Judicial Council unmoved by LGBT suffering

Decisions in the LGBT-related cases before the Judicial Council were announced last week, and the news was not good for those of us seeking to move UMC institutions towards justice. The Council, the highest ranking judicial body in the UMC, refused to reconsider its shocking 2005 ruling allowing pastors to bar gay people from membership in the church based solely on their sexual orientation. In a sobering and moving blog entry, RMN counsel Jennifer Soule wrote that the Council “demonstrated a kind of defiance of an awareness of what God really is....From my perspective, it is even more clear at this point that this institution is not a safe or welcoming place for LGBT people."

 Indeed, at a time when hate violence against LGBT people is rising and everyone -- except apparently UMC and some other religious leaders -- recognizes that religious homophobia feeds that violence, this decision does more than cement the UMC's most bigoted policy further in place; it signals to bullies and bashers that gay people deserve to be excluded and targeted.

On MIND’s Ministry to the Marginalized resolution, the Council simply refused to intervene, stating that had has no jurisdiction in parliamentary matters. This was a disappointing decision, insofar as it seems to give bishops the right to misuse and abuse parliamentary process to achieve substantive ends such as defeating our resolution, but it is not the last chapter in our struggle to get the message to LGBT people that NYAC opposes the UMC’s anti-gay prejudice. There is nothing prohibiting us from re-introducing the resolution at the 2011 annual conference, and since Bishop Park’s stated objection is easily addressed in a minor language change, we expect that it will not be unduly blocked this time around.

The Judicial Council also deferred action on the MFSA- and MIND-sponsored resolution calling for the freedom of clergy to marry at their discretion (based on the UMC’s Articles of Religion).

When the Judicial Council met Oct. 27-30 in New Orleans, oral arguments before the Council included presentations from four LGBT people (including two from MIND), the first time that out gay people have spoken directly to the members of the Council. Sitting in the audience behind them were dozens of supporters wearing rainbow stoles.