article re-written
01/30/08

An United Methodist pastor, Rev. Ed. Johnson and the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church made the news with an important ruling by the denominations highest court--The Judicial Council. The Church court reinstated pastor who denied membership to gay man.

United Methodist ministers do have the power to decide who becomes a member of the local church, the denomination's top court has ruled, supporting a pastor who blocked an openly gay man from joining the congregation.

The Virginia case involved an openly gay man who was participating in the South Hill church in a variety of ways, including singing in the choir. The man wanted to transfer his membership from another denomination, and Johnson began a series of meetings with him. The man's sexual orientation was a significant part of the discussions. Johnson refused to receive the man into membership because he said the man would neither repent nor seek to live a different lifestyle.

The church's associate pastor, who disagreed with Johnson, contacted the district superintendent, and a disciplinary process began that eventually resulted in Johnson being placed on involuntary leave by a vote of his fellow ministers at the 2005 clergy session of the Virginia Annual Conference.

The United Methodist Judicial Council, holding its regular fall meeting Oct. 26-29, 20056, issued two decisions related to the case of Rev. Ed Johnson, who was serving as senior pastor at South Hill (Va.) United Methodist Church until he was placed on involuntary leave of absence in June.

In Decision 1031, the council dealt with the due process problems in how Johnson was disciplined. Decision 1032 was the more sweeping ruling, saying that the church's Book of Discipline "invests discretion in the pastor-in-charge to make determination of a person's readiness to affirm the vows of membership."

The result of both decisions is that Johnson is to be immediately reinstated to the status he held before being placed on involuntary leave of absence, with all salary and benefits retroactive to July 1, and is entitled to receive an appointment.

However, this issue did not go away. Motions for reconsideration were filed by Bishop Kammerer and the Virginia Annual Conference Board of Ordained Ministry in 1031 and 1032. These requests were denied by the Judicial Council in their spring, 2006, meeting.

The attention of the whole United Methodist Church made various responses to this. Some are called for extreme action like calling an emergency General Conference for the whole denomination. However, this will most likely come up in the already scheduled meeting in 2008.

What is the place of doctrine in relation to the health of the United Methodist Church?

The past and current events surrounding Rev. Ed. Johnson's case before the Judicial Council raises some serious church health issues.

In Alban Institutes Winter 2006 publication of "Congregations", Anthony B. Robinson argues for an intensified focus on theology in future efforts to create healthy congregations. See his article "This Thing Called Church" www.alban.org/ShowArticle.asp?ID=311

A contemporary Methodist theologian, William Abraham, believes that

without the healing effects of the deep truths of the Christian faith, any renewal will be superficial and short-lived (Abraham 29).

The late Frank Bateman Stanger proclaims in his book, God's Healing Community,

Theology is needed to impel one to continuing dedicated spiritual being and doing. Even though we may not always be quick to identify such a causal relationship, it takes a theology of prayer for us to pray, a theology of love for us to love and serve, a theology of spiritual experience for us to worship and witness, a theology of stewardship for us to give in the New Testament sense, a theology of the church for us to be good church members, a theology of truth and holiness for us to be ethical. (40)

A contemporary of Mr. Wesley, As John Albert Bengel, wrote,

Scripture is the foundation of the Church: the Church is the guardian of Scripture. When the Church is in strong health, the light of the Scripture shines bright; when the Church is sick, Scripture is corroded by neglect; and thus it happens, that the outward form of Scripture and that of the Church, usually seem to exhibit simultaneously either health or else sickness; and as a rule the way in which Scripture is being treated is in exact correspondence with the condition of the Church. (1:7)

The writings of the early church fathers contain doctrinal teaching from various New Testament Epistles in dealing with the vitality of churches in their day. For example, about 45 years after Paul's epistles to the Corinthians Clement of Rome wrote to them about their division like before and how this news was hurting evangelistic efforts in Rome. His letter contains several quotes from Paul's epistles.

What is the place of doctrine in relation to the UMC on all
levels?

The Preamble to the Constitution of USA our government in general terms. Each Article with its sections along with the Amendments unpack the Preamble. The Preamble of the UMC's does the same thing. begins with a doctrinal statement of what the church is from the former EUB denomination.

In that one paragraph are several doctrinal points of the church as a community-a unique community of all true believers--who are not a group unto themselves, but are under the Lordship of Christ. The next two sentences unpack this for the reader: first in relationship to the Word of God and the sacraments; and second in relationship to the of the Holy Spirit for various purposes.

So, the formative guideline and foundation is the doctrine of the church and its implied historic doctrines for being and doing church as United Methodists on the General, Conference, District, and Local Church levels.

The same former EUB article of religion is repeated in the opening chapter defining the local church. This implies that the definition of what the local church is comes first and must shape theologically both being and doing church.

Consequently, our understanding of church in all of its aspects including membership stands under the doctrinal teaching of the Church catholic and Apostolic as well as our historic Methodist theology, but not under sociology, psychology, or philosophy. Otherwise, a church become a social club of people who do good.

The health of any Christian denomination, Christian organization, local church, church member or clergyperson stands or falls in light of doctrinal truth. Whenever we separate doing from doctrine, we have lost our identity. Likewise to separate doctrine from living looses authenticity.

Far too often, being a nice person and trustworthy are the measure for evaluating someone, clergy or lay. These are very important. Strangely enough those speaking the tuth of Christian Doctrine in love and faithfulness are too often absent from such evaluations. However, our Book of Discipline, the hymnal's Baptismal Covenant, and the ecumenical creeds (Apostles and Nicene) of the Church catholic (universal) all proclaim the same basic theme--Christian doctrine defines who and what the Church of Jesus Christ is and is called to. Anthony B. Robinson's book What's Theology Got to Do With It? issues a clarion call for the church to reclaim the relevancy and necessity of Christian Doctrine in shaping the church's life and ministries.

What is the relationship between doctrine and Church Membership?

The judicial council's decision 1032 was the more sweeping ruling. It said more than the church's Book of Discipline "invests discretion in the pastor-in-charge to make determination of a person's readiness to affirm the vows of membership."

What is the implication of this ruling in terms of the "shall" of the church being open to all people and the conditional "may" related to the vows of full membership?

It places the doctrines of the Church catholic (summarized in the Apostle's and Nicene Creeds) first. It says no to those who separate 'belief in Jesus' from historical Christian doctrine. It says that Renunciation of Sin and Profession of Faith in our hymnal's Baptismal Covenant are serious theological questions and affirmations for those joining the church and for church members who are asked to reaffirm them in the same ritual. This says no to persons who separate 'belief in Jesus' from moral and ethical living. (We ask nothing less of those taking the vows of Ordination.)

The theological foundation and doctrinal seriousness of joining the Church catholic is then followed by professing our Christian faith as contained in the Old and New Testaments. We do this using the Apostle's Creed as the early church used it in Christian Baptisms. These are doctrinal commitments which bring us into the Church catholic which we hope people will remain committed to. Later in the ritual, persons are asked "as members of Christ's universal (catholic) church will you be loyal to the UMC . . ." Taking this vow of denominational membership and the one after it about reception into the local congregation are taken on the pre-requsit of one's catholic (universal) Christian faith professed much earlier.

This ruling as raises the bar of the integrity and seriousness concerning the Baptismal Covenant Vows taken by members of United Methodist Church's. It does the same for United Methodist Clergy as well.

How does Christian doctrine relate to the ethical issues surrounding this case?

How can Rev. Johnson or any UM clergy person really feel in covenant with each other pastors and conference leaders when he was voted out like he was?

Who helps with the collateral damage to his family and congregation or those in similar situations?

What impact does this have upon other clergy and congregations who witness or hear accounts of these unjust actions? What disciplinary consequences could be in place for denominational leaders who make similar wrong decisions that impact someone and their family's welfare?

Could these events fit within the definition of clergy abuse as described by a United Church of Canada clergyman, Barry J. Robinson, in his book LUCIFER Grows In Our Garden: AN ANATOMY Of Clergy Abuse. We normally think Clergy abuse only applies to preacher killer churches or clergy who abuse their churches.

However,it sometimes applies to the church's hierarchy as well. How do we prepare future candidates for ordination to deal with the realities of clergy abuse? How do we work to reduce clergy abuse? We must have some boundaries so that when a leader on the beyond the local church level misuses their , there are some real consequences other than "bad Bishop, now don't you do that again"

How strange and sad to understand from the accounts of Rev. Johnson's case and Rev. Beth Stroud's case that the Church's Constitution was not abided by equally where it pertains to due process. It seems that we also totally ignoring every citizen's right to be considered innocent before proven guilty by jury. In Rev. Johnson's case both the United Methodist Constitutional law and American Constitutional law were broken. Is the church above United States Constitutional and Civil law? What does our theology of social justice say about this?

Think about it.

How does doctrine, particularly Ecclesiology, address all such concerns discussed in this article?

As our society lives more and more in a visual, cyberspace, high tech world that people are forgetting the basic rules of grammar.

Although it is not very a pleasant task, the practice of diagramming sentences does help the reader inductively see what is being said very clearly. After noting the grammatical relationships in a sentence as whole these observations must be related to the paragraph as a whole, and beyond. Any English teacher or grammar book will tell someone that there is a world of difference between an unconditional "shall" and a conditional "may." It is unreasonable to think we can change the rules of grammar just to fit our theology.

To the contrary, the doctrines of human beings being created in the image of God, and the revelation of God through the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the divine inspiration of scripture call for a reasonable understanding of grammar.

Some of the current comments people are making and using the Book of Discipline to support lead me to believe that the work of basic inductive observation and reasoning before interpreting and applying is being done by few. Others, are thinking deductively about interpretation and application which they find proof texts for support. Quite an example of fundamentalist reasoning when deductive thinking is separated from inductive thinking.

I've purposely left many questions unanswered. My main point is to show that doctrine has everything to do with the sound health of a denomination, church and individual Christian.

How healthy is your denomination, your local congregation and your own self in light of what historic Christian doctrine has to do with it?

What Has Doctrine Got To Do With It? Everything!!!