Dear
Bishop Johnson,
Greetings
in the Name of Jesus Christ, who proclaims, “to
set the oppressed free!” (Luke 4:18)
Again,
thank you for your quick reply.
In
your response you say, “I deeply appreciate the pain and rejection
of LGBT people in the UMC as the Discipline is written right now. I also see a
whole generation of people who are more conservative and have sincere beliefs
that are grieved in the opposite direction… I am committed to dialog and making
a way in the wilderness but it will come slowly.” You hold these two groups up
as though they present two equally valid claims. I must insist that those who
are oppressed by discrimination are not equal to those who are holding,
teaching, and affirming oppression. If that is the case, I cannot believe that
you really “appreciate the pain and rejection of LGBT people.”
Are you aware that LGBT youth are 4-6 times more
likely to commit suicide because of factors like rejection by family, friends,
and our church? These same youth are 7 times more likely to be physically
attacked and injured with a weapon. Half of all LGBT youth report to have been
verbally abused for being who God created them to be, and a third miss at least
one day a month from school due to extreme bullying, contributing to a High
School drop out rate among LGBT youth nearly three times the national average.
These statistics are just the start of the deep and continued oppression of
LGBT people that the United Methodist Church affirms by our slow movement, silence,
and overwhelming inaction. Worse yet the UMC enshrines in her laws, passages
that proclaim these youth are “incompatible with Christian
teaching” and that God has no intention of calling these
youth to a place in our denomination, or the Kingdome of God, since; “self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as
candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United
Methodist Church.” (Paragraph 304.3) This is a much larger issue than a simple
disagreement among kindred folks on marriage equality; these practices,
beliefs, and teachings do actual harm to countless men, women and youth.
Maybe the “generation” we need to be concerned
about is not the one whose “conservative beliefs” have contributed to and
supported the oppression and rejection of LGBT people, the same conservative
views that upheld racial segregation and to this day close pulpits to women,
like you, called by God to proclaim Good News. Instead, maybe we need to look
to future generations of the church; generations that the UMC is hemorrhaging
daily due to legally codified discrimination and hypocrisy.
In his book, UnChristian:
What a New Generation Really Thinks abut Christianity… and Why it Matters,
David Kinnaman reports that, when asked what it means to be Christian, 91
percent of non-church going youth today, almost an entire generation of people
that we hope might still hear and respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ,
think the most common attribute among believers is that they are anti-gay. Worse
yet, more than 1 in 4 say that Christianity looks nothing like our Lord, Jesus.
You see, they (the “unchurched”) want to get Jesus, they just don’t get the
hate we teach in His name. I regrettably cannot help but agree and question how
did a movement founded on the example of Jesus, who welcomed and partied with
the poor, hurt, and oppressed, become a bureaucracy laden organization that
repels these very same people in the name of self preservation, especially self
preservation of a generation that puts legality above love?
Bishop Johnson, with respect, our bishops, elders,
deacons, licensed pastors and congregations who continue to proclaim they love,
welcome, and accept LGBT people, but then uphold the unjust, discriminatory,
and oppressive laws in our Book of Discipline are being hypocritical… a term
more than 80 percent of youth surveyed in Kinnaman’s book use to describe the believers
who make up the church. This double speak by our leaders and congregations does
real harm to individuals, and to the Gospel message we attempt to proclaim, a
direct violation of one of Wesley’s “three simple rules” or “General Rules” as
we call them in the Book of Disciple; “Do No Harm” (Paragraph 102).
Rather than patronizing and pacifying a generation
bound in the sin of discrimination and pure hate, leaders in our denomination
should use your prophetic voice to proclaim, and act out, that these “conservative
beliefs” are in error, that these beliefs, while long held, are simply wrong,
that these beliefs, strung together with bad exegesis of biblical texts, stand
against the Good News proclaimed by Christ and the Apostles. Leaders must say,
not only with words but also with actions, I will not uphold discrimination,
even if it costs me my job. It is quite literally a matter of life and death…
If you do not believe the urgency of this please take time to visit the Trevor
Project’s website and take a moment to click on and watch the YouTube link at
the bottom of this letter.
When I served at the United Methodist Publishing
House I received a call from one of my store managers saying that an Anglo-American
church had said they believed that their choir would be more comfortable if
African-American members of the staff did not come to the church to measure for
choir robes. The manger asked what to do and I told them to let the church know
we do not honor such discriminatory requests and if they had an issue with that
policy they should look for another company to provide their choir robes. The
church did not persist in their blatant prejudice, at least on this issue, and
shortly thereafter I joined one of my African-American staff members as we went
together and measured their robes. By allowing people to continue in their incorrect
beliefs, without bringing them in direct confrontation with truth, is as bad as
teaching those beliefs from our own mouths. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel reminds us, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the
oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the
tormented.” If we fail to speak and act, at the risk of our
very lives, careers, and fortunes, the blood of a generation that is falling
away from the Good News of Jesus Christ, due to our hypocrisy and our lack of
prophetic love, is on our hands.
So, since in your second response you again did not
respond to my questions, I will ask yet again; will you appoint ordained elders, deacons, or
licensed pastors who openly perform same-gender marriage in Maryland and
Delaware, where marriage equality is legal? I also ask, will you continue to
allow ordained or licensed clergy brought before you, for performing such
ceremonies, to face ecclesial trials for living out your own admonition of
“speaking up for [our] LGBT brothers and sisters” by laboring in “protecting
the rights of all people” by performing marriage legally and equally in the
Peninsula Delaware Annual Conference? Will you as Bishop continue to stand
behind, and for, unjust laws that promote hate and discrimination in our Book
of Discipline or will you live out other duties assigned to you in Paragraph
403.1a,b,c,d as an “appointed officer of the church”?
I,
and an entire generation being displaced by our church’s discrimination, await
your clear and direct reply to these questions.
Soli
Deo Gloria
Asa
David Coulson
October
23, 2013 – The Feast of Saint James the Just, martyr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t3vfQIJ-zk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUf3xmt7n05cVhYelluYao5w
