It's Time for the Church to Take Responsibility

Yesterday, the Tyra Banks Show re-aired the segment on gay teen exorcisms. The timing for this re-run seems very appropriate given the recent media attention to the high rate of queer-related suicides and violence that affect our young people every day.

In the segment, I share my own personal experiences of wrestling through a spiritual deliverance ministry and overcoming the religious condemnation that misinformed me to believe that I was unworthy of God's full love and grace.

I find the show's reappearance appropriate in this time because with the media spotlight illuminating the violence against queer young people, it is time for the Christian church to take responsibility. Anti-gay religious rhetoric spills out of the pulpit regularly. Pastors tell young queer people that they are inherently disordered and sinful and that they need to change in order to please God. For many, they accept that change is never possible, yet they are dissatisfied with that reality, and cut their lives short. Churches have sat idly by, silent, in this present time as we lament the loss of many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—all of whom are loved by God, without reservations.

Telling Our Stories Video

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post that highlighted the importance of storytelling as a form of social protest. The video that follows really demonstrates the point I was trying to make when I say that is important to use our personal experiences as a springboard for critical engagement and social protest.

I tend to enjoy Annual Conference season in the United Methodist Church. It gives us the opportunity to remind ourselves and others of God's never-ending, reconciling love in the Church. The following video was shown at the UMC 2010 California-Pacific Annual Conference this past weekend. The video highlights LGBT United Methodists sharing their stories of how churches have hurt them in the past and how they pray for a reconciled and all-inclusive United Methodist Church. (Video is after the jump.)

Meeting With United Methodist Bishops

Bishop Weaver, Bishop Arichea, Bishop Dyck, Bishop Carcaño, Bishop Lowery, along with several representative from the Reconciling Ministries Network, and representatives from the Methodist Federation for Social Action and Affirmation, met with a facilitator from Just Peace on  Monday, March 9th at an airport hotel in Chicago to follow up on the conversations begun in Ft. Worth at General Conference after the Reconciling witness on the plenary floor. Bishops Machado and Pennel were unable to attend.

My expectations going into the meeting were to have open, honest, and authentic conversations with active listening.  For everyone to hear one another authentically, in the spirit of all being one in Christ.

We began with lunch in small groups as a way to introduce ourselves to one another and to engage in small group conversations.

Our meeting time with the bishops was for two hours, although two hours was definitely not an adequate amount of time for discussion.

The meeting opened with introductions from Troy Plummer and Bishop Dyck about how we got to this meeting; referencing back to General Conference 2008.

We then went around the room twice for each person to share what their hopes were for the meeting and even in the bigger picture.  I expressed, along with several others, the importance of including young people in this conversation.  Young people are at a different place on issues relating to sexuality.  Furthermore, young people need a church to call home and if the church is constantly condemning people, what home does that leave them?  I also shared that I joined the United Methodist Church because I was hurt by my own church many, many times; I don't want to see myself get hurt again, nor do I want to see other people being hurt by the church.

After a summation of common threads, we broke off into small groups to discuss methods and ways of going forward.  Then we reconvened in our large group to share our ideas and to gather around common themes.  There was a lot of consensus around committing to/having public conversation grounded in our Methodist way of relating to each other and beliefs.

The last part of the meeting was rather awkward and confusing as we attempted to figure out if we were done or if we would all meet again.  There was also confusion on what "public conversation" looked like and how that would be achieved.  There was also confusion and differences among the bishops in terms of their own personal visions, goals, and expectations.

After closing the meeting, the Reconciling advocates gathered to debrief about the meeting.  There was clear dissatisfaction with some of the aspects of the meeting.  I expressed my own confusion and frustration over the differences in ideas over what "public conversation" meant and whether we would meet again with the bishops.

During the awkward closing of the meeting, there was some discussion over the possibility of "widening the table" to include representatives from Good News and Confessing Movement.  For myself and several others, we were very uncomfortable with that idea.  As one person said during our debriefing, if we were having a conversation about how to achieve racial reconciliation, we wouldn't invite the Ku Klux Klan or a white supremacy group to show us how.  That was definitely my own sentiment towards that idea of inviting opposing groups into this discussion about how we are going to bring the church to a point of reconciliation over gender and sexual diversity.

The agenda is definitely left unfinished!  Both sides were encouraged to map out our ideas of how we can implement open and public conversation.  In the end, I felt the the meeting ended unclear and incomplete.  I know we will be working hard to make sure this meeting happens again and to make sure we are moving forward and not just taking one step forward just to stay there or to take steps back.