Homosexuality and the United Methodist Church: Part 2

Following the 1972 General Conference at which the issue of homosexuality was first raised, groups of people on all sides of the debate began organizing. In 1975, Wheadon United Methodist Church in Evanston, Illinois hosted the first gathering of the United Methodist Gay Caucus, a group that would later become the organization known today as Affirmation. Making connections with other groups across the nation seeking to repeal the incompatibility clause, they initiated plans for a witness event at the coming 1976 General Conference.

At the same time, Rev. Harvey Chinn published a series of articles in the United Methodist Reporter that portrayed homosexuality as a mental illness and argued for maintaining the incompatibility clause. Leading up to the 1976 General Conference, Chinn, along with other prominent leaders in the conservative movement began to talk of possible schism, citing differences over the issue of homosexuality as the leading cause.

It is interesting to note that despite the General Conference’s legislation of 1972 that declared the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching, activity within the denomination made it clear that the debate was far from over. In fact, the deep concern on the part of conservatives to enforce and strengthen the 1972 statement, suggests that the general tone of the denomination leaned toward removing the incompatibility clause.

At the 1976 General Conference in Oregon the debate began to heat up fueled by the flurry of anti-gay rhetoric in select denominational publications. Both a motion to include an explicit welcome of all people regardless of sexual orientations and a motion to initiate a Church wide study on human sexuality were defeated. While advocates for full inclusion understood these petitions as a small step toward the denomination’s “willingness to continue in dialogue,” opponents argued that a welcome of all people would lead the Church down a slippery slope toward ruin.

Albert Outler, renowned Wesleyan scholar and theologian, argued against an explicit welcome for “all persons regardless of sexual orientation into the fellowship and membership of the United Methodist Church,” accusing gay and lesbian people of promiscuity. Reminding the body that the Church “stipulate[s] against homosexual marriage,” Outler went on to state that a welcome of GLBT persons would create an “irreversible disaster in the United Methodist Church” of “antinomian” support for “moral decadence.”[1]

While efforts to strengthen the language around homosexuality from “we do not condone” to “we condemn” failed to pass, the language around same-sex marriage was changed from not “recommending” same-sex marriage, to “not recognizing” same-sex marriage. In addition, the first of several restrictions on full participation of GLBT persons was introduced, instructing the Council on Finance and Administration to “ensure that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any “gay” caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality” (¶906.13). This was one of three reports focusing on church funding. The first ordered "that no agency shall give United Methodist funds to any 'gay' organization or use any such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality." The second mandated "the use of resources and funds by boards and agencies only in support of programs consistent with the Social Principles of the Church” and the third prohibited "funds for projects favoring homosexual practices."[2]

Despite the hostility toward gay and lesbian persons exhibited through much of the rhetoric from the floor, the denomination was not concerned about restricting the rights and privileges of faithful gay and lesbian persons in the Church. At this point in the history of the Church, the ordination of gay and lesbian persons was recognized and affirmed by the denomination. Efforts to oppose gay and lesbian clergy failed at both the Judicial Council and General Conference.

In 1979 the Judicial Council ruled in decision #462 that nothing in the Discipline of the Church allowed conferences to bar persons from ordained ministry simply because they were homosexual as long as they were in good standing with the conference. The following year at the 1980 General Conference, the Church affirmed the right of annual conferences to determine the fitness of individuals for ministry and openly rejected prohibitions of gay and lesbian persons for ordination, instead stating that "the United Methodist Church has moved away from prohibitions of specific acts, for such prohibitions can be endless. We affirm our trust in the covenant community and the process by which we ordain ministers."

It was not until 1984, after the founding of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, a conservative think tank that works in mainline denominations to promote a right wing political agenda, that the Church instituted a restriction on the ordination of gay and lesbian persons.

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[1] Floyd, p. 9.

[2] Soulforce, “History of Policies on Homosexuality in the United Methodist Church,” http://www.soulforce.org/article/69