Many California congregations long have operated in open defiance of the church’s stance on homosexuality.
The Rev. Denyse Barnes, an openly lesbian United Methodist minister, hugs Angela Knapp, left, before a sermon at Hollywood United Methodist Church. When he was about 10, he realized he liked other boys. So Baudler, who grew up in a conservative church in Iowa, made himself a promise: If he made it to 20 and still felt the same way, he was going to kill himself.At 15, he was found to have a malignant brain tumor and was given days to live. He was relieved.
At a gathering last month in St. Louis, the General Conference, the church’s top policy-making body, voted to tighten its ban on gay clergy and same-sex marriage and to increase the punishment for violations. Protesters at the United Methodist Church's special session of the General Conference in St. Louis on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
The vote was supported by a vocal, well-funded alliance of conservative American churches and the denomination’s increasingly influential African bloc. Church membership is growing in Africa, where, in dozens of nations, homosexuality is a crime. African delegates made up 32% of the General Conference.The Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia told the conference that the church in Africa is “growing by leaps and bounds because we are committed to biblical Christianity.
“It’s not just the issue of human sexuality that divides the church,” Boyette said. “We’re divided on the authority and interpretation of Scripture … we’re divided on what constitutes sin.” In modern times, Burkholder said, the issue of LGBTQ rights has been uniquely discordant, especially along the rural and urban divide. Various factions of the church, both liberal and conservative, are weighing their options, but a denominational split would have enormous consequences — including questions over property rights, clergy pensions and the church’s constitution.“I think over the next 10 years we’re going to see some major realignment of Methodism in the U.S.,” Burkholder said.
As a seminary student in Southern California in the 1970s — when the church added its restrictive language about homosexuality to the Book of Discipline — Wulf agonized over being gay. It was something he couldn’t change, despite years of prayer.His partner, Tom, had AIDS. When his illness progressed, the couple moved to California so Tom could be with family. Wulf went back to work in the Methodist Church, where he was still closeted.
On a recent Sunday, a rainbow flag was draped over the altar. Cooper Ledesma told worshipers that “our denomination … is going to need to repent. It’s going to need to address our complicity, our overly indulgent patience with the structural homophobia … that has been codified in the Book of Discipline.”
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