By Rev. Gilbert Caldwell
It is more than coincidence that my article “The Meaning of 12 Years a Slave” appears on the MIND website at the time headlines declare “Methodist Bishop [Bishop Martin McLee] to End Trials for Ministers Who Perform Gay Weddings.”
What do I mean? Already we are reading responses that state that this action “was in violation of the Book of Discipline” and “…the clear reading of Scripture.” It is the comment about Scripture that informs these words.
Our son Dale Gilbert Caldwell (named for Bishop C. Dale White) has written a brief history of the Caldwell family. He writes this: “My great great (paternal) grandmother was a slave on the Caldwell Plantation. Her child (my great grandfather) John Edward Caldwell was born on the Frank Caldwell Plantation on April 15, 1863. Tradition during slavery was that the baby took the name of the plantation owner. My family surname became Caldwell because John Edward Caldwell was given the surname of the owner of the plantation where he was born, rather than his father’s surname, Revels.”
Many Methodists, clergy and laypersons, felt that a “clear reading of Scripture” sanctioned and justified their enslavement of my ancestors. Their interpretation of “Noah’s Curse” (Genesis 9:20-27), and “Slaves be obedient to your masters” (Colossians 3:22, First Peter 2: 18, and Ephesians 6: 5 – 9) served to sanction slavery. And it was disagreement about the interpretation of these and others scriptures that caused the schism that birthed the Methodist Church South in 1844.
Fred Craddock in his book Preaching reminds us that even though the biblical canon is closed, God is not (that’s a paraphrase). Bishops Martin McLee and Cliff Ives, and others as well as Methodists in New Directions (MIND) have through their actions this week underscored this truth. Past generations of Methodists have come to understand that their “clear reading of Scripture” was not so clear after all; indeed, that it was wrong. The people called Methodists came to understand that slavery, segregation, and also the subordination of women, were not justified by Scripture and were not the will of God. In committing to a cessation of trials for clergy ministering to LGBTQ people and “instead offer[ing] a process of theological, spiritual and ecclesiastical conversation,” Bishop McLee on Monday has helped make possible a similar transformation in Methodist understandings of the “clear reading of Scripture” as it relates to LGBTQ people.
James Russell Lowell reminded us that “New occasions teach new duties. Time makes ancient (good and bad) uncouth.” I, as a descendant of slaves during my 80 years, have with my African American colleagues wrestled with why at one time many Methodists and others used their “clear reading of Scripture” to enslave our ancestors, and racially segregate us.
May March 10, 2014 be long remembered as the day when leaders of and in the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, through their actions, pushed the UMC to abandon “the limitations of interpreting Scripture literally” if we are to be faithful to the magnificent breadth and depth of God’s Word. I am sure LGBTQ persons, same-sex couples, those of us who are their
allies and United Methodist clergy are pleased. But also those of us who are Black are pleased that the use of Scripture to enslave our ancestors and racially segregate us has been exposed for what it is: “incompatible with [authentic] Christian teaching.”
Gilbert Caldwell is a retired United Methodist minister, a veteran of the Black Civil Rights Movement, a founding member of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, an outspoken advocate for the civil rights of LGBT people and a founding partner of Truth in Progress.