October 28, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative United Methodist activist is predicting the outcome of some high-profile cases before the denomination's high court today.
The United Methodist Judicial Council will hold oral arguments today in Houston, Texas, for a case involving self-avowed lesbian minister Beth Stroud of Pennsylvania. Stroud, an assistant pastor at First United Methodist Church in Germantown, was defrocked last December for violating the denomination's ban on "self-avowed, practicing homosexual" clergy. However, in April a church appeals court reversed and set aside the verdict and penalty decided by the trial court. The case now is being heard before the UMC's high court, whose decision -- expected next week -- will be final.
Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy believes the church's high court is not likely to allow Stroud to return to the pulpit. He says he would be "very shocked" if the Judicial Council were to accept Stroud's argument. "There seems to be a clear majority on the Judicial Council who are willing to uphold the church's teaching on this issue," says the head of IRD's UM Action committee.
Another case before the Judicial Council involves Virginia Bishop Charlene Kammerer and her decision to suspend a conservative pastor for denying church membership to an unrepentant homosexual attending his church. Tooley says the outcome of that case remains unclear -- but he has his own thoughts on the matter.
"My hope is, and I would be relatively optimistic, that the Judicial Council -- without necessarily having anything directly to say about the topic of practicing homosexuals and church membership -- would say that local church pastors have some discretion in terms of whom they accept as church members," says Tooley.
The IRD reports that the UMC's governing General Conference has debated the issue of homosexuality every four years since 1972. The denomination affirms God's love for all people and describes sex as God's gift for marriage -- but officially prohibits ordination to practicing homosexuals, prohibits same-sex unions, prohibits funding to pro-homosexuality advocacy, and describes homosexual practice as "incompatible" with Christian teaching.
