Weekly thoughts on theology, church life and more from our Pastor, Molly Vetter. In a Week Where the UMC has Made Headlines by Molly Vetter

Weekly thoughts on theology, church life and more from our Pastor, Molly Vetter.

In a Week Where the UMC has Made Headlines by Molly Vetter

This is not what I’d hoped for. I have carried a heavy heart as the news has reported this week on a United Methodist Church trial that convicted a Pennsylvania pastor of disobeying church law when he officiated at the marriage of his gay son (six years ago). Other stories from across the country portray the depth of division in the church about our understanding of homosexuality and about marriage, too.

My heart is heavy for several reasons:

This is not the message of grace I want the church to proclaim to a broken world. In the wake of a typhoon’s devastation in the Philippines, in the midst of alarming rates of childhood poverty in our nation—and with so much other suffering and injustice—it is painful to me to see the church’s voice raised most publicly in judgment against gay marriage.

More, I grieve the pain and spiritual violence this continues to cause for gay and lesbian church members and their families—and for folks outside the church. No church court or General Conference can limit the love of God or God’s blessing on relationships of commitment. I long for the time when the church will stop making judgments based on sexuality and instead will help all of us love God more and live more faithfully. I am pained when we talk about homosexuality and gay marriage as “issues,” ignoring the real people—members of our families, church and community—who are involved.

The worldwide United Methodist Church has not settled our biblical or theological understanding of human sexuality—in many ways, we remain deeply divided. I suspect the same is true of our congregation. I treasure that we are a church that teaches people to think theologically, interpreting scripture with the help of tradition, reason and experience—and the space this opens for us to engage today’s issues with integrity and care.

There’s much more to be said about this, and I hope you’ll join me in conversation and prayer, as we seek to be a church faithful to God, and a community that embodies God’s grace for this world. We do that so well in our ministries as we feed the hungry in our community, as we teach our children, as we care for one another. May we continue this legacy, together.

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