A guest post as the first response to United Methodist General Conference by a United Methodist layperson with a long affiliation with General Conference.
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For Such a Time As Now!
Joey Lopez
This week, The United Methodist Church’s best-kept secret was on full display. No, I am not referring to our long-standing disagreements about LGBTQ people or what some call “human sexuality.” Rather, the secret uncovered this week was that the institutional church has long been experiencing a slow death.
Loss of Hope or Hope Misguided
Over the past several years, I have been actively involved at the most institutional level of The United Methodist Church. I was a reserve delegate at the 2012 General Conference. From 2014 to 2018, I sat on the board of Board of Directors of Methodist Federation for Social Action, the church’s oldest social justice caucus. And, I served on the Love Your Neighbor Coalition’s leaderships team leading up to the 2016 General Conference, where I directed many of the public actions and witnesses.
The more involved I was at the institutional level, the harder it became to hope that the church could ever be something different. My experience at the 2012 General Conference led me to leave the ordination process. It became clear that seeking ordination as an openly queer person would only distract me from pursuing God’s calling in my life. It was clear to me that process was designed to “weed out” anyone not white, US-born, straight, and male.
Leading up to the 2016 General Conference, I shifted my career from working with United Methodist congregations to working with people of faith across the Southeastern U.S. to advocate for marriage equality and LGBTQ non-discrimination protections. I chose to work specifically within Presbyterian Church U.S.A.—mobilizing people of faith to step out of their pews and into the streets for racial justice, gender justice, and LGBTQ rights.
Finding myself somewhere between strangely warmed and the frozen chosen, I began fading the out of the roles I held in The United Methodist Church after the 2016 General Conference. I was no longer sure I had anything left to offer the church or those working for justice within it. More than anything, I felt like we kept perpetuating the same systems we were desperately trying to dismantle.
Shortly after 2016, I joined the planting team of a new church. This congregation dreamed of bringing liberation to its community and was driven by four core values: belong, be still, become, and be bold. From the beginning, we were explicit and unapologetic about who was welcome in our community. We made a point to welcome people of color, queer and transgender people, and the growing homeless population in our community. We lived out this welcome by boldly showing up for these communities, accompanying the work of justice already under way. We rooted ourselves in deep, genuine relationship. Being part of this worshipping community, I realized I was not at a loss of hope for the church. My hope had simply been in the wrong places.
It is Time for the Season of AND…
My time in these spaces outside of The UMC taught me that welcome did not have to happen in incremental steps. God’s abundance means that we never have to choose who to welcome first or what justice issue to support first. Liberation for the church is not a matter of a glass half full or half empty. We can simply refill the glass. Liberation is not mapped out by small pieces of a larger puzzle. It is the full picture all at once.
This got me thinking about Mordecai’s words to Esther:
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that, just because you are in the imperial palace, you will be the only Jewish person to escape. If you insist on remaining silent at this time, vindication and liberation will come to our people through another source, but both you and your family will surely die. Who’s to say?—you may have come into the royal court for just this moment.” (The Inclusive Bible, Esther 4:13-14)
There was no clear strategy for queer liberation. The long time power brokers of the progressive church chose institutional preservation and stability over the voices of those most impacted. Our power brokers did not take note of Mordecai’s words. He is telling Esther to not forget her roots. That she may be in a the palace but that will not protect her. Far too many of our leaders stayed in the comfort of their palace and hoped for the best. So, our “left flank” was watered down between a plan to simply remove the harmful language (without offering any protections) and a plan that would mostly maintain what we’ve known to be unjust for fifty-plus years.
We have sought incremental steps toward justice—fighting battles we thought we could win. Often our calls for liberation have been tempered, making sure we don’t rock the boat too much at once. This impulse comes from many places: from elders who have been on the journey for a long time, allies who are worried about sacrificing their privilege, from ourselves having been worn down by the church’s posture, convinced we only deserve one piece of the puzzle at a time, and even from the institutions we have built to advocate on our behalf who are driven by self preservation.
For as long as I have been seeking the full inclusion of LGBTQ people into the life and ministry of The United Methodist Church, we have been driven by an ethics of “or”—marriage or ordination, U.S. or global, annual conference by annual conference or general conference. The time for compromise surely has passed and, frankly, never should have been. Over and over, scripture tells us not to compromise on justice. This special session of the General Conference could never deliver any more than the petitions passed.
So, what if the church dies?
It is time to admit that the church as we know it has been dying for a very long time. A mentor of mine often asks, before leading groups in liberation work, “What happens if this institution dies today?” I wonder, what would we as United Methodists do differently if we operated as a “resurrection people,” aware that our church has been laid in the tomb and that we have 3 days (times a hundred, give or take a few) to prepare for resurrection? How would we prepare?
On social media, Bishop Karen Oliveto frequently posts a prayer by Carlo Carretto which reminds me to stay humble and why I am still connected to the church. The prayer starts out “How much I criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you!” Its final lines are:
“No, I cannot be free of you for I am one with you, even if not completely you. Then too, where would I go? To build another church? But I could not build one without the same defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ’s church. No, I am old enough. I know better.”
Respectfully, I disagree. It will be hard to start something new, for I too am one with the church, though not completely. And, granted, I could not build something new without my own sins projected onto it. However, this new church cannot and should not and will not be built by any one person alone.
The dying church we have lived with since 1968 was built to support the wellbeing of a select group of people. There is anti-blackness embedded in its teachings. Its “mission work” has exported homophobia and transphobia just as much as “development” or “Christian aid.” Sexism and misogyny are built into its foundations, justified to maintain a false sense of purity.
The decisions of the special session of the General Conference are a legacy of these sins we have chosen to ignore as a church. We are culpable and have participated in them either as colonizers, exporting false teachings to other continents, or as those who reinscribe colonial logics, blaming an entire continent for earnestly believing what we taught them to believe.
So, it is time to begin dreaming of a new church. Heeding Carlo Carretto’s warning, we must be honest about the sins we will likely carry with us. We must name and confess, where we come from often and always so we can hold ourselves true to our history and to our commitment to being something different. We must build something new together and not in secret. We are doing a new and joyous thing. Why hide it under or bushel? Or in a back room? Or behind legislation and Robert’s Rules of Order?
The decision of the special session of the General Conference is devastating. However, it is not a loss of hope. We can never lose because there will always be queer people baptized, confirmed, and ordained into the church every day! So, let us see justice like Mordecai, dream with Carlo’s prayer in mind, and together build a church that makes known God’s heart.
Joey is a life long United Methodist from the south and is a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. He has organized with faith communities for racial justice, gender justice, and LGBTQ liberation. Joey enjoys supporting and resourcing communities in their work toward liberation.
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Your Turn
Thoughts?
Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing on social media.
Thanks to you, and hooray for the First Amendment!
Nobody is forcing anyone to remain in any denomination. Other paths are available; “fixing” the corporation known as the UMC is a waste of time and love. Better to start anew in helping those that need direct human caring. Those who stay to “fight City Hall” need a dose of the Holy Spirit that visited you.
P.S. Jeremy, thank you for posting this; I hope that you also are coming to the mindset that Joey’s post represents.
I have criticized your in-depth analyses of pension funds, traditionalist black-ops etc. because I found them to be “majoring in minors” compared to “the big truth”, which is that the UMC (and its missions) will not last long with all this bickering going on. The attendance and funding is drying up and the happenings at GC (no matter which plan passed) cannot stem that abandonment. The King is dead, long live the King. Now let’s get on with helping souls!
I understand and sympathize with your position. I thought initially there would be wide support for the initiation of a new church but there seems to be a feeling among many that staying and fighting would be better. Bound up in this decision by local churches are the great complications in disaffiliation, including loss of assets by congregations already struggling.
Thank you for sharing these deep and meaningful thoughts. I appreciate what you have written, but more than that I appreciate your call, your passion, and your understanding of the limits of the institutional Church. You nailed it: real Christian Community is so vastly different than institutional/ bureaucratic denominationalism. Thank you, again, for your voice and your witness and your willingness to work and serve.
Joey, thank you for your thoughts, and your work for social justice I would love go sit (or walk!) and visit with you sometime. I’m on the Oregon coast. I’d love to connect and chat! My journey and thoughts (I won’t get into the details here) have a lot in common with yours. But you’ve been more bold in your actions. Thanks for posting this
My analogy is this: I am married to an abusive spouse (the UMC). This spouse continues to abuse my children (LGBTQ persons such as my own daughter). Lord, guide me in what to do with this marriage and this abuser.
I have also often made this same analogy. With the slight change that I am one of the abused.
The only advice one could give to an abused person is: LEAVE THE ABUSER ASAP!!!! (And don’t look back.)
2/26/19 – United Methodist Church “Homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity.” Tithing support this position.
“Practicing” Homosexuality will always be a sin according to the Bible. LGBTQIA etc need to understand Biblical truth. There’s no amount of cherry picking, sugar coating or changing wording in the Bible to mask this truth. There are many other sins in the Bible, the difference is asking forgiveness and working towards sinning no more. We’re all a work in progress. However, living in and continuing to practice any of the LGBTQIA etc ways after reading the Bible is in complete contradiction to the Word of God. Therefore, homosexual marriage and leadership in the church can never be if you truly are pursuing complete Christian lifestyle
Sarah, your “complete Christian lifestyle” in itself cherry-picked and sugar-coated. I hope your inability to understand subtly, nuance, and complexity in theology and faith prevents you for leadership and ordination in the church too. Do you think your holier than thou attitude is very Chirst-like?
Funny how “understanding biblical truth” means agreeing with you.
I understand the truths of christianity and disagree with you.
As you probably know, there are different ways of reading these scriptures that you declare to be so forcefully anti-homosexual. If you are interested in spiritual and intellectual integrity, then you might consider investigating some of these other interpretive claims. There is no such thing as a “plain meaning” of the words in the Bible–unless you are 2,000 years old and speak Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Wesley, himself, did not agree with his brother regarding things like end times predictions. But he always said, “As long as you are reading the Bible.” That is why he said, “Though we may not think alike, we may love alike.” He left Bible interpretation up to the individuals to understand through their experience with God, not as a one-mind-model that everyone must think the same.
The traditionalists were unmasked when they refused to add the other violations into the rules: having standards not permitting divorced folks, adulterers, or polyamorous folks. They voted against those standards and only for homosexuality. So it isn’t about the Bible. It is simply about bigotry.
If there WERE such a thing as a “plain meaning” for any text, then scholars wouldn’t still argue over Shakespeare who wrote only 400-ish years ago and in the same language. But they do. That’s why it baffles me when people talk about the “plain text” of the bible.
The ordination process has also done a good job of weeding out people with disabilities. I mention this here because the same “scriptural truth” that keeps many of us out, even though shown to be not at all what the texts mean, is still thrown at LGBT people today.
We have entered the “age to come” foretold by Jesus in Mark 10:30.
http://risen-from-the-dead.forumotion.com/
Thank you for sharing, Joey. Very wise and deep thoughts!
Thanks, Dr. Phil!
What follows is not constructive, but it is profoundly real. My bitterness will be clear, but my confidence in the story is absolute. The synthesis — which MUST be known and shared — is that the destruction this week of the United Methodist Church was NOT due to a vote on a ‘controversial’ issue. It wasn’t even about a religious (or spiritual) disagreement.
The story is about greed, power, fear, money, and broad partisan politics. It is, fundamentally, about how a few well-organized/funded and deeply self-interested individuals and groups SYSTEMATICALLY manipulated congregants in order to steal and neutralize one of the world’s remaining progressive institutions.
This story has happened before, and it will undoubtedly occur many times again. If any of us is to undermine this ugliness, it is essential to embrace the full picture — and not reduce the story to ‘differences’ over a divisive issue. The truth is much, much uglier, and I can easily document and/or defend every assertion I make. I, for one, am not going to participate in putting a happy face on an illegitimate coup.
The world is an ugly place, filled with uglier individuals wielding outsized power. In this case, they proved that — with 3 years and a few hundred thousand dollars — their power is great enough both to steal and (I will sadly bet) defend the theft of an entire global Denomination.
Why do I believe this? Because the (far fewer) strugglers I know are now exhausted. Those (many, many more) who remain are either complicit or complacent.
Call me a cynic, but people who share my concerns need, at least, to be aware of the machinations. And to be prepared to ask over and over again very tough questions that cut to the heart of hypocrisy, hate, and fear. Otherwise, collective efforts will actually never be collective. ‘Conversation’ will never get beyond the barrier of smug patrimony. That is how bad the deck has been stacked against any humanist values in the UMC.
A POLITICAL, NOT RELIGIOUS TAKEOVER
What stuns me is the ease with which all of this horror has been brought by a right-wing, pro-military, anti-environmental protection, anti-social justice, GOP-entwined ‘think tank,’ with an avowed mission to “undermine Mainstream Christian voices opposed to conservative policies.”
How aware are people that the multi-million dollar ‘Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD)’ — created in the 1980s to root out communists in churches — has instigated, fueled, and won the GC vote?
Do people know that the IRD created (and has since lavished big $ on) the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) in 2016? That the WCA is a puppet & front for the extremist IRD? (The IRD and WCA share officers, board members, sponsors, and agendas. They also have been accused of numerous wrongdoings, including tax evasion, bribery, money laundering, and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act).
FOLLOWING A TRIED, TRUE, & TREACHEROUS PROCESS
With IRD’s help, WCA ran a classic campaign to steal a denomination from its domestic majority. Following the same playbook used on the Presbyterian and Episcopalian Churches (read ‘Steeplejacking’, by Dorhauer & Culver), the IRD/WCA zeroed in on the 2019 GC as its opportunity to destroy the Church
Seizing on ugly political narratives, IRD ramped up WCA in 2016, with 6 goals: (a) sow discord in the global UMC; (b) cultivate individuals and congregations with piecemeal conservative agendas, winning over different groups with diffent platform planks; (c) author the Traditional Plan, focusing on the most (globally and politically) divisive issue before the GC; (d) use the Traditional Plan at the GC to split the UMC in half; (e) render the One Church plan nonviable through pre-conference AND in-conference threats of schism; and (f) swoop in at the last moment — at the heights of emotion and chaos — with a modified Tradional Plan to save the day (aka GET PRECISELY WHAT THEY WANTED ALL ALONG).
This point is worth repeating. In the chaos of the GC that the WCA and its followers conjured (emphasis on ‘con’), they triumphed in the worst possible way. As they continued to foment (and then wail against the danger of) a broad schism, they sprung what seemed to be a perfect, final ‘compromise.’ Only the compromise was THE poison for progressive voices. The Traditional Plan could pass, but — in a demonstration of spectacularly false generosity — dissenting Congregations would be allowed to leave peacefully.
Ominously, the ‘conference-saving’ final twist does nothing but ensure the ‘best’ possible scenario for manipulative bigots. They get everything (including the sanctimony and false piety), as they destroy the evolving, aware, and accepting heart of the UMC. The future portends a large, wealthy, regressive UMC, and a scattered landscape of disenfranchised, geographically dispersed, clusters of progressive, former-UMC congregations.
At the moment of that final vote, the UMC was, literally, stolen. Delegates wittingly or unwittingly sacrificed the Church’s soul to deceit and greed, while quibbling over a single, fear-stoked wedge. They indulged a sleight of hand distraction, and the serial manipulators gained a 340+yr old institution.
THE CURRENT REALITY
It is almost impossible to overstate how the GC vote and the WCA/IRD have COMPLETELY altered the future of the Church, to the PROFOUND DISADVANTAGE OF PROGRESSIVE, MAJORITY (US) MEMBERS.
If the vote remains, the ‘victors’ keep the name, the self-annointed heavenly glory, the agenda, and the spoils. They will, most likely, initiate a purge of vocal dissenters and wave gleefully when congregations depart. A big reason? That’s when they get paid. Congregations that choose to leave will be forced to pay separation fees (e.g., for facilities, intellectual property, and severed contracts, among a host of other extortionate costs — look back at the lawsuits in the wake of the Presbyterian schism). They will also be labeled as un-Christian, unholy, and prideful, in other words, DESERVING of their fate due to their un-Godly beliefs. Nothing more than foolish, depraved people who value irreligious nonsense — such as equality, justice, social welfare, and environmental stewardship — over guns, conflict, repression, crony capitalism, and an infallible, requisitely American ‘democracy.’
Why do you say all this? Clearly, you’re just being grandiose and dramatic, throwing around unfounded conspiracies.
To conclude otherwise, however, would be naive, at best. Three final things. First, I am appalled, angry, dismayed, and saddened by the way that the IRD and WCA, manipulated good people through lies and fear. Second, I am upset by my own inability to help prevent the outcome. And third, I feel guilty because I no longer have the energy or motivation to fight for (even sacred) institutions, when the game is rigged to this degree. I’ve seen this movie too many times.
I am simply too inured to the selfishness of my parents’ generation — and too tired, discouraged, and beaten down over the past 30 years of my adult life to give a blessed damn. I have nothing left to give and even less hope that it will matter.
I pray others are stronger, but also informed.
This is exactly right.
Far too few people understand the manipulative role that IRD played in this recent vote.
It WAS a coup. It WAS a hostile takeover. And the world needs to know it WAS NOT an authentic decision.
In 2007 this investigative documentary about the IRD was released, interviewing UMC leaders and other experts:
https://youtu.be/sYFNfW1-sM8
Michael, I believe that this is the wrong link.
Wow, this is an amazing post. Informational content and very helpful for me..
I think I’m going to take the easy way out here. I had a moment of clarity this week.
I’m simply not interested in being a methodist any longer. I honestly have doubts about any kind of organized religion at this point.
I’m not going to fight for the soul of the church; I’m walking from my long-time church anyway (due to the lack of spine there in standing up for what’s right)… I had considered joining a more progressive Methodist Church as an ‘easy transition’, but I think I’m just going to become an unChurched person voluntarily.
I know a number of folks from my current church are leaving over the vote and response issue, and most of those are finding new churches to be a part of.
And here’s the thing – for all that the post above is pointing at the WCA about the problems, the WCA/Good News has equally deplorable things to say about the Bishops and the CoWF. Regardless of which is correct or to which degree, all of it speaks huge volumes about Methodists and Methodism. The Church I’ve spent most of my adult life in has shown itself (on the macro level) to be a sham.
So I’m out.
I’m not sure what I’ll do to fill the void in my heart and life; I felt the touch of God twice in my life, and one of those was completely related to a mission trip. I’ve felt the nearness of God a couple of other times, all of which were tied to Methodist community or mission work. But I’ve never felt that in any church.
Once my commitments are completed in the next few weeks, I’ll not return to a Methodist church to worship. And this really hurts, because I was all-in prior to this debacle.