Many United Methodists resonated with Rev. Andy Bryan’s sentiments when he posted the following.
Some have responded to the distinction between conformity and diversity in each denomination. Some have responded to his validating the values of another denomination. What is most provocative to me in what Bryan says is the last paragraph. Let me try to take his statement and turn it to a question:
“Why does the GMC need to bag on the UMC as they disaffiliate?”
Fist of all, is it true such action is being done by GMC leaders? I don’t want to spend time talking about the national voices such as Chris Ritter, Rob Renfroe, Jay Therrell, Walter Fenton, Keith Boyette, Carolyn Moore or either Watson (David or Kevin). You can read about the special interest groups helping the GMC such as Good News, Wesleyan Covenant Association, Institute for Religion and Democracy, UM Action, Confessing Movement, etc. I want to just highlight these past couple of months in my own Annual Conference. Here are just a few examples from my peers (2 men and 2 women), who feel a need to speak disparagingly of the UMC. The very denomination which prayed for them, affirmed their call, ordained them, and gave them a place of leadership. It is a lot of reading, but if you click on the image to help read.
And so, yes, even in an Annual Conference that is considered to be friendly to the GMC (here and here) is not immune to GMC leaders creating strawmen. But why?
It might be because the Bible tells them so. Or at least how it is being interpreted.
Deuteronomy 13 may not be in your daily devotional reading, but it is worth reading. While the whole chapter speaks to this matter, let us just look at these verses:
6 If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’, whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, 7any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, 8you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. 9But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and never again do any such wickedness.
In these verses we read the warning that if you think there is a false prophet in your ranks, even if it is a family member, you must remove that person from your ranks.
Much of the GMC leadership talk about how the UMC they once knew is now no longer. That the UMC is teaching or preaching things about God that these leaders feel “neither you nor your ancestors have known”. Many in the GMC might say, “I am not leaving the Methodist Church, but the Methodist Church left me.”
The fancy theology word for this is that the GMC feels the UMC has gone “apostate". The charge of an apostate means that the charged has abandoned certain fundamental principles. The apostate charge shows up all over the place in its more direct and indirect forms. One of the most direct examples is from a letter written by my former Bishop (here).
I reject the premise that the UMC is apostate.
The one making the apostate charge assumes the ground they stand on is the “true” ground. The GMC uses words like “Orthodoxy” and “Traditional” and “Historical” and “Faithful” to suggest their “true” ground. Simultaneously, GMC leaders use illustrations, rumors, fear and straw to suggest others are on “untrue” ground. While standing on “true” ground, GMC leaders see UMC lay leaders, preachers, bishops, and groups with suspicion. Rather than trying to understand the one one on the “untrue” ground or have compassion to walk with those who you feel are walking in darkness, GMC leaders accuse the UMC of being apostate. And, as the Bible says, one must “not yield to or heed any such persons”.
And why should you yield to an apostate? The apostate is a problem and a threat. So it makes sense to not yield or heed to any such persons. In fact, it would be immoral to yield or heed. So there is a need to destroy such a threat. The GMC needs to bag on the UMC because the GMC leaders feel the UMC is apostate and a direct threat. Treatment for apostates are clearly laid out in the Bible: “Show them not pity or compassion and do not shield them.” Destruction of the apostate is not taken lightly and leaders of the GMC know they cannot expect the average lay person to embark on this task, so the leaders are “shall be the first against them (to destroy or tear down), and afterwards the hand of all the people” will be able to join in.
To be very clear, NO ONE IN THE GMC IS CALLING FOR VIOLENCE AND DEATH OF ANYONE IN THE UMC OR VISE VERSA. Rather than a violent and bloody stoning of the apostate, todays leaders are engaged in virtual stone throwing, fear mongering, straw men making, finger pointing, gaslighting and blame shifting.
It is of note that the GMC does not bag on the Lutherans. Nor the Presbyterians. There is no dunking on Catholics or Pentecostals. Not a peep about non-denominations or Baptists. There is no need to talk about any other denomination - even those that there are fundamental differences with (such as the Reformed tradition). The GMC needs to bag only on the UMC because the GMC needs to affirm that the UMC is apostate to justify leaving. And this is why the bagging on the UMC will not stop - even after 2024. Every thing that the UMC will do is read through the eyes of the GMC leadership as a threat - even when it is not. Generous actions of the UMC toward the GMC (such as waiving the cost of unfunded pension liabilities that are required by the Discipline for disaffiliating churches) are dismissed. Any UMC leader fighting for unity (which Jesus says a lot more about than about sexuality) is given the apostate label of being an anti-Methodist. Any Bishop who is working to faithfully work for the unity of the church (as Christ commands in John and the BOD lays out as a role of the Bishop) is seen as oppressive as Pharaoh.
I understand that it has to be difficult to disaffiliate from the UMC and go to the GMC because, by in large at this time, we basically the same denomination. We each love Jesus. We each affirm the creeds. We each have our faults. We each are full of sinners. We each have bishops. We each have clergy. We each can have clergy that are celibate homosexuals. Of course there are differences, GMC clergy are hired and fired by the local church and GMC bishops do not serve for life. But these past several months has shown me a very fundamental difference between the GMC and the UMC - how the leaders deal with those found to be distasteful, problematic, or apostate.
Like Rev. Bryan, I too understand the need for people to follow the call of God into a new or different community of faith. I understand that the UMC is not the only church that God had in mind. I also understand the value of the GMC and what it can do as a body. I pray and wish it well. I trust that the GMC leaders will shepherd faithfully. As one who has been on the receiving end of the GMC’s treatment of the apostate, I pray that no member of the GMC will ever be considered as such.