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Day 3 - Wednesday, April 28
Day 3 of General Conference began with worship. The bishop who preached encouraged the church to reexamine its attitudes and patterns of giving. In light of tighter church budgets and slower increases in income in recent years, he suggested that we should stop encouraging people to "give till it hurts," but rather "give till it heals." Our financial challenges are really faith challenges, he pointed out. We need to become less concerned about our standard of living and more concerned about our commitment to giving. We must begin to make decisions about our financial commitments not based on money, but based on needs in mission.
The opening plenary of the day began with a request for a declaratory decision from the Judicial Council. The delegate making the request interrupted the bishop out of order without being recognized before taking the microphone, but the bishop overlooked this. The request was made to place before the Judicial Council the question of whether the statement in the Social Principles (Discipline paragraph 161.G) that states "...we consider this practice [of homosexuality] to be incompatible with Christian teaching..." constitutes a declarative statement on the matter of homosexual practices. Further, if it does constitute a declarative statement, does the chargeable offense against "practices declared incompatible with Christian teaching" in paragraph 2702.1 apply and refer to this Social Principle?
In other words, the request effectively challenges the argument used by the trial court in Pastor Karen Dammann's case to reach a not-guilty verdict. It's my understanding that they cannot appeal the verdict itself, but this ruling places into the debate of both the Judicial Council and the General Conference the question of the validity of the verdict and the standing of homosexuality in the teaching and law of the church. The request for a ruling from Judicial Council was approved by about 64% of the voting delegates. A ruling is expected to be announced by Judicial Council possibly as soon as tomorrow.
The Pacific Northwest delegation attempted to properly be recognized to speak immediately following the approval of this request for a declaratory ruling. But the presiding bishop did not call on them. It was unclear to me whether the presiding bishop refused to recognize our delegates, or whether he simply did not see them. Our delegation is sitting to the far right of the line of sight of the presiding bishop, and the distance is great.
The business of the conference moved on to receive a presentation of the General Council on Ministries on the "Living Into the Future" proposal to restructure the General Boards and Agencies of the denomination. Bob Hoshibata, a clergy member of the Pacific Northwest delegation, was part of this presentation by his membership on the General Council on Ministries. When it was Bob's turn to give his part of the presentation, he took a moment of personal privilege to state what the delegation was trying to be recognized to say earlier. Bob invited those present to come to the Pacific Northwest delegation to receive the gift of an oragami peace crane, and to share their prayers of peace for the General Conference, for the denomination, or for the world. Dozens of delegates and observers came to the delegation during the next break to take a peace crane and to write prayers in the delegation's prayer books.
The General Council on Finance and Administration next presented two very, very (very) long videos. The first video further described the "Living Into the Future" proposal that General Conference will vote on sometime next week. The second video was a synopsis of the ministries of the many general boards and agencies of the church.
A laywoman from North Alabama Conference offered the Laity Address. She spoke of the need for us all to remain faithful to the mission and unity of the church. She made a particular appeal for the church to be open to adapting our ministries and worship to meet the contextual needs and wishes of young people.
After lunch, everyone returned to their legislative committees. I was an observer of the sub-sub-committee dealing with the Social Principles in the Discipline related to homosexuality in paragraph 161.G. The sub-sub-committee took one of the dozens of petitions on the issue of homosexuality to discuss and perfect it. They debated a petition that would remove the language of incompatibility of Christian teaching, and replace it with a statement that faithful United Methodists have not yet reached a common mind on the subject of homosexuality. One member of the committee came out as a gay lay person, appealing for the church to recognize the pain and division it has caused in the lives of GLBT United Methodists. Several Southern delegates spoke to the perversion of homosexual behavior, and condemned it as evidence of human pride and selfishness placed before the will of God. One lay woman spoke to the fact that the very nature of their debate was evidence that the church is not of a common mind about homosexuality, and to vote down the proposal would be disingenuous. One of the two African delegates argued her concern that if we failed to condemn homosexuality, than everyone might choose to be gay and then no one would have any more children. The other African delegate explained that she didn't understand why the church continued to discuss this perversion. She explained that where she comes from, they believe homosexual desires are evidence of the curse of a witch, and homosexuality is strictly forbidden. After about an hour of debate, the committee voted 9 to 6 non-concurrence on the petition that would have recognized that we are not of a common mind about the homosexuality.
Listening to this debate struck me profoundly. When the African delegate began her discussion of the role of witchcraft in homosexual desires, the conservative delegates from the South nodded their heads in agreement. I was left to wonder if this coalition and nodding of heads was genuine, in which case we have United Methodists in America today operating out of the worldview that witches control our behaviors and thoughts. Is this church truly basing decisions about the lives and relationships of all gay people on a belief in witchcraft and hexes?
When the legislative committee convened as a whole after dinner, they began to discuss the petitions being reported out by the sub-committees. Once again, against the best efforts of the chair to direct and control the proceedings, the body of the committee was extremely contentious. Every petition considered included the maximum number of speeches for and against. And every petition was accompanied by several procedural motions, most of which also elicited the maximum number of speeches for and against.
The committee overwhelmingly (99-4) approved a petition to boycott Taco Bell because they are the largest buyer of tomatoes from farmers that have been proven to engage in unethical and illegal employment practices including using slave labor. A petition to affirm the importance of children having both a mother and a father was passed (73-24). The committee also approved a petition to define marriage as between one man and one woman (51-38). After a day and a half, the Church and Society legislative committee has voted out a total of four of over 220 petitions that they must act on by the end of the week.
At the end of the day, I'm feeling a little worn out. Listening to the debate about homosexuality in the sub-sub-committee was emotionally draining. Little of the debate was new material that I hadn't heard before (other than the witchcraft discussion). But still, sitting outside the circle hearing people debate my life and relationship with God is painful.
I'm reminding myself of my response to a hater who wrote an email to me just before I left Seattle last week. He wrote to remind me that I'm going to hell because of my sexual orientation and because I am leading others into false teaching in the name of Christ. I responded to him by naming my assurance that my faith rests not in his opinion, but in God's grace. And my salvation is secured not by his approval or by the approval of General Conference, but by the sacrificial love of God in Jesus Christ. This remains my faith, and I will cling to it this week as the debates promise to become only more contentious and painful.
Mark Williams
Pacific Northwest Conference Delegation
First Alternate Delegate
Copyright 2004 by Mark Williams. All rights reserved.
Rev. Mark Williams may be reached by e-mail at revmarkwilliams@comcast.net