear the case because the Book of Discipline says the JC can rule over any matter within it or on any matter from the General Conference.
Marsh disagrees. He goes back to when the denomination was reformed in 1939 after being split by slavery. The union documents divide up the country into jurisdictions (such as Western, and South Central) and bishops are to be elected by jurisdictions. This prevents delegates from the North from electing all bishops and imposing their views on Southern congregations. That system is still in place. No one, including the General Conference and the JC, can pass laws or challenge who a jurisdiction elects as bishop.
Boyette says that a jurisdiction cannot violate the Book of Discipline and its rules saying a “self-avowed practicing homosexual” cannot be a pastor (only pastors can be promoted to bishop). A marriage certificate is a public record of being both self-avowed and practicing.
Marsh says the Book of Discipline was not violated. Oliveto is a pastor in good standing. The standard for “practicing” is genital sex. Marriage does not equate to genital sex. Marriages can exist without it.
A few years ago a lesbian pastor in Wisconsin was put on trial for being “practicing” as well as officiating at a same-sex wedding. The “practicing” part of the charges had to be dropped because she refused to answer the question of whether she had genital sex with her partner. That’s personal, she said. You don’t ask straight pastors that question.
Boyette does not ask about genital sex, saying that a marriage certificate is proof of it.
Boyette says the Book of Discipline supports heterosexual marriage and thus outlaws same-sex marriage.
Marsh agrees straight marriage is indeed blessed. But the wording is such that same-sex marriage is not outlawed. In addition, the Book of Discipline calls the denomination to support equal rights regardless of sexual orientation and the American legal system has declared that marriage is one of those rights. Furthermore, while officiating at a same-sex wedding is listed as a chargeable offense, being in a same-sex marriage is not.
Finally, all this is playing out while a Commission on a Way Forward tries to figure out whether the denomination can be kept together and how to make that happen. Boyette argues that violations of the Book of Discipline should not be put on hold while we wait for the Commission to do its work. Marsh notes that one solution is for a looser denomination, where each region or perhaps each congregation decides for itself how to treat LGBT people. Marsh says the JC should not make the Commission’s work harder by creating new standards for who can be a bishop or by expanding the definition of “practicing.”
The case is now in the hands of the JC.
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