05/02/2004: "The heart of the Methodist matter"

The Rev. Scott N. Field, who has been coordinating evangelical groups at the United Methodist General Conference, put his finger on the problem facing the UMC in talking to the Washington Post:

The Rev. Scott N. Field, the conference coordinator for a coalition of conservative and evangelical Methodist groups, said the Judicial Council [below] rejected the jury's "novel interpretation" of church law.

But he said that "it does not end the debate because people of conscience who disagree with the church's current stand will continue acts of noncompliance, and therefore the real issue before the denomination is whether we can enforce the covenant within the clergy, and that will require additional legislation."

Not everyone, however, gets it:

The Rev. Troy Plummer, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which favors allowing openly gay clergy, said that "the issue is: Can we have different opinions and still be family?"

Plummer accused conservatives of using the example of the Episcopal Church as a "scare tactic" at the convention.

The issue is most definitely not, "can we have different opinion and still be family?" The issue is, what should we do? A married couple can have different opinions about how to spend the household income and have no problems living together. If one of them decides, without consulting his wife, that he's entitled to go out and spend the mortgage payment betting the ponies, then their marriage is going to be in trouble. It's one thing for people like Plummer to advocate changes in the Book of Discipline. Perfectly fine. It's another entirely for bishops and pastors to start ordaining gays and conducting same-sex union blessings when those are explicitly prohibited by the law of the church.

As for the use of the ECUSA as a cautionary example, that's hardly a stretch. Bishops in the UMC appoint pastors, and can if they choose ignore congregational objections to gay pastors. The truth is that if Plummer gets his ways, churches in the UMC will actually wind up worse off than Episcopal churches. Who'd have thought that was possible?

(Hat tip: Hampton)