After years of internal division, the United Methodist Church has reversed its 40 year ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. The issue had become so contentious in recent years that the United Methodist Church lost more than 7,000 congregations since 2019, with many departing over their stances toward LGBTQ people.
GBH's All Things Considered host Arun Rath spoke about this shift with Graham Kelder, who teaches religion, politics and law at Suffolk University, and who is a member of the Methodist Church himself.
Arun Rath: So as I mentioned, this has been a divisive issue within the church for quite a while. Can you talk us through a bit of the recent history and how it's been affecting the church overall?
Graham Kelder: The church formed from two different denominations in 1968. In 1972, that's when the language appeared saying that homosexuality was incompatible with Christian teaching. Then in 1984, the language was inserted saying that practicing homosexuals couldn't be ordained as clergy.
In 2019, a plan passed called “The Traditional Plan,” and that made the penalties for violating these rules stiffer and reinforced the policy. But the 2019 Special Conference, which was focused solely on issues of sexuality, also created a disaffiliation plan whereby congregations could leave the United Methodist Church over issues of conscience related to sexuality. So that's when congregations began leaving—once that took effect. That process accelerated in 2022 when conservatives formed the Global Methodist Church.
Rath: So put that in perspective for us. Over 7,000 congregations lost since 2019 — that sounds like a pretty massive shift.
Kelder: Yeah, it's about maybe 25% or so of the church's membership, so it is significant. The disagreements between the United Methodist Church and those who have disaffiliated run a little deeper and across issues like: How should you read the Bible? Should you read it with an historical critical eye or should you read it somewhat literally?
Those interpretive strategies basically gave rise to this conflict because I think most New Testament scholars and most biblical scholars think that the prohibitions in the Bible on homosexuality are, by and large, in the purity code and not in the morality code. The ancient Hebrews had the idea that you shouldn't mix things that didn't belong together. So you shouldn't wear garments made of mixed fabrics. You shouldn't touch the skin of a pig. And the taboo on homosexuality is first enunciated in the purity code.
Rath: So with this shift now, and we should point out that the shift is not just about LGBTQ clergy, but also about same sex unions?
Kelder: Yes, the shift removes the language saying that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. It lifts the prohibition on clergy performing same sex unions, and it lifts the prohibition on ordaining practicing homosexuals. Basically, these changes sweep away all of the longstanding prohibitions on homosexual behavior.
Rath: So do we expect that these 7000-plus congregations will now come back, or how do you think this will affect things going forward?
Kelder: I don't think that most of those congregations will come back because many of them disaffiliated purposely because they were tired of fighting about these issues. And they wanted to form a purely conservative Methodist church and so they formed the Global Methodist Church.
There may be a few congregations that disaffiliated on the progressive side and those congregations will probably come back. But basically, the General Conference this year also passed a resolution openly inviting any congregation that's disaffiliated to come back if they wish to.
Rath: On the other side, is there any indication or concern that congregations who might not like this change might now want to split away?
Kelder: Disaffiliation is officially over with, the policy that allowed for that to happen in a “no muss, no fuss” way. Some congregations may seek to leave the Methodist church, but that's going to be a much more complicated procedure because official disaffiliation ended at the end of 2023.
The whole issue is not really completely over with yet, because we passed a regionalization clause which allows churches to adapt the discipline to the region that they're in. One of those regions is Africa, where homosexuality is a deeply ingrained cultural taboo. So congregations in Africa are going to be able to adapt the discipline to their cultural setting. But many of the pastors in Africa were upset by what the General Conference did this year.
Rath: Is your sense in terms of the long view on this, that even if the congregations that split away don't come back, can the Methodist Church grow now, as a result of this?
Kelder: Yeah, I was involved in the litigation against the tobacco industry and in tobacco regulation as an attorney. And while we were engaged in that work, studies showed that when restaurants prohibited smoking, they actually got customers coming to that restaurant who didn't like tobacco smoke. So I think that people who were dismayed by the church's longstanding rules against homosexuals may now feel free to join the church.
Hopefully, the church can put that issue behind us and I think that would get some people to join. My older sister is gay, and I had to think a lot about joining the Methodist church, knowing that the prohibitions were there. But I felt hopeful enough about them being relaxed at some point that I was comfortable with joining.
Rath: Well, this is fascinating. Thank you so much for your expertise and insight.
Kelder: Thank you.
