It was posted on the Reconciling Ministries Network that the
United Methodists have been holding the tension about the validation and
valuation of the homosexual identity since the General Conference of 1976.
Faithful people on all sides of the issues have worked diligently to create
respectful space for the people of our church to disagree in love. These
efforts included a proposal to claim publicly that United Methodists disagree
on the issues of Homosexuality in the church. What could be truer? Is it not a
loving act to recognize a minority opinion exists? Where are we on the issue of
loving one another? As the church votes grow more conservative, owing to our
willingness to expand globally, compassion would demand the recognition of the
cries for justice from a significant minority voice. Instead, the power hand at
General Conference in 2012 decided to vote down even the notion of disagreement
within our church divided. 
Can silence be demanded by committee? The action history of
the Council of Bishops in the United Methodist Church would suggest, yes (until
recently). Since 1976, it has been difficult to detect support for the cause of
full inclusion from the office of bishop. The council has been united in
silence, allowing the tension to work itself out within the church’s body.
Maybe the wisdom of this tactic has come into question in light of the lack of
compassion demonstrated in the last General Conference. Suddenly, bishops are
taking action and making statements that state; even more publically than a
phrase in the Book of Discipline would, our church does in fact disagree on
this issue. As a reconciling community of faith, the United Methodist Church of
Merced can celebrate the response from our bishops. I always celebrate when
church can be loving, compassionate and responsive to the voices at the margin.
A similar example happened at the California Nevada Annual Conference in 2009.
The regional church body was voting with overpowering voice to make statements
that uphold the dignity of the GLBT community. When our sisters and brothers
from the other side of the issue wanted to declare dissent, the majority voice
itself voted to bring the issue back to discussion so that voices on the margin
would not be stifled by power.
Bishops move: I am glad to say. Bishops in our church have
taken action and made statements that give voice back to a heartbroken body of
faithful United Methodists. First a decision was made by Bishop Talbert to
accept an invitation to marry Bobby Prince and Joe Openshaw in Birmingham,
Alabama (I for one appreciate the choice of venue – Birmingham is where Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed for demonstrating civil disobedience and
called out the clergy in the area for the sin of their silence in the face of
injustice). Wanting to maintain calm face of unity, the council of Bishops
formally requested that Bishop Talbert decline this action. Then, instead of
the council legislating silence, Bishop Mary Ann Swenson wrote a letter of
dissent about the Council’s decision to sanction Bishop Talbert. You can read
her beautiful remarks here.
The movement continues when Bishop Talbert follows through
with his decision to conduct the marriage. These are Bishop Talbert’s words in explanation, “I am fully aware of the role of bishops in The United Methodist
Church, but I am reminded that the role of a bishop is not only to do certain things
for the church, it has the responsibility to do some things to the church.” I
deeply appreciate the notion of bishops that “do” even more than the notion
that bishops “Unite”. You can read the story of the “doing” of Bishop Talbert
here.
This “doing” is new,
but it is a new reason for hope in a community that has experience far too much
silencing and rejection in our churches. I personally feel uplifted and
encouraged in the ministry at UMC Merced by the moves of these bishops. My heart breaks for the millions of GLBT people
that have stood wounded and traumatized by our struggle to church. We can be a
voice of hope. We can take actions in loving relationship. And now, we can
stand with our bishops.
Below are a few words of hope that I was able to deliver to
the Lambda Club at UC Merced this week. I was invited through our churches
PFLAG relationships to speak to the GLBT community at the University about “Homosexuality
and the Bible.” I was warned by the leaders of this group that the community
has been hurt very deeply by this topic. I was told that I should be ready for
people to walk out and/or disengage. Still, I thought that it was important for
me to say words that would stand counter to the meta-narrative of our culture out
loud and in public.
I am Pastor George Bennett. I am here today at Jack’s
invitation, to talk about the bible. I
am going to speak about biblical truth. I know that hearing those words can be
like fingernails on a chalk board to this community. I promise that I am not
here to pour salt in wounds. I am here to challenge the narrative that has
caused the wounds in the first place. I
wear this stole as a symbol of the pledges that I have made to God, to my
community, and to myself. This stole reminds me that I am committed to speaking
well of God, and speak well of the gospel.
The rainbows on this stole remind me that I am committed to delivering
Gods message of love without excluding anybody’s identity. We have a saying in
our community, “all means all.”
To give you a point of reference, I would like to locate
myself socially in my own words. I am an opposite gender-oriented, European-
American, gender- amenable male. Even though my identity, like everyone else’s,
is one that I cannot change; I would like to admit that the privilege that I
have experienced in my life over this identity is an embarrassment to my
community, to my faith community, to my church, and to myself in many ways that
I will cover soon.
I am currently serving the community of Merced as the Senior
Pastor of the United Methodist Church of Merced (Yosemite Prkwy & Laurel).
We are a reconciling community of faith; open & affirming – not a community
that just says welcome, we can fix you; but a community that says you are
created and cherished just the way you are). I have had the unique privilege of
having a seminary education at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA –
the only seminary in the world with a College for Lesbian & Gay Studies) –
where the faculty immerses itself and the students in alternative theologies
and critical thinking.
Let me explain how I got started on this path. Like many of
you, I was baptized. I was eight days old and my family’s tradition was that
babies would be welcomed into the community of faith almost immediately after they
were welcomed into the world. Everybody loves these moments. Family member’s
generations deep gather to celebrate. The church family jockeys for position to
hold the new baby. It would be cute if I smiled. It would be cute if I cried.
Nothing about me that day would get in the way of people that wanted to show me
love. On days like this, I think God celebrates because connections are being
made, support is being offered, it is plain and simple an environment of love.
The story of being embraced by a faith community is not
unique. I share this story with millions of people; even many or most of you.
In this day and age, our stories begin to separate when it come to the point in
our lives when we begin to lean into and live out the identities that we are created
with. There are all sorts of levels of awareness about this point in our
lives. You certainly have yours. How
many times have people attempted to show compassion by asking you, “When did
you know…?” I confess, I have done this myself. We ask this person who is
risking deeper relationship with us, “when did you know about…(your identity).”
We ask this like we are going to identify the point of trauma in a person’s
life. Unfortunately, we think that the trauma occurred when s/he found out
about their identity and we couldn’t be more wrong. If we want to be able to
identify the point of trauma, we would need to ask a different question
entirely. Maybe it would be a question like this,
“When did you know…When did you know that we wouldn’t love
you? When did you know that the promises that we made at your baptism would be
taken back? When did you know that we would try to convince you that even God
can’t love you.” “When did you know…”
We don’t ask these questions because these questions
challenge our faith and our actions rather than pointing the figure outward. We
don’t ask these questions because we are afraid we are wrong and we don’t want
to pay the price for being wrong.
So what we do is build a case for ourselves. It’s only
natural. We look for ways to claim the high ground, to take authority, and to
establish that our fears, our biases, and our systems for protecting our points
of view are justifiable. This is not right. In most people’s cases it is not
even intentional. So many of us spend our lives going with the flow; and before
we know it, we are incorporated into a narrative that hurts people in the
deepest of ways. Part of the case building is done by influencing people to
agree with us. Part of the case building is using important books like the
bible, the torah, or the koran to show that religion and tradition are in our
corner. But all of this case-building is an injustice and to be silent in the
face of injustice is to be complicit.
I believe that “the closet” is not a place that GLBT people created
out of shame; not even a place that GLBT people created for protection. I
believe that “the closet” is a prison created by the case builders. Quoting
verses from Leviticus…slap a board on the closet. Co-opting the story of Sodom
and Gomorrah…slap a board on the closet. Belittle someone’s identity…slap
another board. Take steps to “heal someone” – because you believe that their
identity is unlovable…pound in some nails. The gospel is the story of how Jesus
is setting the prisoners free. To speak well of God and speak well of the
gospel, I need to let you know that the bible is not the obstacle to love and
healthy communities. We can’t let people say that their interpretation is the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We can’t believe that the
interpretation of a case-builder is the voice of God.
So I brought a helpful document with me that was created by a
justice minded group called Soul Force in 1998. I have actually met and worked
with some of the members of Soul Force, and they have justice and resistance
experiences that go back to the times of the equal rights demonstrations.
Let’s go over some of
these points together… (this link is the document we finally discussed)
I am Thankful for the invitation from the Lambda club, for
the fact that the group was actively engaged in the conversation, for the
support of Jamie Bradley who accompanied me, for the United Methodist Church of
Merced that calls me pastor, for bishops that lead by example, and for God who
empowers us and calls us to love one another.
Enjoy God,
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