Pastors in the two United Methodist annual conferences that cover California are being faced with a choice: obey the denomination, or substitute the state Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage for the Book of Discipline. For some, there’s no question which is the higher authority: they must (and prefer to) obey Caesar rather than God. According to the Los Angeles Times:
Scores of United Methodist Church ministers in California are putting their careers on the line in an open revolt against religious edicts that forbid them to conduct weddings for gay and lesbian couples.
“Religious edicts”–that’s mainstream media-talk for “Neanderthal fundamentalist rules that we don’t like.”
The pastors could lose their jobs and clerical credentials in the church, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.
Ministers in Santa Monica, Claremont, Walnut Creek and other cities have already performed ceremonies for gays and lesbians or are planning to do so.
Pastors have been emboldened by United Methodist assemblies in California that declared their support last month for the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning a ban on same-sex marriage.
I have no doubt that’s true, though it does present a logical disconnect–just because those annual conferences supported the ruling is hardly the same thing as telling pastors to throw the Discipline under the bus. But then, we’re not talking here about logic so much as emotion and the passionate pursuit of a political agenda.
The regional assemblies–composed of lay leaders and clergy from California and other states–also urged pastors and congregations to “welcome, embrace and provide spiritual nurture” for gay couples.
Defenders of gay marriage say they want to compel the 11-million-member denomination to live up to its slogan–”Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.”
Actually, what they really want to do is amend that slogan to include “open zippers.”
“I’m tired of being part of a church that lacks integrity,” said the Rev. Janet Gollery McKeithen of Santa Monica’s Church in Ocean Park, who plans to conduct weddings for two gay couples in August and September. “I love my church, and I don’t want to leave it. But I can’t be part of a church that is willing to portray a God that is so hateful. I would rather be forced out.”
Personally, I’m more inclined to think that the integrity problem here is the Rev. McKeithen’s. She took vows to uphold the denomination’s teaching and practice, she gets a paycheck that says “United Methodist Church” on it, and yet when she refuses to play by the rules, and also refuses to do the honorable thing and go to the United Church of Christ (which approves of gay marriage whole-heartedly), she claims that the church “lacks integrity.” She “can’t be part of a church” that doesn’t approve of gay marriage, but she will have to be “forced out.” Right.
Read it all.
Posted by David Fischler 
Posted by David Fischler 
Posted by David Fischler 
