Delegate Reports
Day 5 - Friday, April 30
General Conference began its fifth day with a worship service of celebration of those African Americans who stayed in the Methodist Church and helped the denomination overcome its own institutionalized racism. The two hour long service included a slide show of the faces of African American saints in our tradition, pioneers from Richard Allen to Bishop Beverly Shamana. Bishop Charlene Kammerer preached a sermon that included a confession of sin on behalf of the institutional church for the pain, humiliation and disenfranchisement the church inflicted upon our African American members for centuries. One powerful story in Bishop Kammerer's sermon related a moment from a General Conference session over fifty years ago. A young woman delegate proposed on the floor of the Conference that future General Conferences be held only in cities where black delegates could find accommodations. Many cities in the nation at the time were segregated, and many hotels refused to serve African Americans. But, Bishop Kammerer explained to us, the woman's proposal was met with open laughter, and the man who took the microphone to argue against the proposal responded to her by saying, "You're trying to move us too fast." The proposal was defeated.
I'm deeply appreciative of the ministry and presence of African American United Methodists. And I'm grateful that the General Conference has taken the time to thank those black Methodists who stayed in the church and led the church to inclusion and, eventually, repentance. But I also can't help but feel slapped in the face by the hypocrisy. So much of the story of the church's marginalization and disenfranchisement of African American members is being replayed again today, at this General Conference, against LGBT United Methodists. The experiences of being GLBT are not the same experiences of being persons of color, by any means. Racism and homophobia have unique ways that they impact the minority communities they're directed against. But the response of the church to LGBT people today appears frighteningly similar in rhetoric and strategy to the response of the church to African American members in decades past. And like African American Methodists, many LGBT folks are understandably leaving the church. And many others of us are determined to stay and transform the church by the prophetic justice of God's liberating Word. But as we repent our history of bigotry this morning, we reenact it against another minority once more.
There was more repenting when we arrived at the Church and Society legislative committee this morning. As the committee was called to order, the chair and vice chair took turns confessing that they had not only failed to provide effective leadership, they had also in fact disregarded the rights of some committee members through the mistakes they had made over the past two days. In response, they recruited two parliamentarians, and with the unanimous approval of the committee, those parliamentarians were allowed to be seated behind the committee officers for consultation throughout the remainder of the committee's work.
The leadership of the committee suddenly took a 180 degree turn. The chair now refuses to respond to people who shout out instructions or motions without being recognized. She is making parliamentary rulings with confidence. In picking up where the committee left off the night before, the chair ruled that the General Conference rules are inconclusive as to how to handle the situation they faced, with two motions offered simultaneously, one for a written ballot and one for a standing vote. Robert's Rules of Order, she explained confidently, clearly stated that when two different modes of voting were being considered, a vote should first be taken on the most time consuming form of voting, which in this case would be the written ballot. Conference rules determined that an appeal for a written ballot required 1/3 majority to support it. She called for that vote, and it was passed. When they took a written ballot on the motion to strike all the language that they had approved the night before, recognizing that Christians disagree about the compatibility of homosexual practice with Christian teaching, the written ballot defeated the motion by a count of 49 to 48. When the committee eventually returned to the main motion, the committee approved it by a vote of 52 to 43. Thus, the committee will present the following language to the plenary of General Conference next week to amend the Social Principles to state in paragraph 161.G: "The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality, and considers this practice to be incompatible with Christian teaching. We recognize that Christians disagree about the compatibility of homosexual practice with Christian teaching."
In addition to passing this extremely modest moderating of the Disciplinary language, the committee's votes on more progressive changes to this paragraph in the Discipline failed by margins of about 55-25. These votes mean that the only petition that will be recommended for concurrence by committee will be the language that was approved that I describe above. But every petition on this paragraph will be voted on separately by the General Conference, since none of the petitions were defeated with enough votes to place it on the consent calendar. This has set the stage for what is guaranteed to be an aggressive, hostile debate on the plenary floor, probably early next week.
Additional legislation approved by the committee would recommend adding a paragraph to the Discipline to "protect the rights of the unborn." The debate on this topic was also heated, with many people pointing out that this undefined reference both to "rights" and to "the unborn," created some irreconcilable conflicts with our current Disciplinary support of women's legal right to abortion. When the committee adjourned, there were many more controversial topics yet to be discussed.
I attended the dinner hosted by the Pacific Northwest delegation, in honor of our retiring bishop Elias Galvan. About fifty people came to the dinner. I greatly enjoyed sitting next to Velma McConnell, sharing our impressions of the day.
After dinner, I took a break from the legislative committee work to attend a reception hosted by local Reconciling United Methodists at the Andy Warhol museum. The Good News daily update had warned conference delegates earlier in the day about this "radical" event. Apparently stunned and scandalized, the Good News reported that the reception would include a performance by two drag queens. I went to the performance of the "Dueling Bankheads" at the reception. It was a moderately funny, fairly provocative performance. More than anything, it was a nice distraction from the past week of being immersed in United Methodist minutiae. Perhaps some from the Good News were scandalized, if they choose to attend. The chair of my Staff-Parish Relations Committee who arrived yesterday afternoon to observe conference reported that she wasn't scandalized, and that she enjoyed the low brow humor. I tend to agree.
In closing this report, I want to make clear that there's a lot more happening at General Conference than I'm reporting on. There are ten other legislative committees, each with their own dramas and decisions. But rather than attempt to represent everything happening at General Conference, my hope is to share my personal experience and perspective. For complete details of all the legislative news and events, try consulting the General Conference website that you can access through www.umc.org. I've heard reports from many people that the official website has been inaccessible due to the excessive volume of traffic that the United Methodist Commission on Communications hadn't anticipated. I wish I could offer more details and more comprehensive news for those seeking more specific information, but I don't really have the time to take on that responsibility. I'll simply continue to offer my perspectives and relate my experiences, along with my own bias and assumptions, for which I am unapologetic.
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