Same-Gender Sex Opposed by Methodists

The United Methodist Church, the nation’s second largest Protestant denomination, tightened its historic stand against homosexuality on Tuesday, emphatically declaring that same-gender sex was incompatible with Scripture.

The church’s highest lawmaking body, the quadrennial General Conference, also strengthened the church’s prohibition against ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”

In a related development, the church’s highest court, the Judicial Council, handed down a ruling here Tuesday that appeared to preclude any future ministry by a self-avowed lesbian minister in the Seattle area even though she had won a local church trial.

The United Methodist Church has long been seen as reflecting a broad cross-section of mainstream America with congregations in all but 133 of the nation’s 3,350 counties. As such, its decisions are closely watched by other churches, as well as by political advocates on both sides. President Bush is a United Methodist.

The actions on the legislative and judicial fronts here pointed to continued debate within the 10-million-member United Methodist Church. Like other mainline Protestant denominations, it has struggled for years over the volatile issue of homosexuality.

In the first of two votes Tuesday, the conference approved a petition that strengthened existing church law against homosexuality. On a 579-376 vote, the gathering declared, “The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.”

The resolution, however, also took pains to add: “We affirm that God’s grace is available to all, and we will seek to live together in Christian community. We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.”

In a separate 674-262 vote, the conference more emphatically restated the church’s opposition to ordaining anyone found to be a “self-avowed practicing homosexual.”

The decisions came after daylong debates marked by tears from gay and lesbian advocates and warnings from African delegates and American conservatives that the worldwide church would face defections unless it strongly reaffirmed its stand against homosexual sex, first set down in 1972. About a thousand delegates attended the church’s meeting, which ends on Friday.

“I don’t think the United Methodist Church can license people to go to hell,” said the Rev. Samuel Quire Jr. of Liberia, urging delegates to vote for the measure against homosexuality. “The church must always speak against every kind of sin,” he declared.

In contrast, the Rev. James Preston of Rockford, Ill., said the vote sent a signal that gays and lesbians were unwelcome. The church’s stand, he said, will not unify but divide the church.

“Hemorrhaging has already occurred,” Preston told reporters. “I assure you that following this General Conference, quietly and with tears, we will splinter in many divisions,” he said.

The church was attempting to avoid potential divisions over homosexuality that are troubling the 70-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.

Last August the 2.3-million member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican body, took a dramatically different tack by confirming the election of an openly gay priest as the bishop of New Hampshire, and giving tacit approval to local bishops to permit the blessing of same-sex unions in their dioceses.

Since then, several provinces or national churches in the Anglican Communion have declared themselves estranged from the U.S. church. In addition, some conservative Episcopal parishes and dioceses in the U.S. are laying the groundwork for what many see as a split in the American church.

Meanwhile, the United Methodists’ high court had been asked by conservatives to intervene in the decision two months ago by a Seattle church court to acquit the Rev. Karen Dammann of charges that, as a lesbian, she had engaged in conduct incompatible with Christian teaching.

That Seattle acquittal stunned conservatives, who charged that the Seattle local court had ignored church law.

Last week, the church’s nine-member supreme court declared that the practice of homosexuality was a chargeable offense for clergy. On Tuesday, the church’s judicial council spoke again, and handed down a double-edged decision. On one hand, it said it had no authority to overturn the Seattle church court’s verdict. But it also held that a local bishop may not appoint “a self-avowed, practicing homosexual” to any position of ministry.

Since the Seattle trial court sustained a “specification” that Dammann was “a self-avowed practicing homosexual,” the next question for the Seattle church is whether Dammann, who is on family leave, could ever be appointed to another post when her family leave ends. She is not currently in ministry.

Although Tuesday’s legislative vote by General Conference was not formally connected to the Dammann case, it was clearly on the minds of many delegates, officials of the church said here.

Delegates rejected a phrase that would have softened the church’s official stand against homosexuality by conceding that Methodists disagreed on whether homosexuality was compatible with Christian teaching.

Several said their opposition was not to “persons but practices.”

“It isn’t that we do not love people,” said Joy Nye of Rockbridge, Ohio. “We love everyone that is here ... but we do have to stand for something. This is a day, a time in our lives that we have to stand and be counted.”

Earlier in the day, an estimated 200 gays, lesbians and their supporters marched from a downtown church to the convention center calling for an inclusive church. Nonetheless, some gays said they were discouraged. Rick Huskey, 53, of Martinsburg, W. Va., a founder of the United Methodist gay advocacy group Affirmation, said he was discouraged after 29 years of activism.

The church has become more “hardhearted,” he said. “It’s become an issue of power over the issue of theological dominance.”