In 2013, the reality that Rev. Frank Schaefer, pastor at Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in Pennsylvania, will be forced to stand trial on Nov. 18th for officiating his son’s 2007 same-sex nuptials is not only wrong-headed — it is also wrong-hearted.
“I love him so much and didn’t want to deny him that joy. I had to follow my heart,” Schaefer told the New York Daily News.
The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Church has made it clear to Schaefer and his allies that his decision to perform a same-sex marriage was in violation of the church’s Book of Discipline. This rule is not to be disregarded, regardless of familial love or Christian belief. The Conference is emphasizing that Schaefer willfully and blatantly contravened the church’s law book.
The United Methodist Church has seen little progress on the issue of LGBTQ rights since the 1998 trial of Rev. Jimmy Creech. The Judicial Council of the UMC found that Creech, a heterosexual ally, had broken church law by officiating the union of two lesbians. As a result, his contract as pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Omaha was terminated. The following year, Creech was again at the center of controversy when he blessed the Holy Union of two gay men.
Reverend Jimmy Creech’s act of ecclesiastical disobedience resulted in the jury’s decision to defrock him and revoke his ministerial credentials. While this outcome was seen as a biblical-level consequence, some conservative United Methodist clerics felt that a harsher punishment, such as banishment from the church, should have been imposed.Reverend Jimmy Creech was asked by The Advocate in 1998 why he continued to marry same-sex couples despite the church’s position on the matter. In response, Creech stated that the church’s stance was “wrong, unjust, and discriminatory” and that it isolated members of the human family, denying them their humanity and labeling it as “unnatural, immoral, or sinful”.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) has been contradictory in its policies concerning LGBTQ worshippers. While the church has declared that all people are of equal sacred worth, regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation, the Book of Discipline states that same-sex relationships are sinful. At the same time, it acknowledges that sexuality is a “God’s good gift to all persons” and that people are “fully human only when their sexuality is acknowledged and affirmed by themselves, the church, and society.”
This statement implies that LGBTQ individuals should be accepted in the church, yet the church’s stance on same-sex relationships remains unchanged.The United Methodist Church (UMC) has held a more conservative view on homosexuality since the church’s liberal and conservative wings merged in 1968. This was further solidified in 1972 when The Book of Discipline, the church’s official code of rules, was amended to state that the UMC “does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers it incompatible with Christian teaching.” This rule applies to all members of the church, including those who identify as LGBTQ.In 1984, the United Methodist Church (UMC) barred clerics who identified as “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from attending its general conference. In 1996, the UMC issued an ecclesiastical order which prohibited “ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions”, a decision which was upheld by the Methodists’ high court in 1998. The church also maintains its policy requiring heterosexual clerics to remain faithful in their marriages, and for both unmarried heterosexual and homosexual clerics to be celibate.
Despite the United Methodist Church’s (UMC) exclusionary language and practices towards LGBTQ people, those who feel called to ministry remain undeterred. This has only served to further strengthen their convictions. Fortunately, there are churches that refuse to allow homophobic churchgoers or ecclesial powers to stand in the way of progress.The Union United Methodist Church (UUMC) of Boston’s South End is making a bold statement in the midst of a changing societal tide towards LGBTQ acceptance. UUMC is a predominately African American congregation, located in the epicenter of the city’s LGBTQ community, and is part of the church’s more progressive arm of “reconciling and inclusive” congregations. UUMC stands out among its peers, as the Black Church has a notorious history of homophobia. However, UUMC is an example of a movement that is not only regional to black churches in Boston, but also to the entire nation.In June 2011, more than 100 Methodist ministers in New England took a stand in defiance of their denomination’s ban on same-sex unions. By signing a statement pledging to open their churches to LGBTQ couples, these ministers expressed their regret for the delay in taking action and acknowledged their complicity in the church’s discriminatory policies.
The statement read, “We repent that it has taken us so long to act… We realize that our church’s discriminatory policies tarnish the witness of the church to the world, and we are [complicit].”Rev. Schaefer recently made a bold move in officiating his son’s same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, a decision that has sparked considerable debate within the United Methodist Church (UMC). The subsequent disciplinary trials of Rev. Creech and Rev. Schaefer are viewed by many as a means of control to instill fear among members of the church. UMC’s ultimate objective is to reinforce ecclesiastical heterosexism, but this act of religious intolerance has had a damaging effect on the LGBTQ community.
It has exacerbated an existing climate of queer-bashing and caused many to question their self-worth and their relationship with the church and God.The Schaefer family was honored to be asked for their son’s hand in marriage. Speaking to the Patriot-News of Central Pennsylvania, Mrs. Schaefer said that had she said no, it would have contradicted the years of affirmation they had given him, affirming that he was just as worthy and precious in God’s sight as anyone else. LGBTQ people must be aware that the religious intolerance and spiritual abuse seen in the United Methodist Church is not in line with the social gospel of Jesus Christ, which teaches that all people are of equal sacred worth.
