wfn.org | New books offer different views on church and homosexuality

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April 5, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-28-71B{183}

By Tim Tanton*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Publishing House has released
the first two books of a three-part "conversation" regarding homosexuality.

Each of the books represents a different viewpoint on the issues surrounding
homosexuality and the church. Together, they reflect what is generally
labeled as the liberal, conservative and moderate perspectives.

Two of the books were published in February, and the third will be published
probably in the fall, said Robert Ratcliff, senior editor of professional
resources at Abingdon, the agency's book-publishing unit. The books are
"part of one conversation" on homosexuality, he said.

The Publishing House had planned to release all three together, with enough
advance time for them "to get into the mix of conversation" before the
denomination's General Conference, Ratcliff said. However, the third book
was delayed because of its complexity and the need for additional time to
work on it, he said.

General Conference, the United Methodist Church's lawmaking body, will meet
May 2-12 in Cleveland. The new books address what will probably be the most
debated topic at the assembly: the degree to which gays and lesbians should
be included in the life of the church. Every General Conference since 1972
has wrestled with matters related to homosexuality, and the issue remains as
divisive as ever.

The three books are:
·	The Loyal Opposition: Struggling with the Church on Homosexuality,
edited by the Rev. Tex Sample and the Rev. Amy DeLong. Sample is an author,
lecturer and professor emeritus of church and society at Saint Paul School
of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. DeLong is an ordained United Methodist
clergywoman serving in Wisconsin and will become an elder this year.
·	The Bible and Homosexual Practice by Robert Gagnon, assistant
professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He is a
member of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.
·	Where the Spirit Leads: The Evolving Views of United Methodists on
Homosexuality by the Rev. James Rutland Wood, emeritus professor of
sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington and a United Methodist
clergyman. 

"The Loyal Opposition book, as the title suggests, is written for folks who
disagree with their denomination's official stance on the issue of
homosexuality but who nonetheless wish to carry on that disagreement from a
standpoint of loyalty and ongoing engagement with the denomination,"
Ratcliff said.

"The Bible and Homosexual Practice project is a more academic piece written
by a New Testament scholar," Ratcliff said. The book is a detailed
examination of all of the Scriptural passages and Scriptural teachings
regarding homosexuality, and the author concludes that homosexual practice
is in direct contradiction to Scriptural teaching, he said.

Where the Spirit Leads "is built on research that Professor Wood did over
several years involving interviews with delegates to General Conference and
other surveys in which he lays out the different approaches to
homosexuality, and concludes that among all groups -- among those who
identify themselves as strongly opposed to homosexuality and those who
identify themselves as strongly in favor of it -- that there has been a
shift in attitude toward a more open and accepting attitude toward inclusion
of persons of homosexual orientation in the church."

The books represent ways of looking at the issue from different standpoints
and with different sorts of concerns, Ratcliff said. Gagnon's book is for
those who want to examine the Scriptural teachings in depth. Wood's book is
"very sociological in perspective," based on empirical research, and
specific to the beliefs of United Methodists. The book by Sample and DeLong
recounts the experiences and perspectives of people who are struggling not
just with the issue of homosexuality but also with where their beliefs place
them in the denomination.

"We want to represent not only divergent viewpoints but divergent sides of
the question," Ratcliff said. "This is not just one side of the coin and the
other side. This is a very complex issue. Our publishing decision regarding
these three projects reflects our intention to show some of the complexity
of the whole issue and some of the different kinds of questions that people
bring to it."

The books were chosen from a number of projects that had been submitted to
the Publishing House. "We didn't go out and commission any of these,"
Ratcliff said. "However, we did look at these and other possibilities and
decided that these were the three projects we were considering that would
best provide resources for the church's ongoing consideration (of) this
issue."

When The Bible and Homosexual Practice was delayed, the decision was made to
go ahead with the other two, Ratcliff said. 

"It was our intention to have all three of them out at the same time," he
said. "However, we were not prepared to rush Professor Gagnon to turn in a
manuscript that was not good enough." Gagnon worked hard and did a great
deal of research, the editor said. His book "is extremely large and very
complex."

"It would have been nice if the book could have been completed in time for
the 2000 General Conference," Gagnon said in an e-mail interview with United
Methodist News Service. "... Still, homosexuality is not likely to die down
as a volatile issue in the Methodist church in the foreseeable future, so
the market for the book should still be there when the conference is over."

The books are being promoted together, Ratcliff said. The first two will be
on sale at the Cokesbury display at General Conference, and order forms for
Gagnon's book will be available.

"We have published on this issue before, and when we have done so we have
published different viewpoints," Ratcliff said. "On at least one occasion,
we have published this kind of conversation in advance of General Conference
on the issue of homosexuality."

The Loyal Opposition grew out of a paper that DeLong had written for a
seminary class about the United Methodist position on homosexuality. Her
professor thought her piece should be published, and they eventually came up
with the idea of making it part of a collection of writings by United
Methodists who oppose the denomination's position on homosexuality. The
professor, a Roman Catholic, didn't stay involved beyond that point, but
DeLong contacted author Tex Sample, who became interested.

Together, Sample and DeLong recruited other contributors and developed a
focus for the book. They decided to address how United Methodists can remain
loyal to the church while opposing some of its positions, DeLong said. "Our
whole point is, as loyal people, as faithful Christians, how do we stand in
opposition to what the church is saying, and how do we work for change in
that?" 

As the focus sharpened, DeLong ended up writing a new essay for the book and
scratching her original paper from the lineup. In her piece, she expresses
anger and grief at how the church has "abandoned and scattered our gay and
lesbian brothers and sisters."

The full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the church "is at the
heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ," she wrote. "We are to be about the
business of mercy and love and justice; of breaking down, not building up,
the restrictive walls which divide us; of extending God's acceptance and
blessing to all people."

The 17-writer lineup also includes Sample; Bishop Leontine T.C. Kelly, who
wrote the foreword; Bishop Roy I. Sano of the Los Angeles Area; the Rev.
Gilbert Caldwell; the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman; and the Rev. Jeanne Audrey
Powers.

"Our goal really is to try and influence General Conference and to change
our (church's) position on homosexuality," DeLong said. "... We want people
to reconsider their position."

Like DeLong and Sample, Gagnon initially planned on editing a collection of
writings on the issue, and including an essay of his own on the Bible and
homosexuality. "However, the essay grew in stages over the course of two and
a half years from 40 pages to 400 pages," he said.

He hopes his book will have a long-term impact on the use of Scripture in
debates about homosexuality, not just within Methodism but in all mainline
Christian denominations, he said.

"The issues I discuss in this book are relevant to all the Christian
denominations. This is not a sectarian book but one which seeks to discuss
the issue as a Christian issue, not just a Methodist or Presbyterian or
Baptist or Episcopal issue," he said. Besides being a Presbyterian, he once
belonged to an American Baptist church and has taught at Pittsburgh-area
Methodist churches.

"It is probably not an exaggeration to claim that the issue of homosexuality
has been the most controversial, divisive, and time-consuming issue faced by
the mainline Christian denominations over the last 20 to 30 years," Gagnon
said. "The decisions reached by the denominations will have enormous
repercussions for the way in which sexuality will be handled in the church
for a long time to come. In my view, the amount of misinformation going
around about the Bible's reasons for rejecting homosexuality is massive."
  
Gagnon approached Abingdon in November 1998 with the manuscript, and
received official word the following April that it had been accepted, minus
some appendices. Revisions followed, and as parts of the book were
rewritten, the length increased. Cuts were required, Gagnon said. "All that
did not get done until early March 1," he said.

"The main points that I want to make are two," he said. "First, the biblical
stance against homosexual intercourse is absolute (encompassing all
homosexual intercourse), pervasive (it is a consensus position among
biblical authors), and strongly held (it is regarded as a particularly
egregious instance of sexual immorality)." 

Second, the interpretive arguments often used against giving weight to the
Bible's stance "are themselves misreadings of the biblical text," he said.
"This book provides the most comprehensive analysis and rebuttal yet
published of pro-homosexuality arguments put forward by biblical scholars
...  

"Christian love, I argue, dictates that Christians minister compassionately
to homosexuals while withholding approval of same-sex intercourse," he said.
"This includes denying ordination to practicing, self-affirming homosexuals
and not sanctioning same-sex unions."

Wood's book explores what could be called the moderate viewpoint. "What I've
tried to do is to reach out to as wide a spectrum as I can," said Wood, a
pastor, theologian and sociologist. He has enough friends among the church's
conservatives and liberals that he could have easily written a book that was
weighted more in one direction or the other, he said. He believes that
vantage point makes him a good person to "widen the middle."

Wood's diverse audience is reflected in the four endorsements on the back of
his book. One is by Bishop Joseph Yeakel, one of the 15 United Methodist
bishops who signed a statement in Denver in 1996 opposing the denomination's
strictures against full inclusion of homosexuals in the life of the church.
Yeakel stated that Wood has done "an excellent service" for the church with
his book. His analysis and perspectives "are a breath of fresh air," the
bishop wrote.

Another endorser, Bishop Robert Fannin, wrote that he supports the church's
position on homosexuality and disagrees with many of Wood's conclusions.
"Yet there is no question in my mind that this is 'must' reading for those
who love all persons and especially those who pray daily for the direction
and future of the church," wrote Fannin, of the Birmingham (Ala.) Area.

Wood hopes to bring readers to the point of saying that although they don't
agree on the issue, they are willing to believe people on the other side
genuinely believe in the Scriptures and look to them for guidance and power,
he said. All United Methodists accept the Bible's authority, and that's the
common ground that holds them together, he said.

"Many look at the crisis in the church as a crisis over biblical authority,"
he said. "What I'm trying to get people to understand is if we really look
at this through the eyes of John Wesley, we don't have to see this as a
crisis over biblical authority."

People at the extreme ends of the debate "don't really represent the broad
Methodist middle," he said. The church could still be strong and viable if
liberals on one end or conservatives on the other were to leave, he said.
However, he also notes that Methodism's distinctive character "is imperiled
by the loss of even a small minority of congregations at either end of the
spectrum."

"Diversity is at the heart of Methodism and of the Wesleyan understanding,"
he said.

Wood's research underscores the diversity of opinion in the denomination
over homosexuality. His data quantify those differences among jurisdictions,
General Conference delegates and so on.
"Some of the data that I have shows that Methodists are becoming more
liberal very rapidly on this issue of homosexuality," especially young
people, he said. 

"My grandchildren, your children, are going to accept homosexuality," he
said. "The only question is: is the church going to have any impact on how
they accept it?" Will young people pick up from the culture that "anything
goes" or will they pick up biblical morality from the church? he asked. "The
data are just quite clear where the society's going on it; the question is
will the church inform where the society's going?"

Wood doesn't take sides in the debate, but describes himself as an advocate
for unity in the denomination. He sees encouraging signs that the church
will work through its problems, claim its heritage and awaken to God's call.

"I see a church shaping history by leading contemporary people and societies
to a culturally aware, biblical faith," he wrote. "I see a church showing
the world the power of that faith."
# # #
*Tanton is news editor for United Methodist News Service, based in
Nashville, Tenn.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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