Twenty-three
years ago, we had just employed a new Minister of Music at our Church. He was a
lifelong United Methodist. He was baptized in his home church, grew up in
Sunday School, was confirmed, joined the Church, and was active in the youth
program. He knew church music, was grounded in solid theology, and was a master
musician. He was a graduate of one of our United Methodist colleges and had master’s
and doctoral degrees from outstanding schools of music. He was active and well
respected in our community.
After
we added him to our staff, one of our members came to me and asked, “Did you
know he is gay?” “We did not ask him that question,” I responded. ”It was not a
part of our consideration of candidates.” Our conversation proceeded cordially,
partially because we already had gay persons represented in our Christian education
area, administrative board, and team of ushers.
Getting
to this place in my thinking represented a rather long journey. It began in
high school when my awareness of persons who were not “straight” or “regular”
centered around Sam, who was spoken of only in derisive terms and at whom some
students threw rocks. I had never heard of a girl who might not be “straight.”
The terms lesbian and gay were unknown to me.
In college my knowledge began to broaden. Ray and
Brad (not their real names) were both pre-ministerial students and well liked.
I had personal appreciation for their sincerity, commitment, and geniality.
Both were pre-enrolled in Divinity Schools, and both were gay. Ray dropped his
ministerial pursuits because some people convinced him that the church’s doors
were not open to gay clergy. I don’t know how he dealt with the pain of the
church closing the doors on his call to ordained ministry. I believe the church
lost the ministerial services of a promising young man. Brad kept his sexual
orientation quiet, finished divinity school, and served successfully in his
annual conference until his death. Living a secret life for so long must have
been terrible for him.
Getting
to know and appreciate persons of sexual orientation different from mine led to
serious rethinking of my attitudes and beliefs. Actually, I came to realize
that I did not have any beliefs about the issue, only attitudes mainly shaped
by culture. Few people grew up more immersed in Sunday school, church, United
Methodist Youth Fellowship and Student Movement than did I. I held leadership
roles in all. I remember no teachings on homosexuality. Hence, I have problems
with the phrase in our Social Creed that says we find the practice of
homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.” In my experience there
was no teaching on the matter. There were, however, a lot of attitudes.
I
had to turn to the Bible, where I made several discoveries. The first place I
looked was the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament. Jesus says nothing
about the issue. While that was not enough for me to conclude that Jesus
condoned same-sex relationships, it was significant to me that he did not
address it.
Paul
did have some words to say about same-sex relationships. However, it seems to
me that they were set either in the context of Paul’s condemnation of idolatry
or were mentioned in the tone of profligate sex. He had nothing to say about
two persons of the same sex living together in a covenant relationship. So Paul
was of no real help to me in my search, nor was the rest of the New Testament.
I
went to the Old Testament. There is not time or space to say much about
passages that are found in Leviticus, Genesis, and Deuteronomy. They were not
helpful either. They were too tied to either the culture of the day, idolatry,
or other laws to which we are not about to adhere, such as killing any
adulterer and killing any child who curses his parents. There was nothing
relating to a covenant relationship.
Adam
Hamilton, in his book Making Sense of the
Bible, suggests that Scriptures fall into three categories:
1)
“.
. . [T]he vast majority reflect the timeless love of God for human beings,
i.e., ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself’.”
2)
Some
passages “reflect God’s will in a particular time but not for all time,” i.e.,
much of the ritual law of the Old Testament.
3)
Some
“. . . reflect the culture and historical circumstances in which they were
written, but never reflected God’s timeless will,” i.e., verses related to
slavery.
Biblical
study, theological discussions with others, and personal friendships with
persons who are gay, lesbian, and straight have guided me on my journey to
acceptance of all into the full fellowship of those who follow Christ. We are
an inclusive, not exclusive, fellowship.
