RMNBlog

United Methodist Black and Asian American Caucuses Join Common Witness Coalition!

For the first time ever, official African American and Asian American caucuses in The United Methodist Church voted to join a coalition to work at the crossroads of issues. Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) and the National Federation of Asian American United Methodists (NAFAAUM) both voted to join the Love Your Neighbor Common Witness Coalition which will impact the denomination's General Conference, April 24-May 4, 2012, in Tampa, Florida. Once every four years, just under a thousand delegates convene from around the world to set policy for the denomination. 

During the ten days, delegates of the ten-million member global denomination will vote on a restructure plan that will have repercussions throughout the Protestant world. The Love Your Neighbor Coalition is urging the denomination to approve a structure that supports the leadership of people of color, women, youth/young adults, and central conferences (international).  

In addition, the Love Your Neighbor Coalition will work for passage of policies that support global peace, justice for immigrants, and an end to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the church and the world. 

"In officially endorsing the statement, 'For the Love of God and Neighbor,' and becoming a full partner with the Love Your Neighbor Common Witness Coalition, the work of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Inc. is expanded and strengthened," said Pamela Crosby, executive director of BMCR. "This partnership will help us boldly move forward in our common goals as advocates in the struggle for economic and social justice and in our mission to grow a compassionate and courageous United Methodist Church, totally committed to God." 

"This new partnership with BMCR and NFAAUM gives us an opportunity to live more deeply into Reconciling Ministries' anti-racist values," said Troy Plummer, executive director ofReconciling Ministries Network. "Being partners means being allies to one another as we change the world together. This is one more sign showing that United Methodists are following God's lead to join Lutherans, Presbyterians and Episcopalians who have voted to end prohibitions based on who a person loves or their gender expression." 

Don Hayashi, president of NFAAUM, said, "The National Federation of Asian American United Methodists is pleased to join in coalition with groups that share our values of being inclusive and open to all. As Asian Americans we are often invisible or overlooked. We wish to be valued for who we are and the contributions we make. Our faith dictates that we respect all creation for we are all created in the image of God. We have no higher calling than to love God and our neighbor." 

"Forty years ago, Affirmation was formed when the church decided some people were 'incompatible with Christian teaching,'" said Tim Tennant-Jayne, Affirmation co-spokesperson. "Our long journey through a desert of rejection and exclusion continues but working in coalition is like a drink of water as we grow in our understanding of God's wonderfully diverse humanity." 

"It has been inspiring to see the growing partnerships that embody a deep appreciation for our God-given diversity," said Jill A.  Warren, Executive Director of Methodist Federation for Social Action. "Each of our groups has a long and storied history of speaking out when it would have been easier to be silent. Together we will speak out about what is possible through the love, grace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ." 

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AFFIRMATION is an independent voice of LGBTQ people and our supporters.  We are an activist, all-volunteer organization that challenges The United Methodist Church to be inclusive.

Tim Tennant-Jayne, spokesperson, (612) 859-9197 or TennJay@usfamily.net/ www.umaffirm.org

BMCR represents and is dedicated to more than 2,100 Black United Methodist congregations in the U.S., approximately 500,000 African American members, and numerous United Methodists of African descent to raise spiritual and prophetic leaders in the church.

Pamela Crosby, Executive Director, (615) 749-6351, or pcrosby@umpublishing.org/ www.bmcrumc.org

MFSA is a place where Progressive United Methodists lead and sustain a progressive United Methodist movement, energizing people to be agents of God's justice, peace and reconciliation.

Jill Warren, Executive Director, (248) 894-6814or jill@mfsaweb.org/ www.mfsaweb.org

NFAAUM is committed to the empowerment of Asian American local churches and to articulate the concerns, interest and needs of Asian Americans in all levels of the United Methodist Church.

Don Hayashi, (937) 890-2729 or hayashidon@aol.com/ www.nfaaum.org 

RMN mobilizes United Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities to transform our Church and world into the full expression of Christ's inclusive love. 

Troy Plummer, Executive Director, (773) 315-9335 or troy@rmnetwork.org/ www.rmnetwork.org

 

United Methodist Coalition Decries Shooting of Unarmed Black Teen in Florida

The historic coalition of advocacy groups in The United Methodist Church made its first joint statement on the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. 

“We are shocked by this shooting of an unarmed African American teen by an armed neighborhood watch person who contravened the directives of police by pursuing and shooting this high school student,” said Steve Clunn, director of the Love Your Neighbor Common Witness Coalition. “As a Christian coalition that works at the crossroads of issues, we must challenge all race-based profiling. It only leads to heartbreak and disaster.”  

“Violence, whether it is based on race, sexual orientation or gender identity, is wrong and cannot go unchallenged,” said Troy Plummer, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network. “Our ‘Love Your Neighbor’ theme is based on a story told by Jesus about human differences. If we tell the story today, Trayvon was left on the side of the road to die by everyone who has let a racial joke stand without comment, by everyone who avoids crossing unspoken racial lines, by anyone who forgets that Jesus was telling us that our neighbors are people who are different from ourselves—not the people who look and act like us.”  

Pamela Crosby, executive director of Black Methodists for Church Renewal said, “This tragedy for Trayvon Martin’s family and loved ones is anathema to our goals for the beloved community. Trayvon is our son, baby brother, church member, friend. As United Methodists from around the globe prepare to meet together in Florida at the end of April, the need to address racial justice and reconciliation in our communities is urgent and silence has no place in our response. This is just another example where race trumped humanity. The time for love of God and neighbor to trump racism is now!”

Don Hayashi, president of the National Federation of Asian American United Methodists said, “We cannot be silent in the presence of violence whether the victim is a person of color, a transgender woman, an immigrant or other targeted group, we must speak for the humanity of everyone—and call for investigation by authorities and repentance by perpetrators. We grieve over the death of Trayvon and we grieve for the heart and soul of this country and pray that one day it can be a sign of hope all people because of its respect for all.” 

“United Methodists have a long history of working against the institutional violence of racism. Racism, coupled with the easy accessibility of weapons resulted in this deadly, personal violence and it must end,” said Jill A. Warren, executive director of Methodist Federation for Social Action, an organizational member of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “We stand together as a Coalition in our support for all those affected by violence, for justice and the elimination of racism.” 

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from all diverse racial-ethnic backgrounds all know someone who has been beaten or murdered for who they are,” said Tim Tennant-Jayne, co-spokesperson of Affirmation. We stand with Trayvon’s family as they seek a thorough investigation of this tragic death. I am reminded of the powerful statement attributed to the Rev. Martin Niemöller, during World War II, to paraphrase: ‘First they came for the communists and I didn’t speak out because I was not a communist—then they came for the trade unionists, then the gypsies, then the homosexuals, then the Jews—then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.’  As a coalition, we know we must speak out for each other.  Silence equals death.”

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AFFIRMATION is an independent voice of LGBTQ people and our supporters.  We are an activist, all-volunteer organization that challenges The United Methodist Church to be inclusive.

 Tim Tennant-Jayne, co-spokesperson, (612) 859-9197 or TennJay@usfamily.net/ www.umaffirm.org

BMCR represents and is dedicated to more than 2,100 Black United Methodist congregations in the U.S., approximately 500,000 African American members, and numerous United Methodists of African descent to raise spiritual and prophetic leaders in the church.

Pamela Crosby, executive director, (615) 749-6351, or pcrosby@umpublishing.org/ www.bmcrumc.org

MFSA is a place where Progressive United Methodists lead and sustain a progressive United Methodist movement, energizing people to be agents of God’s justice, peace and reconciliation.

Jill A. Warren, executive director, (248) 894-6814or jill@mfsaweb.org/ www.mfsaweb.org

NFAAUM is committed to the empowerment of Asian American local churches and to articulate the concerns, interest and needs of Asian Americans in all levels of the United Methodist Church.

Don Hayashi, president (937) 890-2729 or hayashidon@aol.com/ www.nfaaum.org

RMN mobilizes United Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities to transform our Church and world into the full expression of Christ’s inclusive love. 

Troy Plummer, executive director (773) 315-9335 or troy@rmnetwork.org/ www.rmnetwork.org

 

Baptismal Vows and General Conference

In January, I was privileged to witness a baptism at The United Methodist church I attend in Athens, Georgia. As I always do, I fell in love again with the beauty and importance of our baptismal liturgy, and by the time we finished singing "God Claims You," I confess I was in tears, although I did not know the baby being baptized. I participated in the liturgy, recognizing that the promises I make as a part of the congregation are vows that apply not just in that place and to that baby, but in whatever church I find myself and in relationship to all baptized persons. I reflected on the significance of a community of faith who promises to love and pray for and forgive and nurture this new person in its midst. I remembered my own baptism--not because I can recall the application of water on my infant head in 1985--but because I grew up in a congregation that took very seriously its vows to love and pray for and forgive and nurture me in the faith. In The United Methodist tradition, we believe that in baptism God acts and people respond. I'm grateful not only for God's miraculous acts of inclusion in my baptism but also for a congregation's lifelong and enduring response.

As we approach General Conference, I think about the universality of baptism. The 1,000 voting delegates to General Conference are a part of the congregation that made those promises at my baptism, though surely none of them were in that particular congregation on that particular day in 1985. I wonder--with both moderated hope and a degree of realistic pessimism--whether that body will keep the baptismal covenant I read in January, the baptismal covenant a congregation in Ohio read in 1985, and the baptismal covenants read at each of their baptisms.

To what degree will the actions of General Conference, by commission and omission, affirm or deny the truth of the vows they took and the hymn we sang, particularly for LGBTQ United Methodists?: "We this day do all agree a child of God you'll always be."

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Leland G. Spencer IV is a PhD student in the department of communication studies at the University of Georgia, where he researches religious rhetoric as it intersects with gender and sexuality. A 2007 graduate of Mount Union College, he served as a part-time local pastor at Mapleton United Methodist Church in the East Ohio Conference for two years, when he withdrew from the candidacy process because of The United Methodist Church's exclusive position about the ordination of LGBT persons.

The Common Witness Coalition is Growing!

On Thursday, March 1st, Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) voted to support the Love Your Neighbor proposal and committed to partnering with us on General Conference strategies.

The National Federation of Asian American United Methodists (NFAAUM) which represents ten ethnic groups in the church, including Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Formosan, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Lao, South Asian, and Vietnamese United Methodists decided to become a full coalition partner on Friday, March 9th.

We are proud to welcome our new coalition partners and look forward to working together as we strive for a more diverse, inclusive, just, and welcoming United Methodist Church!

 

There Is Hope

Deborah Weekley

When I was asked to talk about what gives me hope today in The United Methodist Church, I chose to write about a video my husband David and I made last summer. This video gives me hope because the Reconciling Ministries Network has included us in this project. Coming out was a difficult decision and we knew the journey would not necessarily be easy. I believe with my whole being that it is the Living God, through the Living Christ, who has called us to take this step. Since we first told our story publicly in August of 2009, we have received emails, letters, and calls from around the globe from disenfranchised United Methodists, both those who have left the denomination because of its discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and those who would not even consider entering a church or embracing Christianity because of the bullying they have experienced from Christians and the church. We have been thanked by ALL of these folks for telling our story and told that it gives them hope. Perhaps they can find a church in which to feel more at ease within a denomination that celebrates the diversity of crea tion as United Methodists follow Christ's teaching to “love our neighbor as ourselves."

The Difference that Makes the Difference

By Rev. Troy G. Plummer

“He came unto his own and his own received him not.”  – John 1:11

“Every detail matters.”  – Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter, Traci West, p 67

What is the difference that makes the difference? In every new combination of meetings and persons, face-to-face or digitally, there is a difference that rises above the others from our complex identities to make the difference in that particular setting on that particular day.

In Their Own Receive Them Not, Horace L. Griffin writes:

Was Sojourner Truth a lesbian? Did a number of black cult leaders such as Prophet Jones and gospel singers of the early twentieth century find love and fulfillment with the same sex? Why did Carter G. Woodson, historian and initiator of Negro History Week, never marry a woman? When these questions are raised, the heterosexual majority rebuffs the implications that African Americans held high in esteem as moral leaders and Christian people could also be homosexual or even bisexual.

The Rev. Dr. Griffin lifts up that the possible same gender loving nature of these individuals is the difference that makes the difference in his research on African American Gays and Lesbians in Black Churches.

While living in Houston, I was happy to be invited by my friend Kim to attend her church’s anniversary worship celebration. I arrived early. As I waited, people welcomed me and ushered me to Kim and her family’s usual pew. As I sat down, I was asked, “What office are you running for?” The difference that made the difference was that I am white, and therefore must be a politician, in this African American mega church. In other situations for me, the difference that has made a difference is that I am gay, or male, or over 50, or partnered, or monolingual, or a follower of Jesus who reads the Bible and takes biblical scholarship seriously, or clergy, or an executive director. When I’m unaware, trouble begins.  

When we are unaware or unable to resonate with a difference making the difference, then we are most likely in a comfortable majority going unchallenged and encouraged to be blind to difference. This is when the question – what is the difference that makes the difference – must be intentionally lifted because the question itself reveals our participation in privilege, power, and supremacy. That as the majority we usually accept without question.

Traci West recounts the horrors of slavery, racism, and sexism in Wounds of the Spirit and crystallizes this truth: “Every detail matters.” When we go deeper, when we refuse to flatten complex identities, when we name our difference and the effects of that difference—yes, every detail matters.

So even as we experienced the last day of Black History Month yesterday, our awareness and discussions continue. Gil Caldwell and I have called one another into a Lenten discipline of addressing when the difference that the difference is race or sexual orientation.

What has been a difference that has made the difference in your life?

Reconciling United Methodist Profile: Jess Mahoney, Chicago, IL

I am a woman blessed. I have a loving family with a new addition due to arrive in July, as well as a church family that surrounds me with love, support, encouragement, and guidance. I have friends, old and new, who share my interests and concerns. I have a job, as a part-time college instructor, that allows me to teach and be taught by people who are powerfully motivated to change their circumstances, while giving me time to spend with my precious little boy. I am often overwhelmed with gratitude for all that I have in life.  

In 2009, shortly after embarking on my dream career as a teacher, I was laid-off from my position as a reading teacher in an affluent suburb of Chicago. It was devastating to feel so unwanted, particularly because I saw my job as social justice work. My philosophy is that a literate, expressive person is an empowered person, and I felt that it was my job to empower young people. Clearly, my district didn't see value in that at the time. I struggled with depression over what I saw as my failure to prove my worthiness. It was my church, very new to me at the time, which brought me through that difficult time . . . by, of course, putting me to work! I served as chairperson of our Leadership Council for about two years. This surprised no one more than myself. As a person who had only begun attending church regularly two years before, I saw myself as ridiculously inadequate for the job. 

It was during this time that I began to see how much work and struggle lies before the church as a whole today. Poverty. Immigration and refuge issues. Human Trafficking. AIDS. Hunger. So many problems affecting so many lives. And not one had a simple answer. . . except (as I thought at the time) LGBTQ rights. I thought to myself, "This one is easy, right? I mean, it's so obvious!" But for many people it is not obvious. For many people, it is a great struggle to accept that LGBTQ people are God's beloved people, just as heterosexuals are. 

I realized that, for me, the fundamental issue at the core of all those problems is a lack of love for our brothers and sisters, and that nothing exemplifies that issue as clearly as the issue of LGBTQ rights, both within the church and in society. Before we can say who deserves food, who deserves citizenship, who deserves medicine, who deserves dignity, who deserves freedom, we need to answer the more basic question: Who deserves our love? Christ's answer was "everyone." I see this as the true reconciliation that our church needs so badly today. We need to make ourselves right with God by making love our top priority in all arenas. How can we tackle the very complex problems of suffering throughout the world when we can't follow Christ's very uncomplicated command to love one another? How can we extend our love and help to the suffering people of the world when we can't extend our selves to the gay couple next door?  

But this issue is about more than just a first step toward giving ourselves over to the love that Christ envisioned. It is also about justice and truth. In his letter from Birmingham Jail, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Similarly, we cannot say that we love our neighbors while denying and excluding our homosexual brothers and sisters. To continue to fail to love and accept them is to deceive ourselves and to invite the threat of injustice and bigotry into our church family. We all know that to continue to degrade our brothers and sisters is unquestionably wrong. How can we claim to "act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with" God while perpetuating a doctrine of exclusion? This is the kind of moral contradiction that is planting seeds of distrust in the hearts of members and friends of The United Methodist Church, not to mention those seeking a spiritual home. Therefore, I can't think of anything more important to the survival of the church than to bridge this divide. 

I am still, after four years of membership in a Reconciling Congregation, just now learning how to put my beliefs into action. I have signed petitions, I have endorsed same-sex union ceremonies in the church, and I have walked in the Pride parade. But there is so much more to be done. I joined the Reconciling Ministries Network as an individual to help me learn where to start. 

Back in 2009, I lost my job and, in a way, my sense of purpose. But I see now that I was just being redirected. I'm still teaching and I'm still learning. But I feel more useful to my brothers and sisters than I ever have before. What a blessing! 

I have great hope that this will be the year that we will remove the discriminatory language from all our church guidelines. But, more than that, I hope that this will be the year that we can stand together as a church, united in love, and show that we are not just talking about loving our neighbors, but we are doing it. That won't be easy for many of us. But with support and guidance, I think we can all learn to let go of those biases that we were taught and go instead with the message that Christ brought to us, even on the cross:  that while not one of us can "earn" it, we are all blessed with God's love. 

My resolve in any area of social change is always focused by my son, and, more recently, by thoughts of the new little one to come. I think about the world as it is today and I think about the world I want them to grow and blossom in. I ask myself, "If my son is gay, can I stand by and allow him to be excluded from my church? If my daughter grows up and loves another woman, does God love her less? If my children shun or bully another child because of his or her orientation, am I okay with that?" The answer to all of these questions is a loud "no." I am energized by the thought of a world where parents no longer have to ask themselves these questions and where children don't even realize that these questions ever troubled us. 

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Jess Mahoney is one of RMN's newest Reconciling United Methodists. In her own words, she likes "reading and writing, decorating and gardening, teaching and tutoring." She is trying to teach herself to sew and knit . . .  "with humorous results."  Right now, she is working on creating a great workspace in her kitchen so she can "practice the elusive art of cooking something edible."