I have rather intentionally avoided – at least recently – discussing issues of faith. I feel as if I have set aside my right to be a critic of the church. When I left it for personal reasons, I also left behind my role as loving critic. I have discussed faith. I have discussed moral issues while referring to the church. I have, of course, made comments about the so called “Christian right” and wondered aloud why there is not a vocal “Christian left.” I have remained largely silent on internal issues of the church; I have done so until today.
Ordination and Consent
I was the Washington Post and came across an article about a recent decision by the United Methodist Church to defrock an openly lesbian minister. I find this very disturbing. I am not an expert in Methodist polity; indeed the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – the denomination to which I belonged – embraces a more congregational polity than the UMC. I have to ask some basic questions about the nature of ordination and baptism, the nature of the public office of the word and sacrament, and the foreknowledge that the ordinators possessed when the Rev’d Ms. Irene Stroud took her vows.
The article that appeared in the November first edition of the Washington Post indicated that the UMC had instituted a policy of benign ignorance and passive ascent. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” may have been a valid interim paradigm for the military but it should never have become ecclesiastical policy. The central value of any expression of the church is kerygmatic: we proclaim the truth that brings the promise of freedom. Intrinsic to a policy of obfuscation is a lie; behind every lie is an attempt to conceal the truth, behind that is the undoing of any organization dedicated of a liberating truth. More than the issue of revelation is the question of what was known when hands were laid upon Ms. Stroud’s head and the office of the keys was commended to her care.
The problem is that no one is without sin. There are no pure pastors, priests, rabbis or imams. Thus, it is not a question of purity but of grace, that drives ordination. The pastor is a sacrament to the community. He or she is a means of grace. Like bread and wine, or water, this person becomes the means through which a community will learn to experience the reality of a loving and forgiving God. This is the ideal Christian understanding of the pastoral ministry. No one is sinless at ordination. All are sinners. And what is more, despite the sin, the community sets this person aside – with full knowledge of human shortcomings – knowing that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It is the great paradox of the cross, the Christian church asserts, that it is in this weakness that the power and glory of God is revealed.
Did they know that Ms. Stroud was lesbian? Apparently so. Did they ask her to be party to a sin of omission? Again, apparently so. Did they require her to commit to a celibate lifestyle or to live in a monogamous and covenantal relationship? The article does not ask or answer that query. Was she ordained and with her vows of fidelity to the teaching of the church was there an implicit agreement that she would neither tell nor imply her sexual preference and living arrangements? That may be a central issue. Nevertheless, this is not the only issue. There is also the question of church order.
Polity, Politics, and the People of God
When I was active in the Church, I had to live with the reality that my life was held to closer scrutiny than those of my parishioners. This is the nature of pastoral ministry. There is some legitimacy in this. A pastor leads by example, however flawed. But this is a double-edged sword. The pastor is not only accountable to the spiritual needs of her flock, but to the order of the church of which she is a member. He can do nothing to compromise the integrity of the body. Should Ms. Stroud have spoken about her sexuality? No, she should not have. Should she have been placed in that position? Absolutely not. Nevertheless, she was and appears to have accepted this limitation freely and without coercion. There are times that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.
Polity is difficult. That balance allows the church to exist in the world. It is the art of ordering an ideal community in the context of real conflict and political intrigue. The truth of pastoral ministry is this: we take vows not only to preach and teach, but also to support the institutions of the earthly church. There are ways to effect change. To violate a covenant is not one of them.
This is not a missive in support of the right wing or a “conservative” agenda in the church, using that term advisedly. To have singled out a gay or lesbian pastor that was ordained in full knowledge of that person’s sexual orientation for removal from the clergy roster while supporting the actions of a pastor guilty of exclusion is reprehensible. This is the politics of power that uses inclusion and exclusion as tools of a political agenda. This is to be challenged and opposed with blood, bone and marrow.
Again, I must reiterate that I am in no way an expert on the polity of the UMC. I speak as one that knows the Christian Church and is appalled at both the actions of Pastor Stroud and the ecclesiastical court that removed her. A pastor does not speak for him or herself. The pastor’s actions are taken as those of the congregation. A denomination does not embrace a political agenda for mere penultimate gain; it must recognize that it is an expression of the body of Christ.
Unity and Diversity
Christ ate with whores and tax collectors, Pharisees and Sadducees, Jews and Gentiles, Lepers and the broken of body and spirit, with the rich and the poor. How can the church do less? Christ used the example of the Samaritan – people that were considered by Judaism to be ritually unclean and excluded from the people of God – as the example of compassion and chesed. Jesus, the man, is said to have risen above the prejudices of the day to see in the broken and outcast the face of the Creator. Perhaps this is what it means to be Christ. Luther got this one right: he said that in baptism we are called to be Christ, not simply to worship Christ. We are called to set aside judgment and learn to love.
Ah, but I am just a fool…
