Category: DOC Thoughts
Be it Resolved . . .
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will gather in Orlando this summer for what has become a nice family reunion that can at times, like all family gatherings, become a shouting match over religion and politics. Our congregational polity and powerless hierarchy ensures that relationships will always matter and that conversation around a table will always be the norm no matter where our expression of Christian witness exists. This way of being church has been under assault of late as “ecumenical” has turned more to theology and recognition of ministries and away from serving the world together. Our denomination continues to dilute what the vocation of ministry is and what the mission of the Church is as a means to blend into the changing Christian religious landscape of America and woo the consumer of spirituality and religion.
This summer the General Assembly will test the process of discernment, some call it “process of stalling”, on the issue of welcoming LGBT persons not only into membership of congregations, but also into the vocation of ordained ministry. Wendell Berry does a good job talking through the issues that hangup many believers in the post below and I encourage everyone to read it. Like all family systems there is a delicate balance to our relationships and some have already noted that they may need to leave the family because they cannot find it within themselves to “welcome as they had been welcomed” into the Christian Church (Discipels of Christ). This resolution doesn’t feel like a watershed moment nor a benchmark to me. It feels like another step in the journey. It feels like is adding seats to the table that has a place set for many even if that means we have to give up some personal space to do so. Those of us who are liberal/progressive have been doing this for a long, long time as orthodox, neo-orthodox, evangelical, and pentecostal believers have fled their previous denominational ties and welcomed, not only to the table and journey of discipleship, but asked to be leaders at the table and help point the way. Now it is time for these persons to be accountable to that “welcome” by welcoming LGBT persons and giving up some personal space for the good of the kindom and the witness of the good news of God. To do so would mean, it seems to me, that they have embraced a Disciple ethos that first embraced them.
I support this latest invitation from some of our congregations to be a “a people of grace and welcome, are encouraged similarly to declare their support for the welcome of and hospitality to all Christians, regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, ethnicity, marital status, or physical ability.” I find problems with a theology of ministry that claims on behalf of Disciples that we affirm “baptism as the primary call to ministry,” as much as I have issue with the phrase, “The Confession” on our denominational website. Baptism is an outward sign of an individuals inward decision to be a follower of Jesus. That is a call to participate in the ministry of the Church, but not a call to the vocation of ordained ministry. It is claiming the lifestyle and practice of Christianity, but not the lifestyle of ordained ministry. Some of us keep being asked to make more room on our side of the table, only, while the other sides of the table seem to be declaring the need for personal space and freedom. We all know, we know, that “separate but equal” or “first among equals” is not a good place for the Church to inhabit nor particularly faithful to the authentic life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
Here are a few paragraphs of the resolution before it has been altered by the General Board. My thanks to Dmergent for working with the congregations and posting the resolution to their site prior to the General Board’s work with it. Click here to read the entire resolution.
Proclaiming the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) a People of Welcome and Grace to All
WHEREAS, we, the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) understand ourselves to be a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world, called to welcome others even as we have been welcomed by God [1] and to practice hospitality to one another,[2] as well as to strangers;[3]
WHEREAS, Holy Scripture affirms that all people have worth and are created in the image of God and share with all others in the worth that comes from being unique individuals,[4] which has been reiterated at past General Assemblies (2001, 2005, 2011);
WHEREAS, we affirm that as Christians we are many members, but are one body in Christ–members of one another, and that we all have different gifts.[5] With Jesus we affirm that we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves,[6] and that we are called to the ministry of reconciliation and wholeness within the world and within the church itself;
the latest “Sightings”
Here are a few thought from Martin Marty about the speed of change in our society and how the Church responds to one aspect of change: marriage equality.
Gay Marriage Tidewater
— Martin E. MartyDavid Cole captures readers’ attention with the observation that “the gay rights movement has achieved more swiftly than any other individual rights movement in history, not merely the impossible but the unthinkable.” A few years ago, writes Cole, “those who fought for the right to marry. . . the partner of one’s choosing, regardless of gender—were called crazy and worse, by many.” As things have turned out and are turning out they “have proven not foolish romantics, but visionaries.” While the move toward acknowledging the rights of gays has elicited enormous backlash—that needs no chronicling here—Cole can quote Ellen Goodman: “In the glacial scheme of social change, attitudes –about gay marriage] are evolving at whitewater speed.”
Cole pictures that Supreme Court decisions could rule in ways which would slow that speed, but “it seems certain that in the not too distant future, we will look back on today’s opposition” on this subject, “the way we now view opposition to interracial marriage—as a blatant violation of basic constitutional commitments to equality and human dignity.” If so, how do religious institutions and leaders regard these options? Many are seen as being among the stronger forces and voices on the “anti-“ side, but others are often public supporters on the “pro-“ side.
Weekly I find on my desk piles of print-outs on this “public religion” debate, but rarely make use of them in Sightings. For once, before the tidewater sweeps all these evidences aside, let me summarize what I read and hear on many fronts among the “antis.” Advice given them: 1) Pretend this change is not occurring and ignore it; 2) since that doesn’t work, mount fierce opposition in state and church; 3) since that works less well each year, work out strategies for living in the face of changes one cannot welcome; that approach works at least temporarily for some, but the these resisting forces are themselves conflicted and convincing only to the convinced; 4) point to downsides in ecumenical relations with “poor world” churches where the tidewater does not yet rush; 5) reappraise your arguments, converse with the “other”, and make your case.
They will hear other counsel, such as: 1) It’s all over. The culture has changed. Among those of college age, and millions of others, most don’t even know what the dammers of the tidewater are talking about. 2) Notice that partners in gay couples in thousands of Christian gatherings, including in their pulpits, are often observed, even by the uneasy, as being among the most dedicated members. Exclude them now?
Where the pro- and anti- folk converse, one overhears: “Does not the gay marriage movement violate Scripture, the presumed norm in most churches?” Advocates of gay marriage come back: they recognize that a couple of verses in each biblical Testament rule out homosexual acts as sin. However advocates deal with that, expect to hear something like: “Why select this issue?” They will go on: “In our parish, perhaps in the pulpit or in our family are—against more explicit biblical witness—divorced-and-remarried-to-divorced persons who are honorable and honored members. Why are they not disciplined or criticized?” Fall-back position: “But gay marriage is against Natural Law, so it’s simply wrong.” That works for many Catholics and some Protestants, but most in church and world are wary of citing Natural Law: “its teachings, when invoked, tend to match what people have already decided, on other grounds, is right or wrong.
The tides rush on.
References
David Cole, “Getting Nearer and Nearer,” New York Review of Books, January 10, 2013.
Michael J. Klarman, From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage (Oxford University Press, 2012).