Methodist clergy blast gay exclusion

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 6, 2005 at midnight

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More than 100 clergy members from the Rocky Mountain region of the United Methodist Church have signed a statement protesting a national church ruling that effectively bars a gay man from membership.

"We proclaim our vigorous disagreement with this act of injustice by the highest judicial body of our denomination," said the statement. It was signed by 124 clergy members, including Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., who heads the region, and the Rev. Phil Wogaman, acting president of Iliff School of Theology.

The Rocky Mountain Conference, which the regional body is called, includes Colorado, Wyoming and Utah and has about 300 clergy members in 263 churches.

While not an official statement of the conference, the list of clergy members and a $100 fee per signer was coordinated through the church's regional office. The money paid for ads that were scheduled to appear today in the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post.

The action mirrors a groundswell of anger among many United Methodist leaders over a decision by the church's judicial council. This fall, it upheld a Virginia pastor's right to refuse membership to a practicing homosexual. United Methodist social teaching says homosexuality is contrary to Scripture, although it also asserts that gay persons are welcome in the church.

Brown, the Denver-based bishop, said the judicial council ruling flew in the face of "a basic theological principle that all of us are sinners. No one has a right to prevent someone from availing themselves of the grace of the church."

Wogaman, who is the former president of the American Theological Society and the former Washington, D.C.-based pastor of President Clinton, said the decision has been roundly criticized.

"Even in the Bible Belt, the reaction is generally negative," said Wogaman. "I have heard of only a handful of people who are supporting the judicial council decision. Even those who consider homosexuality a sin feel this has gone too far."

However, a conservative United Methodist group based in Washington, D.C., praised the judicial ruling for upholding traditional sexuality, and said protests by bishops and clergy send a confusing message.

"The debate will certainly continue for some years," Mark Tooley, of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, said in a statement. However, he predicted that the 11 million-member church, with an international membership that's generally conservative, means the future of the church "belongs to theological orthodoxy and historic Christianity."

Wogaman and Brown believe that the outrage is so widespread that it may cause the judicial council to revisit its decision when it meets again in April.

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