Methodist Church Hurt by Diversity of Beliefs, Bishop From L.A. Says

Contending that too much diversity in belief contributes to the United Methodist Church’s 20-year membership decline, Los Angeles Bishop Jack M. Tuell on Tuesday night urged the nation’s second-largest Protestant church to bury the idea that Methodists may believe anything they want to.

“The time has come to say the last rites over the notion that the defining characteristic of United Methodist theology is pluralism,” Tuell said in St. Louis in the opening address of the 11-day United Methodist General Conference, which is held once every four years.

Acknowledging that Methodists “have many differing perspectives and interpretations of Christian faith,” Tuell said that the word pluralism nevertheless carries “philosophical overtones which contradict our understanding of Christian faith.”

The notion also hampers evangelism, he said, referring to the denomination’s loss of more than a million members in two decades--or 10%--to the present U.S. level of 9.1 million members.

“There is no evangelistic appeal to join a group whose principal identifying mark is that everyone disagrees with everyone else,” Tuell said. Tuell, the Los Angeles area bishop since 1980, was recently chosen to become president of the Council of Bishops next year.

The nearly 1,000 delegates in St. Louis will consider revising the denomination’s theological statement to put added emphasis on Scripture as the guide of faith over tradition, experience and reason.

Homosexuality is likely to be the most hotly debated issue, and it is related to the question of how much diversity of belief is valid. Delegates must decide whether to retain or delete its official condemnation of homosexuality as “incompatible with Christian teaching” and a ban against ordaining or appointing “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”

Tuell’s remarks were reminiscent of Pope John Paul II’s efforts last year to counter what some called “cafeteria Catholicism”--a pick-and-choose approach to beliefs and practice. The Pope told his U.S. bishops assembled in Los Angeles last Sept. 16 that it is “a grave error” for American Catholics to regard themselves as faithful while dissenting--as opinion polls say they do--on church prohibitions of divorce, abortion, artificial birth control and other sexual issues.

On Behalf of Bishops

Although Tuell was speaking on behalf of more than 100 active and retired Methodist bishops, his words do not convey the authority that Pope John Paul has in the Roman Catholic Church.

The parallel in the Catholic and Methodist situations lies only in “the direction” of trends, according to a prominent liberal Methodist theologian, John Cobb of the School of Theology at Claremont.

“I am disturbed that the Roman Catholic and the largest Protestant church (Southern Baptists) have moved drastically to the right and that now the second-largest U.S. church is trying to tighten up its boundaries,” Cobb said Tuesday in an interview. “It’s a broad trend within Christianity.”

Cobb said he has never had differences with Tuell, who is not regarded as a conservative. But Cobb said he regretted that pluralism was reinforced as “a bad word” in Tuell’s speech.

Pluralism had favorable connotations during a strong Methodist drive since the late 1960s to encourage ethnic and racial diversity in the church, but the concept now is opposed when used to defend the introduction of feminist worship language and tolerance of homosexual relationships.

“Now the issue has gone full swing with a movement to pull back on pluralism,” said the Rev. Vernon Bigler of Tonawanda, N.Y. “There’s a mood to try to get the church going again by becoming more confessional, creedal and exclusive. I don’t think we are plagued with a radical right, but we are moving in that direction.”

The Rev. James Heidinger of Wilmore, Ky., executive director of a conservative group called Good News, said that while his organization approves curbs on pluralism, it is not advocating radical changes.

‘Non-Negotiable Basics’

“Good News is not what you would classify as fundamentalist,” Heidinger said. “We do not call ourselves literalists or advocate a narrow, exclusive doctrine. But there are certain non-negotiable basics for historic Christianity.”

The delegates--half of them laymen and half clergy--from America, Europe, Africa and the Philippines will vote next week on resolutions winnowed from more than 2,650 petitions to the convention. Among the delegates are 290 women, including more than half the American lay delegates and 14% of the clergy delegates.

Certain to generate strong debate are proposed genderless names for God. The Commission on the Status and Role of Women is supporting a proposal that would have church publications substitute the words “Creator” for “Father” and “Our Savior” or “Redeemer” for “His only Son.”

Similar debate over language is expected when the Hymnal Revision Committee presents its choices for a song book that seeks to avoid overly masculine and militaristic hymns while not throwing out all traditional favorites.