Methodist university presidents call on denomination to amend LGBTQ policies

Ahead of next month’s special session on sexuality intended to resolve an issue that has dogged the United Methodist Church for decades, a group of affiliated college and university presidents issued a strong call for full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians.

The group, which represents presidents of 93 United Methodist-affiliated colleges and universities, urged the denomination to amend its policies and practices to recognize the “sacred worth” of people regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.

The three-paragraph statement won unanimous approval in a vote taken Friday (Jan. 4) by the National Association of Schools and Colleges of The United Methodist Church.

“We call upon the leaders of the United Methodist Church at this 2019 Called General Conference to honor the past and current practices of inclusion by amending their policies and practices to affirm full inclusion in the life and ministry of the United Methodist Church of all persons regardless of their race, ethnicity, creed, national origin, gender, gender identity/expression or sexual orientation,” the statement reads.

The 93 affiliated schools serve more than 260,000 students across the United States. They include large institutions such as American University, Boston University, Duke University and Emory University, as well as dozens of smaller schools such as Randolph College, Otterbein University and Greensboro College.

At issue is the denomination’s rulebook, the Book of Discipline, which bars “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained as ministers and forbids pastors from marrying them in the church.

The special session called for Feb. 23-26 in St. Louis is intended to resolve once and for all an issue that has divided the United Methodist Church despite repeated attempts to resolve it going back to the 1970s.

Last year, the denomination’s Council of Bishops endorsed a plan that would allow regional decision-making bodies called annual conferences to determine whether to ordain LGBTQ clergy and allow individual churches to vote whether to perform same-sex marriages in their buildings.

While the university presidents did not formally endorse that plan, they made it clear they want the language on homosexuality in the Book of Discipline stricken.

“The presidents are really firm about full inclusion,” said Scott D. Miller, president of Virginia Wesleyan University and a board member of the National Association of Schools and Colleges of The United Methodist Church.

“It is my disappointment and the feeling of many of my colleagues that this has been one of the reasons contributing to a decline in membership and attendance,” Miller said. “The church has not stayed current with the people it serves.”

The statement on sexuality issued by the university presidents is their fourth in the past 13 years. In 2006, 2011 and 2013 the presidents drafted similar statements calling on the church to offer LGBTQ people full inclusion.

Sexuality was so divisive a topic during the denomination’s 2016 conference that 56 different legislative petitions were submitted to try to resolve it. Instead, delegates voted to defer all proposals to a special Commission on a Way Forward.

Last year, that commission concluded its work and put forth three proposals. The Council of Bishops endorsed the so-called One Church Plan, which would allow the most flexibility while keeping the denomination’s various factions together.

Many regional United Methodist bodies have made their own decisions regarding ordination and marriage of LGBTQ people.

In 2016, the Mountain Sky Conference elected Karen Oliveto, a married lesbian, as the denomination’s first openly LGBTQ bishop, and dozens of individual pastors have publicly or secretly celebrated same-sex weddings. Some have been summoned to church trials and stripped of their preaching credentials.

But while the United Methodists’ 7 million U.S. adherents might be inclined to change the rules regarding gays and lesbians, the denomination is a worldwide body active in 136 countries. Many of its African churches oppose any steps toward LGBTQ inclusion.

Regardless, some university presidents said they would disaffiliate rather than back down, though that was not mentioned in the statement.

“Some institutions that feel very strongly about inclusiveness could very well say we no longer wish to be affiliated with a denomination that, in their view, discriminates against the LGBTQ people,” said Miller.

Many of the universities that backed the statement receive some financial support from the United Methodist Church, mostly for chaplains or scholarships, ranging from $50,000 to $1 million annually. But many of the schools also receive financial contributions from churches in their region as well as individual United Methodist donors.

Amy Novak, president of Dakota Wesleyan University, in Mitchell, S.D., about 75 miles west of Sioux Falls, said she’s aware that some in the denomination may want to withdraw support for her school because of its inclusive approach to sexuality. But she said she’s prepared for that.

“Ultimately, I think we’re doing the higher good by continuing to welcome students of all backgrounds to our campus in support of the kind of transforming education that United Methodist institutions offer,” Novak said.

And, she ventured, that’s what John and Charles Wesley, the 18th-century founders of Methodism, would have wanted.

In case there are any questions where John Wesley would stand on the issues roiling the UMC, he wrote or edited around 400 publications and his views can and should be researched, if not by the congregation, surely by the bishops and pastors. I cannot recall ever hearing a teaching about Wesley's theology in any UMC except once, a side note in passing. This is a shameful trading by the so-called UMC on the name of a form of Christian practice taught by Wesley, a deeply devoted Christian teacher and Biblical scholar. The UMC and Methodism suffer for not having codified Wesley's teachings into a catechism, and requiring its instruction for all members who call themselves "Methodists."

Here are several passages (excerpted by me) from Wesley's tract "The Character of a Methodist", included in his compendium volume of sermons and tracts, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, first published in 1766.

A Methodist is one who loves the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength...
And he who hath this hope, thus full of immortality, "in everything giveth thanks," ...knowing this (whatsoever it is) is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning him. From Him therefore he cheerfully receives all, saying, "Good is the will of the Lord"; and whether He giveth or taketh away, equally blessing the name of the Lord. Whether in ease or pain, whether in sickness or health, whether in life or death, he giveth thanks from the ground of the heart to Him who orders it for good; into whose Hand he hath wholly committed his body and soul, "as into the hands of a faithful Creator"...
For indeed he "prays without ceasing"...
And loving God, he "loves his neighbor as himself"...
For he is "pure in heart." Love has purified his heart from envy, malice, wrath, and every unkind temper. It has cleansed him from pride, whereof only "cometh contention"; and he hath now "put on... mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering," And indeed all possible ground for contention, on his part, is cut off. For...he "loves not the world, nor any of the things of the world"; but "all his desire is unto God, and to the remembrance of His Name."
Agreeable to this his one desire [is] "to do, not his own will, but the will of Him that sent him." His one intentiona at all times and in all places is, not to please himdself, but Him whom his soul loveth... There is not a motion in his heart but is according to [God's] will. Every thought that arises points to Him, and is in obedience to the law of Christ.
And the tree is known by its fruits. For, as he loves God, so he "leeps His commmandments"; not only some, or most of them but all, from the least to the greatest... Whatever God has forbidden, he avoids; whatever God has enjoined, he does... now that He has set his heart at liberty. It is... his daily crown of rejoicing, to do the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven.
All the commandments of God be accordingly keeps, and that with all his might; for his obedience is in proportion ot his love, the source fom whence it flows... All the talents he has, he constantly employs according to his Master's will; every power and faculty of his soul, every member of his body...
* * *

Only by twisting and wringing and distorting the plain and clear meaning of words can Christians calling themselves "Methodists" claim that Wesley or that God Himself would bless LGBTQ behaviors, or that such persons get a pass if they believe they were "born that way." Our bodies are not ours, but God's. He has a design for living in community, and our efforts should be to honor the sex into which we are born and live up to its fulfillment in marriage or in celebacy as best we are able, for the good of our entire community. Wesley clearly preached and taught "death to self", not self-indulgence, certainly as regards sexual behavior, among any other human behaviors.

As to the continual fighting and squabbling at the Conferences due to the tantrums of the sexual revolutionaries, Wesley's words should apply: "indeed all possible ground for contention, on his part, is cut off."

Here is Wesley's "Covenant Prayer", for renewal of the believer's covenant with God, which also makes Wesley' view of "self" quite clear:

Traditional
I am no longer my own, but Thine.
Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee,
exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to Thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Thou art mine, and I am Thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Modern:
I am no longer my own, but Yours.
Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You,
exalted for You, or brought low for You;
let me be full, let me be empty,
let me have all things, let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to Your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
You are mine and I am Yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

Leviticus 18:20-30

20: And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her.

21: And you shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.

22: You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

23: And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.

24: Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean,

25: and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

26: But you shall keep my statues and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you

27: (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean),

28: lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

29: For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.

30: So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make ourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.

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