Verdict sets stage for homosexuality debate

Backlash expected
from clergy trial of
pastor in Washington

United Methodist News Service
The recent acquittal of a lesbian pastor on charges related to her sexuality is likely to influence debate at next week’s General Conference.
When the 998 delegates arrive in Pittsburgh for their April 27 to May 7 meeting, they can expect an emotional backlash from all sides over the March 20 not-guilty verdict in the clergy trial of the Rev. Karen Dammann.
The Seattle-area pastor faced a single charge of “practices declared by The United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings.”
The 10-million-member United Methodist Church has historically welcomed diversity. However, the denomination has struggled with homosexuality since the 1972 General Conference. The policy-making assemblies meet every four years.
During the 2000 General Conference, more than 200 protesters, including two bishops, were arrested over the issue. Even so, the delegates to that assembly maintained the church’s positions on homosexuality by roughly 2-to-1 margins.
The upcoming General Conference is to act on an estimated 70 petitions related to homosexuality—out of 1,603 pieces of legislation.
While the Dammann verdict will have no official impact on the assembly, it is expected to spur a passionate effort by some delegates to fill what they consider a loophole in church law. 
“If there’s any action taken, it will likely be an action that is more restrictive or punitive toward gay and lesbian people than is currently in The (Book of) Discipline,” said the Rev. David F. McAllister-Wilson, president of United Methodist-related Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington.
The denomination is sending too many mixed signals, said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News, magazine of the unofficial evangelical caucus within the church.
“We tend to be waffling on this, and I find that to be an embarrassment to our church,” said Heidinger, whose organization will send 50 members to General Conference to lobby delegates. “It’s clear our General Conference has got to do something because what we have here is an egregious ignoring of The Book of Discipline.”
Those who celebrate the Dam-mann verdict consider it a breakthrough worth rallying around.
Laura Montgomery Rutt, a United Methodist and spokesperson for Soulforce, an ecumenical organization targeting religious persecution of homosexuals, said she hopes the decision will become “a beacon that is a light for the rest of the church to follow.”
As it did in 2000, the group plans protests at General Conference that include civil disobedience should delegates take a more conservative stance.
In 2000, delegates in Cleveland retained the denomination’s statement that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. They also affirmed the church’s stand against self-avowed practicing homosexuals being ordained or appointed as clergy members and the prohibition of same-sex union ceremonies by United Methodist ministers.
At the same gathering, delegates also affirmed that homosexuals are people of sacred worth, and they ordered the church’s General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns to launch a series of dialogues on homosexuality. The talks turned up passionate but mixed feelings among church members across the United States. 
“There is no consensus,” said the Rev. Mary Ann Moman, staff executive at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, which offers pastoral training.
Some consider the ongoing debates over homosexuality a distraction from other General Conference business that could advance the church.
Pointing to the denomination’s lagging membership in the United States, McAllister-Wilson worries that contention over homosexuality is yet another symptom of the denomination’s lack of focus and leadership.
A petition submitted by the General Board of Church and Society is meant to reflect this diversity, said Linda Bales, a program director on the board. The petition calls for more moderate language in the Social Principles, which are considered guidelines but not law by the church. The proposal would add a phrase noting that “faithful Christians disagree on the compatibility of homosexual practice with Christian teaching.”
Even if delegates could agree on the issue, he said, that would not give the denomination the direction it needs to move forward.
“The majority of delegates feel this issue is a distraction,” he said, “especially because there’s not going to be a solution.”