On Monday a group of United Methodists from New York and Connecticut will release a list of pastors who plan to perform weddings for homosexual couples despite the denomination’s ban on gay marriage.
The We do! Methodists Living Marriage Equality project consists of 161 clergy members, 703 lay people and six congregations representing 67 United Methodist congregations who will risk their standing and jobs with the church by announcing their support for equal rights for the LGBT community.
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One of the pastors involved is Rev. Jeff Wells of the Community United Methodist Church in Massapequa. For Wells, whose brother is gay, the issue is personal.
Growing up Wells remembers the struggles and taunting his brother endured. He went on to become the head of the gay pride committee in Milwaukee and a member on the International Stonewall Committee.
“I have always been very proud of my brother’s activism around this issue and have tried to do what I have been able to do, both before I became a pastor and since, to advocate for full equality in society for gays and lesbians and also for full inclusion in the life of the church,” Wells said.
The pastor first heard about the movement last spring, and signed on over the summer. While signing the pledge won’t get him in trouble, if he performs a gay wedding charges could be brought against him. These charges could lead to a trial and ultimately get Wells’ clergy orders taken away.
Despite this risk, Wells feels like this is something that needs to be done. “The time has come when we simply have to take a stand against the discriminatory policies of our denomination,” he said. “I see myself as taking an action for the church because I believe that changing this discriminatory tradition is actually going to revitalize it.”
Wells has been upfront about his stance with the members of his congregation, and has received mixed reactions.
“There are obviously people in my congregation who are at various places in the spectrum as far as their views on gay marriage, but the conversation has been very respectful,” he said. “Many people support what I’m doing and would like to see our particular local congregation become a reconciling congregation, which is fully welcome to gays and lesbians.”
The General Conference of the United Methodist Church, where the rules that govern the denomination are set, will meet in April 2012. Wells said that the bishops are aware that the movement has been going on, but will not know who is involved until the list is published.
“Fundamentally, what it really comes down to is providing love and care for all people, which I think is exactly what we’re called to as ministers.”
I believe that resisting against God, create an emptiness in human nature that can be filled by evil, our ego or by God. As a result of falling from the grace of God, human beings are condemned with an infinite desire that can only be filled by God. John Wesley, the Father and founder of the Methodist Church said it this way “If a Man doesn’t want to worship God, he is abandoned to himself in a way that he neglects his own humanity.” John Wesley’s Theology Today (New York: Abingdon Press, 1960. Pag. 521). This is the same emphasis Paul shared with the Romans, about signals of the separation from God in some people. “Even their woman exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were in flamed with passion for one another. Men committed
indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the doe penalty for their perversion. Romans 1:26-27.
If these pastors who are marrying homosexuals were honest (and they are not), they would climb on the roof, flip the cross upside down, then paint “Church of Satan” over the door. Then their actions would be consistent with their doctrine. It is pointless to show them the Scriptures condemning homosexuality, because they literally don’t care.
When the General Conference of the United Methodist Church meets in 2012 they should defrock these pastors. That’s what the Bible instructs you do to … have nothing to do with people calling themselves “Christian” who are living in unrepentant open sin and rebellion. That’s the message of 1-Corinthians chapter 5.
Good for them. The most conservative of the mainline protestant denominations is coming to accept gays as just another part of Gods wondrous creation.
the battle is all but won. Unfortunately the USA is becoming one of the last westernized nations to recongize gay families, both legally and under church rules.
Just as we were the second to last to end slaver (brazil was the last).
Just as we were the second to last of the nato nations to allow open service. Islamic turkey still does not allow open service by gay members.
Maybe we’ve been sold a bill of goods about how great America is and has been. About the only thing we didnt do is colonize a lot of other countries.
instead we let the big corporations run a serfdom scene in eg Phillipines, Cuba , Central america etc etc.
I am a United Methodist and I support wholeheartedly what you’re doing with We do! It’s a wonderful initiative,and a truly loving thing to do. I applaud your courage and conviction. I share your compassion and sense of justice and equality. God created us all, and we are all entitled to the freedom to love without constraints!