A Messy Methodism

The Special General Conference of the United Methodist Church (#GC2019) concluded this week with a vote to uphold the restrictions on the full participation of LGBTQ+ persons in the life of the church. As a Methodist this decision spawned both grief and rage. How can the church that has nurtured my spiritual growth for so many years, whose motto is "Open Hearts. Open Doors. Open Minds" vote to continue to exclude some of God's children because of their sexual identity? The Methodist church finds itself in a bind. On the one hand we say that we are open and affirm the God given worth of each and every person. On the other hand our church law continues to discriminate based on sexual orientation. This debate has irrevocably damaged our witness to Christ and put our theology under intense scrutiny. We have caused our LGBTQ+  brothers ans sisters great pain. Where do we, the people who are called Methodists, go from here?

As hard as it may be to swallow, the first thing to note is that what we saw at #GC2019 was actually a triumph of Methodist theology. Our theology, based on the everlasting grace of God, is so wide and so all encompassing that it is attractive to a wide range of peoples. Unlike in other denominations, it is difficult to get kicked out of the Methodist church for using your brain to think about God. Bishop Karen Oliveto, in an interview on NPR's Morning Edition, made reference to the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral," wherein we use Scripture, Reason, Experience, and Tradition to think about our faith. Such a flexible expression of faith allows for a great diversity of people to all be part of the same church. And it is this diversity that has caused the trouble. Great diversity is an asset, but governing such a large group of radically diverse people is difficult.

What we saw a #GC2019 was not a failure of our theology, it was a failure of our method of governance.

Studies have shown that peace between diverse peoples is possible only when there are proper boundaries in place between groups. Diversity is valuable to the well-being of institutions and cultures, but diversity must be managed. With proper boundaries and managed scale, power struggles between groups of people are reduced. The United Methodist Church, in valuing "big tent" global diversity, has failed to create proper boundaries. Our method of governance simply creates one large body (800+ delegates) that is expected to create church law that is globally culturally relevant and globally just.  As we saw this week, injustice is the result when diversity at large scale is instituted without proper bourndaries.

The task for the Methodist church going forward is to create a more diverse unity. We can be one church, united under the same theological principles, celebrating the everlasting and all-encompassing grace of God under the same banner. But that banner will need to effectively and justly incorporate the many flavors of belief that spring from our emphases on Scripture, Reason, Experience, and Tradition. The Methodist commitment to diversity is commendable, but we must manage the power dynamics within that diversity by ensuring that the people who are called Methodist, in all of their wonderful difference, can worship in contexts and with rules that are appropriate to who they are.

It is my hope and prayer that the leaders and lay people of the Methodist church will take this challenge seriously. We will look like a radically different church going forward. But if we are to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ we must seriously consider changing how we govern the diverse peoples who worship under the name Methodist.