Clarifying the Church’s Position

* The actions of the Westerboro, Kan., picketers as described by Dr. Benjamin Hubbard in his June 6 column, are reprehensible. Violence against homosexuals is not to be tolerated.

However, as a Methodist, I suggest that our church has been long suffering in our willingness to listen to the concerns of homosexuals. Every four years at General Conference for 26 years, the homosexual caucus has demanded a vote to change the official Methodist statements about homosexuals and has failed.

The official, accepting position of the United Methodist Church is stated only in the Book of Discipline and is as follows: “Homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth. All persons need the ministry and guidance of the Church in their struggles for human fulfillment. . . .

“Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God’s grace is available to all. . . . We affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant which is expressed in shared fidelity between a man and a woman. . . . We support efforts to stop violence and other forms of coercion against gays and lesbians.”

As to ordination of homosexuals, the Book of Discipline says, “Since the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be ordained as ministers or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church.”

That’s the long-held Methodist position. The Church accepts.

In a recent editorial in our national United Methodist newspaper, the United Methodist Review, it was stated, “Few in the church know better than this editorial staff how deeply and painfully the controversy over homosexuality has wounded the United Methodist Church.”

As Hubbard wrote, “only two of the 50 regional conferences of the United Methodist Church are ‘reconciling conferences,’ officially embracing gays and lesbians into membership.” Doesn’t this suggest something?

A moratorium on the subject seems to be in order now.

JARVIS P. BROWN

Fullerton