Methodist Group Issues Rebuttal to Statement Dwelling on Sexual Sins

A group of United Methodists from California, including a prominent theologian and several well-known pastors and lay people, has issued a statement affirming sexuality as a gift “to be enjoyed and used in the service of God.”

The document, drafted by the Rev. John Cobb, professor emeritus at the School of Theology at Claremont, is intended as a rebuttal to a statement issued by a group of evangelical Methodists. That statement, called the Memphis Declaration, dwelt at length on “sins of the flesh” and called on the church to uphold “Christian sexual morality.”

But the latest statement, entitled “Our Calling to Fulfill,” asserts that moral values are culturally conditioned.

“Legalistically repeating teachings that were formulated by past generations, during a time when Christians did not affirm human sexuality as truly good, will close us to the new truth to which the spirit calls us,” the statement said.

It was signed by 20 lay and clergy delegates scheduled to represent the church’s California-Pacific region at the church’s General Conference, scheduled for May 5-15 in Louisville, Ky. The regional offices are in Pasadena.

The 950-word paper urges tolerance on matters of sexuality and cautions against relying on tradition-bound norms of behavior that may prevent “free discussion of the new challenges that arise as time passes.”

Like their counterparts in other mainline Protestant denominations, Methodists are engaged in a divisive battle over sexual norms that in recent years has focused on the subject of homosexuality.

While the California-Pacific paper does not mention the topic specifically, homosexuality is at the top of the agenda for the 8.8-million-member denomination and expected to take center stage in debates at the General Conference.

According to one report, the conservative Memphis Declaration is being sent to Methodists across the nation in an effort to gain support before the convention begins. The Rev. Maxie Dunnam, the prominent pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tenn., who is spearheading the effort, could not be reached for information on how many signatures have been added to the original 117.

The Memphis Declaration says, “Let us cease to debate homosexual practice as if the witness of the Scripture and the tradition of the church were not clear from the beginning.”

But signers of the latest statement urge tolerance and continued study of sexuality.

They note, “Today the whole understanding and experience of sexuality is changing. . . . We cannot discern God’s will for us in this important area of our personal lives without intensive reflection and extensive study.”

The latest paper also criticizes historic Christianity for participating in “male domination of women” and for the “arrogance” and “unjustified contempt” Christians have shown toward Jews.

Among the signers of “Our Calling to Fulfill” are the Rev. James Lawson Jr. and the Rev. Mark Trotter, pastors of large churches in Los Angeles and San Diego, respectively, and two prominent laywomen, Mary Elizabeth Moore, a professor at Claremont, and Lois Seifert, a leading figure at a number of General Conferences.