"I confidently predict that we five women, whose election was thus disavowed, will have more enviable places in history than any who opposed us on those memorable days." -- Frances Willard, reflections on the General Conference of 1888
During the recent General Conference of the United Methodist Church, meeting the first two weeks of May in Cleveland, Ohio, the legislative body of the church once again voted not to allow gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons to participate fully in the life of the church. As the pastor of a Reconciling Congregation--a local church that welcomes and affirms the full inclusion of all people--I now must return to Austin to help a congregation pick up the pieces. While I understand that some will feel compelled to leave, my hope is that they will not. My hope is that our congregation of Trinity United Methodist Church can hold together by holding each other and that we will be creative in our efforts to effect change from within the system. By leaving, the conservatives in our denomination get exactly what many of them have been advocating. By staying, the burden remains on us to figure out a way to stay faithful to our values while being a witness of inclusion from within. However, by staying, the burden also rests on those who oppose us. They have to see us. They have to come to terms with a people of faith who refuse to become invisible despite all efforts of opposition. Below is a report on my week in Cleveland. I pray that it will provide a context for what happened from my perspective and a comprehensive picture of how important the Reconciling movement's witness was and continues to be in spite of the legislative actions.
General Conference 2000
Over 900 Reconciling United Methodists, including 126 parents of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons, came to work as volunteers and advocate for a United Methodist Church that welcomes all God's children. These included Trinity's own Nancy Beckett, Larry Greenawalt, and Meg Hoke. These supporters, including a number of bishops, came together for an inspiring rally on Saturday calling on the delegates to vote for legislation that would reverse the United Methodist Church's hurtful and exclusive position toward sexual minorities. Following the rally, we completely surrounded the convention center while delegates came back from lunch. That night the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) honored two great workers for inclusiveness in the UMC: Mark Bowman, former creator and executive director of the Reconciling Congregation Program, and Rev. Jim Lawson, retired United Methodist pastor, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, close friend of Martin Luther King, and MLK's chief trainer of freedom riders in the 1960's. By Tuesday morning when the legislative sessions began, we knew that the probability of reversing the pejorative language regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered United Methodists was slim, but we held out hope.
Although no legislation had been introduced on the floor of General Conference by Tuesday night, the percentages of support filtering up from the committees were now looking less hopeful for our cause than expected. It was apparent that the conservatives had been well organized at the local level over the last four years and had a strong presence among the delegates at General Conference. Regardless of this, we continued to call for the church to open its doors and make wide God's welcome table. By Tuesday night another 300 activists had descended upon Cleveland from Rev. Mel White's Soulforce--an ecumenical group of people dedicated to demonstrating acts of non-violence on behalf of lesbians and gays. All week long I went back and forth on whether to march with Soulforce on Wednesday morning. After hearing Mel White on Saturday, I had more doubt than confidence. I could not discern whether his purposes were in line with our goals in the Reconciling Congregation Program. However, by Tuesday night, others who had joined the fray convinced me--Arun Gandhi (the Mahatma's grandson), Yolanda King (MLK's daughter), Rev. Jim Lawson, and Bishop Joseph Sprague from the Northern Illinois Conference. I decided to walk and to be arrested, as the Spirit led.
The Arrest
On Wednesday morning at about 8:30 a.m., 191 of us were arrested for trespassing, for blocking an entrance to the Cleveland Convention Center. I chose to do this for two reasons: First, as an act of public repentance for the times that I have stood silent out of fear or convenience when gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons were oppressed; and Second, to stand in solidarity with my gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered brothers and sisters who have continually had access blocked to holy unions, ordination, and full participation in the United Methodist Church. We spent about 8 hours in jail before we pleaded guilty and paid a fine before a Cleveland judge. The defining moment came for me after standing for two hours in a 15x10 holding cell with about 30 other men. I thought for the umpteenth time what I had wrestled with all week--"What would Jesus do?"--but this time an overwhelming peace came upon me that said, "Jesus would be right here. He is here, in this cloud of witnesses." There, standing next to Arun Gandhi, Jim and Phil Lawson, Gil Caldwell, Bishop Sprague, Jimmy Creech, and Greg Dell, among others, I felt humbled to be a part of such prophetic voices.
Regardless of our witness, the voting went very badly Thursday morning. The first item of business--the umbrella legislation under which all other legislation regarding homosexuality would fall--was to uphold the Disciplinary phrase stating that "we believe that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." We had a glimmer of hope when a minority report suggested substituting the word "some" before "believe." The minority report was narrowly defeated, but not before hearing one of the most rousing speeches of the week. Dr. Traci West, an African-American heterosexual female delegate from New York, moved to the mike and pointed out the hypocrisy of using scripture to exclude gay and lesbian folks. She said:
"The Word of God says: 'Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She is to keep silent.' The Word of God says: 'Slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling in singleness of heart as you obey Christ.' The Word of God repeatedly says that women must be submissive. Every woman here, if they were to obey the TRUE teachings of the Word of God, would be silent. Every black person, every African here, if they were to obey the TRUE teachings of God about obeying our masters, would be on our knees to our white brothers and sisters and saying, 'Massa, I obey you as I obey Christ.' I say to you, this is our opportunity not to use the Bible one more time as a club to beat up our brothers and sisters. Admit we are divided on this issue, seize this opportunity to step into the grace of God, and embrace the love of Jesus Christ for all of us. Is there not enough hate, enough war in our countries, is there not enough prejudice, is there not enough use of the Bible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation? Let us not worry about the world and the newspapers, but worry about the outcasts. Worry about the one that Jesus calls us to worry about: the oppressed. I ask you, Church, seize this moment and oppose this main motion. Vote 'no.' "
In spite of Traci West and the efforts of other delegates, the majority report passed by almost 65%. At that moment, about 50 Reconciling United Methodists wearing stoles of closeted gay or lesbian clergy broke the law by walking on to the floor of the General Conference, a space reserved for delegates only. Only moments before, about 400 of us walked out on the balcony surrounding the convention center floor, also wearing stoles of closeted or defrocked clergy. I wore the stole of a closeted clergy from our own Southwest Texas Conference. I doubt if I will ever know the identity of that clergy person, but I pray that my presence there honored his or her struggle. At that moment, about 350 delegates and another 200 observers seated in the balcony stood in solidarity with those on the floor and those wearing stoles on the balcony floor. None of our delegates from Southwest Texas, not even those with progressive leanings, stood in solidarity with the other delegates standing on the floor. Observing this reality was the most painful personal moment for me at General Conference. I felt a profound aloneness among the colleagues in my region, but I also felt sad for those who wanted to stand but felt they could not. An image came to me from the movie "The Sixth Sense" as I looked at my silent friends. I thought to myself: "I see dead people and they don't even know that they're dead."
A Second Protest
After the presiding bishop, Dan Solomon from Arkansas, asked those on the floor to leave or risk being arrested, another powerful, unplanned thing occurred: 17 bishops arose from their seats behind the podium and walked to the front of the stage joining arms and began to sing "We Shall Overcome," led at the piano by retired African-American Bishop Leontine Kelly. While the delegates and the presiding bishop would have let them stay there the rest of the conference, without a moratorium to discontinue pejorative actions against sexual minorities over the next four years, it was obvious those on the floor would have to be arrested as a visible witness to the spiritual violence done to them by the legislation. At that moment I began to weep uncontrollably. Looking back now, I realize that my tears were for all of you who continue to be a part of the church, even though the church marginalizes you and tries to convince you that you are not the blessing God has made you as. I also cried because in spite of the church's efforts to make gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered United Methodists invisible, and silence their parents and straight allies, these silenced ones became on that day a most exquisite jewel in a tarnished setting. Those being arrested, the part of God's church that the visible United Methodist Church preferred to stay invisible, became the visible Church of Jesus Christ, while the official church became transparent in its fear and its bigotry. Eventually, 29 people on the conference floor were escorted out and arrested by the Cleveland police; four of these had also been arrested the previous day with Soulforce, including Bishop Sprague. Bishop Morrison from New York was also arrested.
Our Healing Begins
Following the arrest, those of us wearing stoles in the balcony and a number of delegates on the floor went back to a conference room at a near-by hotel where we prayed, cried, and worshipped. Bishop Kelly ended our worship by leading us in singing the great hymn, "It is Well with My Soul."
Friends, what the well-organized, but misguided conservatives in our denomination want more than anything is for us to roll over and go away. All I can say is that they don't know who they're dealing with. We are a people of resurrection. We are a gentle, angry people and we shall not be moved. In times like this when I'm tempted to bail myself from the church of my youth, I am reminded that even if we go, gay and lesbian children will still grow up in the United Methodist Church. Who will speak for them if loving and inclusive Christians are not around to welcome them? Hold on, dear friends, and together we will be the Church of Jesus Christ in spite of those who, in their fear and bigotry, mock Jesus in the name of Christ. Christ is not where his church is on this issue.
Leontine Kelly, United Methodism's first African-American female bishop, spoke to a disheartened Reconciling group and reminded us of her personal story. In 1939 when the three major branches of the Methodist Church came back together for the first time since before the Civil War, the southern church balked at unity if the church was going to be racially integrated. While the Methodist Episcopal Church (Northern), and Methodist Protestant Church (Northeastern) had long found integration a just and proper arrangement, they acquiesced to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South's (Southern) wishes by forming "separate but equal" conferences, known as "Central Conferences", in order to create unity. Bishop Kelly's father, a Methodist Episcopal Church preacher, chose to stay in the Methodist Church after that arrangement but was deeply wounded by the mostly white church's decision (a decision that wasn't remedied until 1968 when the Central Conferences were dissolved). Witnessing her father's pain, little Leontine asked him: "Daddy, why do you stay in the Methodist Church?" "Because," he said, "if we don't stay, the church can't be the church." After sharing this story, Bishop Kelly turned to her gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and said: "I say to you my brothers and sisters. The church is now composed of those who do not want you here and those who may, but will not stand up for you because they fear disunity, just like in 1939. But you must not leave, my gay and lesbian friends, for the church simply cannot be the church without you."
And so, we hold on and we hold each other.