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TAMPA, FL: Methodists Keep Stricture on Homosexuality
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/us/methodists-wont-change-outlook-on-homosexuality.html?_r=1
May 3, 2012
The United Methodist Church at its convention in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday voted against changing long-contested language in its book of laws and doctrines that calls homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."
The vote was 61 percent to 39 percent against the change to the church's Book of Discipline. The delegates also defeated by a similar margin a compromise proposed by gay rights advocates, which said that Methodists could acknowledge their differences on homosexuality while still living together as a church.
In other historically mainline Protestant denominations in the United States, liberals have prevailed so far in the battles over homosexuality. The Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have all voted in recent years to end their outright prohibitions on openly gay clergy members. But in the United Methodist Church, theological conservatives have held sway in the 40 years that the church has been debating the issue.
An influx of non-American members has even bolstered the conservatives. The United Methodist Church is the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the United States, but its American membership has declined to about 7.8 million in recent years. Meanwhile, its membership abroad has grown to about 4.4 million, mostly in Africa and the Philippines, where homosexuality is not accepted.
This year about 40 percent of the nearly 1,000 delegates to the Methodist general conference are from outside the United States - an increase of more than 10 percent from the last conference, in 2008.
The debate on the floor of the convention showcased the church's passionate divide and demographic shifts. Several Americans begged delegates to "hear the pain" of gay church members. Moments later, a delegate from Africa said in Swahili that saying that a homosexual person was created by God was like saying "that God created me to live with animals." The translator apologized while rendering the remarks into English.
The Rev. Troy Plummer, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which advocates full inclusion of gay people, said in an interview: "I'm tired of being compared to beasts in our church. Even if our world understandings differ, it's just horrendous. That our perspectives differ is the truth, and we just voted 61 to 39 percent that we can't tell that truth."
The votes set off a protest inside the convention. Gay rights supporters gathered around a communion table at the center of the hall, singing. The moderator canceled the remainder of the morning session, making it uncertain whether several other resolutions on homosexuality would come to the floor before the conference ends on Friday.
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