Gay-affirming conservative evangelicals and moderates have to make an easy choice to join the WCA.
Join the best of the best
Friday, October 7th, is the big day: the launch of the Wesleyan Covenant Association and the big meeting in Chicago. 1700 people are advertised to attend.
The biggest stages are given to those with the most evangelist success, and many of the youngest members of the Convener team. There are even more women speaking in one day than in many other evangelical conferences include over a week’s time.
These are the success stories of people that have endured despite the institution being set against them. And if you join them, if you join the Wesleyan Covenant Association, then not only you can be inspired by these speakers to reach more people for Jesus Christ, you can learn how to break free from a broken institution.
…There’s just one thing.
There’s one catch, though. You have to give up one tiny belief.
You see, the Wesleyan Covenant Association does not support full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the Church.
And by signing up, you acknowledge that you don’t support allowing LGBTQ persons to get married or to serve as pastors without first divorcing their same-gender spouse.
Surely it’s worth it to give that up? Look at all you get by signing on the line and giving that up. Let me convince you.
But Wait! There’s More!
The WCA proposal is quite simple: join us.
- Join us and you’ll be nose-to-glass with the best evangelists within United Methodism.
- You’ll get elbow-to-elbow with authors and professors who now channel their writings through Seedbed and New Room, not Cokesbury and Abingdon.
- And you’ll get temple-to-temple hushed conversations with fellow like-minded folks to better “get what is yours” from United Methodist resources in your area.
You get all of these things, including the resources and energy that the participants’ congregations, institutions, and individuals have divested from The United Methodist Church for decades. All this pent-up talent and inspiration is yours for the taking.
You get all of this for a small membership fee, less than Netflix for a year.
And all you have to give up is your belief that LGBTQ people should be given all privileges of straight people and included at all levels of the Church.
Such an easy choice, right?
Predictions
It’s easy to predict what will be said. The speakers will speak of their personal success, and of others in the movement. They will speak with disdain and provide examples of institutional malaise, and they will put John Wesley’s warning about his “biggest fear about Methodists” on repeat. The word “homosexual” will not be mentioned.
And at the end, the sign up sheet will be passed around, saying you get all of these things and can be part of this revival that will save all the things you hold dear and revive the spirit of the church again after it throws off its institutional husk like a cicada.
And all you have to give up is your belief and advocacy that LGBTQ persons are to be fully included in the life of the Church.
That’s it.
Just give up that tiny thing, and you too can be successful, and…look at all the friends you’ll instantly make who are better supported by the church and society, and don’t have so many weird pronouns to learn.
Ready to Sign on the Line?
It’s a very simple proposal, the one the Wesleyan Covenant Association has given. All you have to give up is advocating for your neighbor, family member, friend, or fellow church member to be fully included in the life of the Church.
That’s all.
Go ahead and sign on the line, and leave them behind, so you can save more people to Jesus Christ.
Surely the legions of converts are more important than that one person in your life who probably doesn’t like the church anyway.
It’s time to triage, man, and let them go so you can get on with saving souls to Jesus Christ.
That’s an easy choice, isn’t it?
Braveheart was a Fool
In the final scenes of Mel Gibson’s 1995 epic movie Braveheart, Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace has been captured by the British and is being tortured in front of a crowd. The torturer states several times that all Wallace has to do is one thing: pledge loyalty to the British king, and Wallace will be executed without the torture. Wallace refuses, and the torture gets worse and worse.
Finally, at the very end, the torturer gestures the crowd into silence, expecting Wallace to beg for mercy. Wallace instead lifts his head and roars “FREEDOM!” as his last word. His spirit unbroken, the torturer finally executes him, having lost the battle of wills.
Wallace was a fool.
Wallace could have ended the pain. All he had to do was give up that one thing. Just one thing, and the pain would go away, and the taste of the eternal was there for him.
The Wesley Covenant Association is telling gay-affirming evangelicals and moderates to give up that one thing. The pain of institutional malaise and downward trends will be gone, and life in the new revival will be yours.
All you have to do is sign on the dotted line, and give up that one thing, pledge adherence to a fixed slate of leadership, and all this will be yours.
Aren’t you ready to stop being a “moderate” or a weird “gay-affirming evangelical” and join the majority again? Give up that one conviction, and the pain of being marginalized will be over.
Your Turn
So what’s your choice?
- Are you with Jesus? Then join the Wesleyan Covenant Association.
- Or are you still standing with the marginalized, the modern-day orphans, widows, immigrants, and outcasts? Are you still standing with people who are part of the kingdom of God, but we really just aren’t ready for yet? Sigh. Then go back to your broken, inept institution, that was built over generations, and whose money and property was given to the WCA to abscond with. Good luck.
The choice is yours.
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The above is both true to the facts and satirical in presentation in order to name that the WCA is built on the exclusion of LGBTQ people and no amount of enthusiastic preaching of “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” can hide that reality.
Proof-reader comment: “Gay-affirming conservative evangelicals and moderates have to make an easy choice to make to join the WCA.” The phrase “to make” is repeated unnecessarily in the tag line.
Fixed! Thanks as always for editing help!
Is Johm Wesley in the WCA? If so, I’m in!
The logical fallacies used here are multiple. Let us consider where your reasoning is quite flawed.
You use the bandwagon approach. You say that everyone, all the popular authors and evangelical leaders are in the WCA, so then everyone else needs to join it. That has not been the reasoning used by WCA leaders to help others join. Instead you will see individual invitations from different leaders inviting everyone who desires to join to come to the WCA. You act as those who do not join are not a part of this new group will be missing the boat. No invitations have been shared this way. This is not an approach those starting the WCA have used. This is disingenuous. This is a logical fallacy.
You also use the straw man approach. You exaggerate the WCA’s views and purposes. You purposefully mislead your readers into assuming the intent of the WCA is to create a club that’s main purpose is to exclude others. You create the illusion of an “in” crowd with those who join, as if those joining the WCA will automatically be buddy-buddy with each other. You set it up in your arguments like a straw man and then knock it down by your own “superior” view. You act like it is impossible for those who affirm a historical biblical view of sexuality cannot also care for and love those who are on the margins. You act as if this is a fact, though you do not support it. You do not provide accurate depictions of the WCA.
When you give real consideration to the WCA’s purpose, invitations, and clear beliefs and leave behind the snarky over-exaggeration that willingly employs logical fallacies to win an argument you picked yourself, you may just find that those joining it are actually people you could get along with, if only you can have an honest conversation.
Hi Brad, thanks for taking the time to write this comment.
That section is called “Predictions” in particular, and I’ll be interested if I’m right about my assumptions and reading. But the truth IS that my moderate friends and contacts are worried about being left out of this whole evangelical structure unless they subscribe to the anti-gay aspects. So it’s not a projected message in the sky, but it is a side-to-side concern, and it’s important to name it.
I do exaggerate the WCA position, but it is grounded on the reality that continued exclusion of LGBTQ persons from marriage and from ministry is both the named inciting events and the perpetual reaction pieces of the WCA. I find that the projected pieces of the WCA gloss over this fact, and it’s important for moderates and pro-gay evangelicals to be reminded of what one of the key programmatic aspects is of the WCA. The depiction of the WCA belief in opposition to LGBTQ equality is linked to and right in their beliefs section. It is not hidden, but it needs to be named.
I appreciate the concern that tone gets in the way of the content for some people. But the actual harm done by the WCA leaders and rhetoric to LGBTQ persons seeking to faithfully live out their marriages and their calls to ministry should be more of a concern. If you are offended by one but not the other, then that disconnect is a problem–or a defining characteristic of an organization that needs to be named.
Well said Brad. I consider myself a moderate, neither fully progressive nor fully conservative. I have mixed feelings on this subject, but am prayerfully considering the discussion of both sides. I don’t know a lot about the WCA, but I recently attended the New Room Conference in Franklin TN, as a new (about one year) Methodist, and I can say with certainty that the Seedbed and New Room “crowd” has been mischaracterized in this article. The assumption by progressives seems to be that those who believe gay marriage and/or ordaining of clergy goes against christian teaching don’t love gay people, or wish to exclude them somehow from God’s love. I did not hear one single word such as has been characterized in this article while at the conference. One speaker said something to the effect that gay people are loved and respected, and welcome in the church, but since the sexual act between same-sex people was named a sin in scripture, people of that orientation should remain celibate.This was not said in a snarkly, superior manner- it was said as from someone who genuinely loved God and neighbor, and holds this as a sincere belief.
As I understand it, the polity of the Methodist Church states that gay marriage is not consistent with christian teaching. I believe this has been the case for a couple of thousand years. While people within the church certainly have the right to disagree, and raise the issue, and even seek to change the polity, I sure wish it could be done in a spirit of love and civility, and with much prayer.
Thank you. This is exactly how I feel. I love God and my neighbor. I don’t hate anyone just because I don’t agree with their sin. Heck, I don’t agree with my sin! All of these assumptions feed into divide. May Jesus come soon. Then we will all see the same truth.
It is somewhat presumptuous to believe that one interpretation of scripture is more righteous than another.
Mark, you are spot on the money! Furthermore, the WCA has 1,700 members, and when their members either wake up or pass on the WCA will cease to exist.
How can any Christian Church disparage or discriminate? Being LBGT is not murder, adultery, stealing, or abuse. The WCA is disparaging and being disrespectful, of people whose gender identity or sexual orientation is different from that of those of us who are heterosexual. Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation is a matter of who you are and how you were born. I was thrilled to read that the WCA is such a small group in the probably one of largest Protestant Denominations. 1,700 members is but a drop in the bucket of the UMC. They are vocal and probably well funded, but telling those of us who are progressive to leave is not showing Christian Love
What is the ‘other interpretation’ of the scripture you reference?
All are equal, but some are more equal than others .
One is either equal or not, welcome or not, accepted or not.
I know Babylon Bee is a fun and insightful read. I understand the temptation to write satire when they have been so successful. I just don’t think you have the knack for it. Too heavy-handed or something. Plus you don’t seem to be highlighting the truth in an insightful way like they do, so much as obfuscating the truth in an already complicated conversation.
Jeremy don’t do satire again. You’re not good st it. This is the worst thing you’ve written (that I read). Stick to what you do well.
Thanks for your comment, Kevin. What do I do well, in your eyes?
Jeremy- you are very good at discernment and exegesis of texts. I like the way you usually write, and how you thoroughly research your positions. You are able to connect ideas and people in a reasoned manner. Satire does not seem to be your thing, in my opinion. I too am not good at it. Your skills are better used letting reason and logic guide your posts. I thought the title catchy, but I hoped for more substance as I think people know the WCA is just a way to expand the Confessing movement under the guise of advocating orthodox theology. It’s another way to take money away from other organizations already doing similar things. I wonder how long it will be before someone who supports all these organizations begins to wonder why they created another one to advocate against LGBT inclusion. All the wasted money and time is crazy. Let’s get back to serving the poor.
Decent article about what the Bible says…. “man shall not lie with another man” was a politically motivated “update”, correct?
https://www.forgeonline.org/blog/2019/3/8/what-about-romans-124-27
Thankfully, the truth of the matter outshines any poor attempt at satire. The message is one of success, and all you have to do to be part of this successful movement is to let go of pro-gay efforts. That’s the crux and the selling point and the persistent response of the WCA, so highlighting it in a readable way is helpful.
This exactly.
Absolutely. 100% agree, Jeremy!
You forgot one other piece of cognitive dissidence required to participate: the WCA is absolutely not schismatic, even though it is lead by people openly calling for the division of the church and transparently tries to set up an alternative structure with congregational memberships and dues/Apportionments. Besides, those liberals have broken covenant so we have no choice but to break into a new structure, which totally isn’t schismatic, even as our leaders withhold apportionments to our conferences and some declare “the church has already divided”. WCA states an ultimatum to the special commission, with an implicit threat that the membership will break away if they don’t get what they want, but this is in no way a schismatic act. Don’t ask about our vow of loyalty to the UMC at ordination.
I believe you begin with a rather strong contradictory statement: “the WCA is absolutely not schismatic, even though it is lead by people openly calling for the division of the church and transparently tries to set up an alternative structure with congregational memberships and dues/Apportionments.” Please help me understand the difference between an open call for division in the church and schism per se.
If you are correct about division or schism or whatever term you want to use, you cannot then logically argue fault with UMJeremy’s train of thought. You are acknowledging he is correct in observing their actions and motivations even though you try to discredit him.
These kinds of mental gymnastics keep us spinning endlessly on red herrings that get us nowhere. The Puritanical view of human sexuality the WCA gets all warped out about shows just how uninformed you are. We know so much more than the authors of scripture knew. Scripture, of course. Tradition, yes. And reason and experience.
Do no harm.
Kerry,
I don’t mean to disagree with Jeremy but to supplement him.
The mental gymnastics lose their power when called out. My voice at the end of the post was meant to be that of the WCA types using their mental gymnastics to protect themselves from the plain fact of their endeavor: they want to threaten the break up of the church without accepting themselves as playing that role.
Well said, Jeremy. You might check out my five questions to the so-called Wesleyan Covenant Association at philipamerson.com. Best.
I will! Thanks Philip!
This is also helpful, Philip.
I am grateful for the dark humor, Jeremy. But, God, I’m sad. And mad.
I read the Chicago Statement this morning. What breaks my heart is that I am one with a “high view of Scripture, Wesleyan vitality, orthodox theology and Holy Spirit empowerment,” but I come to very different conclusions about LGBTQ Christians and inclusion in the Church. The WCA would say that is impossible, but they have no authority to deem me otherwise. I do think it is possible to be evangelical and inclusive, and I plan to be so. Thanks, Jeremy, for your extraordinary commitment to the unity of the church.
Much as is the case with a previous Chicago Statement (1978), the meaning lies at least as much in what is not said and in their particular understanding of their chosen words as in the words themselves.
The main thought of your piece is to encourage others to hold on to their identity as LGBT… persons in spite of the church that refuses to abandon its orthodox stand against that lifestyle. You equate the WCA to the invading English in Scotland and their impositions on the Scottish loyalists. They were to abandon their identity in order to accomodate the English king. It seems to me that you are employing a role reversal here. It is the LGBT… movement that is invading our church- indeed our culture- with a desire to impose a foreign and unwelcome allegiance to self rather a relationship with God. You have convinced some well-meaning, moderate folks that your designs are noble, but it is not noble to place a relationship with self above the relationship with God.
Disclaimer: I am not a WCA sympathizer. However, now that the events of the week have transpired, I have to admit that they do call out one very troubling point about the UMC… It’s hard to have faith in the future of a denomination that has lost all sense of accountability. And I’m not talking about the trials relating to human sexuality. If you follow Judicial Council decisions, and I do, you’ll see that they are being increasingly disregarded by local Annual Conferences. I’m talking about matters relating to due process, separation of powers, and other very important legal matters. Bishops, at least in America, have become almost immune to judicial oversight. Whether we have a schism or not, what are we going to do about that?
All you have to do to be a Progressive is to give up your conviction that God has spoken through the Scripture. Trust the wisdom of left leaning Progressive leadership over the Bible.
Bible-affirming members of the WCA need give up only one small thing to be welcomed into the New UMC, just a portion of the Bible’s teaching against sexual immorality. (At least for now, until our postmodern culture of secular relativism decides that we need to disavow some other Biblical teaching on sinful behavior.)
Well said LW. It is scary to imagine the next sin that flesh will urge the church to reinterprete the bible to protect because “the marginalized” group then will rather have the bible reinterpreted than sin no more.
I would like to join WCA.
Love in Christ,
Brother Eddie Vann
Ebenezer
Ever read the first chapter of Romans?
There is an old Anglo-Saxon proverb: He who is convinced against his will, remains of the same opinion still. Go ahead and throw mud, justify your positions, spread hatred. Scream “Judgemental!”. All you accomplish is to relieve pent-up anger. How about talking to God about our own hearts relationship with Him?
Thank you for your frank opinions. One thing I noticed lacking was scriptural references from both the Old and New Testaments. I can understand leaving out the most damning arguments to one’s views is not new. It is one thing to present a view, no matter how myopic it may be, to put forth an opinion based on eisegesis, rather than exegesis. Congratulations on succeeding with the presentation but sorry for the failure to proclaim truth. Hear this – ne does not go to an Italian restaurant for won ton sub gum and demand not only to be served as desired but to insist that everyone there partake of the same. No one said that Methodism is the only way to Christ, any more than a map with many roads to a destination says we all take the same road. If you don’t like the pickles at FoodLion, try a different brand to your liking at Safeway.
Never more timely.
I am personally convinced that for most of the last thirty years mainstream United Methodism, and Wesley’s distinctive approach to theology, have been under attack divisive forces, notably the WCA. The LGBTQ issue is simply the latest tactical move in what, has, from the outset, had all the appearance of a conscious strategy to divide the UMC and make off with a significant amount of wealth in the form of property and millions of dollars.
Technology has changed our world and society in ways that it will take us generations to understand and adapt to. It is plainly terrifying to many for whom dependence on authoritarian leaders with simple answers is powerfully seductive.
The genius of Wesley was the ability to combine methodical discipline with intellectual freedom. Wesleyans (in truth, I must confess to like that label for myself) encourage open-minded and fearless exploration of what God has done and continues to do through diligent study of the scripture.
We need to think and let think.
Being human and fallible, I do not claim certain knowledge of any of my beliefs. What I can and do here affirm is a personal commitment to (in the words of William Sparrow) “Seek Truth. Come whence it may. Cost what it will.”
Finally, I agree with you whole-heartedly that now that the WCA has decided conclusively to form the Global United Methodist Church, the General Conference should feel neither need nor obligation to include them.
Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Lev. 18:22
In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Rom 1:27
………I must be too stupid to interpret this correctly, can the author “educate” me…..