Methodist Vote Reminds Us of the Bigotry of "Conservative" Christianity

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Nowadays, I often believe that two books have created more misery and horrors throughout history than all others.  In first place is the Bible.  It's main challenger, the Koran.  Both have been utilized to justify the mistreatment and murder of others and the subjugation of women and the marginalization of minorities. Rather than supporting love towards others and unity, they engender hatred and division. The recent vote of the United Methodist Church general conference re-enforced this reality as the forces of hatred and bigotry prevailed. Fortunately, in the USA, Canada and much of Europe, the younger generations are walking away from organized religion and, with luck, Christianity - especially the "conservative" variety - will become a religion observed by a shrinking minority of the population and lose its ability to promote evil.  A piece in The Advocate reminds us that we must continue to oppose the hate and misogyny that conservative Christianity promotes.  Here are excerpts:

Movements of resistance have always recognized that our individual and collective power is a deeply spiritual reality. In the midst of fighting to overturn oppression, queer and trans people have known how to find joy and create pleasure and build connections that sustain even in times of crises and death. We have not lost sight of the holy in our flesh or the sacred in our stories. We have withstood incredible violence and fostered love in its midst. When so much power in marginalized communities is born from these spiritual capacities, it’s no wonder religion is so often co-opted by dominant forces and turned against us.

Ironically enough, in the United Methodist Church, we take vows to “resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.” For many LGBTQIA people, this has long and necessarily included holding the church accountable for its own forms of violence, including but certainly not limited to anti-LGBTQ practices and policies.

I have committed myself, along with others, to the work of unlearning, unteaching, and resisting the kinds of words and ideas about faith that destroy lives and communities. Over the last few decades, the movement to create positive change for LGBTQIA people in the church has grown considerably. Currently in the UMC, despite the prohibitions against our love and leadership, we have almost 300 openly LGBTQ clergy people and nearly 1,000 communities and congregations that have pledged their support and solidarity.

[M]any people were hoping, even expecting, that the United Methodist Church would follow the trend of other Protestant denominations and loosen restrictions against full inclusion of queer and trans people. But as much as we might love the idea that time is progress, the denomination’s global decision-making body met last month in St. Louis and reminded all of us that sometimes #ItGetsWorse.

At this special global gathering called specifically to find “a way forward” on the church’s conflict over its discriminatory policies, the body voted to pass the “Traditional Plan” in favor of tightening sanctions on LGBTQIA clergy and those who officiate or host same-sex weddings. Further, none of the theological teachings of the church were made less harmful, much less overturned, sending a deeply painful message to the queer and trans people hoping to hear the church turn toward love.

Last month, a long history of white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, and cisheterosexism was neither confronted nor transformed in the United Methodist Church. The climax to a 46-year “disagreement” on LGBTQ inclusion was the obvious unfolding of inadequately unaddressed legacies of power -- the same ones that undergird all of the major institutions in this country.

Queer and trans people within and outside of the church will feel the costs. Many will leave or be forced to leave their places of spiritual belonging. Others will still stay and continue to fight for their lives and the lives of those who came before and will come after. And even more who rightfully want nothing to do with any church will still be unjustly affected, knowingly and not.

The United Methodist Church and its renewed commitment to the exclusion of LGBTQIA people is both harrowing and unexceptional in its impact. Whether we are within or without, religious or not, it beckons all of us to simply remember the real work before us that belongs to all of us: confronting Christian and white supremacy, overturning misogyny, building possibilities of gender and sexual liberation.