To Mariah Hayden and those who gather in prayer and hope for the United Methodist Judicial Council

Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell

From 1997 to 2001, I was Pastor of Denver's Park Hill United Methodist Church. In October of 1998 I participated in a vigil on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol where we remembered the severe beating of Matthew Shepard. We know that Matthew died from that assault. He was 21.

I was one of the first speakers at the Vigil and spoke words indicating that I had hoped that the lynching of persons because of their race or for any other reason was over. The beating and death of Matthew Shepard proved that I was wrong, I said.

The United Methodist Church in its contradictory relationship with same gender loving persons, commits the sin of hypocrisy. While we speak of the "sacred worth of all persons", we declare that  persons who express their love for a same gender partner, are doing something "incompatible with Christian teaching". That hypocrisy is now more serious because while our Discipline makes a negative judgment of same gender unions/marriages, state after state is acknowledging the "incompatibility" with state Constitutions of legislation that denies same gender persons the civil right to marry. And, finally The United Methodist Church that proclaims the "sacred worth of all persons", magnifies our hypocrisy by denying United Methodist clergy the right to be in ministry with same gender persons who want to express their love in an act of legal and public commitment.

My prayer and hope is that the Judicial Council will rule that the great commandment in Mark 12: 29-31 ("Love of God and love of neighbor") is being violated as long as we separate, segregate and exclude persons because of their sexual orientation. To deny complete ministry by clergy to any segment of society, for any reason, lessens the significance of United Methodist Ministry.

Last night in a Prayer Group of Seniors (At 75, I am the youngest), I read the Preface of Bishop Rueben P. Job's little book, "Three Simple Rules, A Wesleyan Way of Living." At the end of his Preface he asks; "Are we ready for the radical change of direction that is marked by these three simple rules, Do No Harm...Do Good...Stay in Love with God."

It is time that our Judicial Council begin the process of guiding The United Methodist Church to a place and perspective that enables us to cease breaking those 3 rules as we embrace the same gender loving United Methodists who are present within the denomination, who year after year have said "yes" to a Church that has said "no" to them.

Gilbert H. Caldwell
Retired United Methodist Minister,
The Rocky Mountain Conference, Denver Area