In turmoil again

Okay, so I must talk about a subject I had vowed to leave alone for a while. A while turned out to be a few weeks.

But I must.

Someone left a Baton Rouge newspaper on my seat in my office Sunday. I was surprised, till I picked it up and saw what I was supposed to see, I reckon.

The headline said, and I paraphrase, The United Methodist Church in turmoil over same-sex marriages.

I read the story and decided, well, I guess we are. Now I have to tell my congregations that we are in turmoil. We didn't know.

I'm not sure whether the person who left the article was fer it or agin it as my kin used to say. I'm not sure if they wanted to talk about it. I'm not sure if it came as a surprise to them.

The main reason is I've had very few conversations from people in the pews about the subject. My guess is most are in the against category, but I don't know.

Therein lies the rub.

I don't know what most folks in my pews think about this, nor do I know what most think about a thousand other sins, ones they've committed, ones I've committed, ones they think others have committed.

Because we don't talk about these things.

So, here's where we are. Read this please...

Controversy over a Nebraska pastor's conducting a "marriage" for a lesbian couple has erupted into what some have called the biggest conflict among Methodists since slavery.

A recent edition of the conservative Good  News magazine pictured the church as the Titanic splitting apart and about to sink because of the divisive issue of same-sex unions.

That was a lede to a story filed in 1998. 1998.

What has changed is, well, nothing. If the UMC is in turmoil today, it was in chaos then. Folks who disagree are disagreeing still. Folks in the United Methodist Church who disagree with the Book of Discipline are simply doing away with the Book of Discipline by actively challenge it, and conducting same-sex marriages.

The lines are thus drawn.

Advocates for gay marriage are continuing to aggressively press for change in church law to allow the marriages. “Most folks, after 40 years of trying legislative solutions, realize they won’t work. The way forward is to claim what we know to be true. And we’re going to continue doing it in an aggressive way,” said one advocate of same-sex marriage.

Advocates against gay marriage are continuing to organize for the ongoing fight, including a new organization designed to keep conservatives from leaving the denomination. “The present atmosphere is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said the Rev. Maxie Dunnam, a retired president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. “We are a divided church already.”

I would say that is because we don't talk about these things, but that wouldn't be true, either. We've talked, and we've been rejected, whomever we is. Both sides have dug in. Both are now lobbing grenades across no-man's land.

And gay news continues daily.

So, Michael Sam comes out as a gay football player and he becomes front page news -- though he is an average football player at best. So, Jason Collins comes out as a gay basketball player, and he becomes front page news -- though he is on a 10-day contract and is below average at best.

Are they heroic for coming out? You betcha. Takes quite a bit to say that. Are they front page news because of it? You betcha.  But now it is time to move on. I'm not exactly sure how someone's idea of who they have sex with became front page news, but here we are.

The final brick in the wall that forced me to write about this again was the new law in Arizona that would grant businesses the right to cite religious beliefs as a justification for refusing to serve same-sex couples. 

I understand at its core what this is about, but it is wrong on any number of levels. First, if we're going to be allowed to refuse service to someone based upon religious beliefs, essentially discriminating against those whose sin is different than or own, we're in a real mess. We're freeing judgmental people to judge. If gays can be turned away from restaurants (and really, how would you know?), then the question is what's next. Can a gay person in Arizona be turned away at the DMV? Can a gay person in Arizona be restricted from being buried in a Christian cemetery? Can a gay person be turned away from sporting events? What's the end game here?

Again, let me be clear, I believe that homosexuality is said to be a sin in the Bible. I also believe churches should absolutely open in reaching out and bringing in gays to worship because if they are kept out by our prejudices, then we must keep out all the sinners who come each Sunday. And we don't. And finally I believe who does what in the bedroom with whom is none of my business.

I have little problem with people deciding to serve or not serve anyone in their place of business. Right or wrong, it seems to me that's the right of the business person. But let's not cloak this in religious beliefs. I can't for the life of me see how that isn't discrimination. If we do so, then one day when the ultimate judge calls us up, we're going to have to explain why and how we were able to separate these particular sinners and not serve them.

In the United Methodist guidelines book called the Book of Discipline, we're called in Section IX of the social principles to inclusiveness. It reads in part, "Inclusiveness means openness, acceptance, and support that enables all persons to participate in the life of the Church."

All? Do we really mean that?

One day all this bickering will be over, I'm thinking. One day the Book of Discipline, which governs these things for Methodists, might be re-written and the lines about homosexuality being incompatible with Christian teaching will be changed in some form. Or there will be two Methodist denominations. Actually, there is already a bunch of off-shoots of Wesleyan denominations.

So, where is the answer for the coming battle, something we as pastors can take to our congregations and say this is where we are as United Methodists?

It might be a simple answer. Just a small idea that causes (and has caused) great movement in thisworld. Could it be as simple as something like "love thy neighbor as thyself?"

Love, Jesus said. And he ate among sinners.

I wonder. Would Jesus be served in Arizona?