Thursday, April 11, 2019

No Need to "Go Global"

This is a response I wrote to a friend with whom I differ on just about everything related to the UMC's special called GC2019. She asked me if Matthew 28:19 isn't the final word on the question of a global UMC.

I certainly believe Jesus wanted his followers to spread the gospel message across the world, and I believe the Church (i.e. the Body of Christ, made up of all communities of believers) has done and continues to do just that. But I do not believe this spreading of the gospel is the same as denominational expansion.

Denominations have rules and policies and hierarchical structures that actually stand in the way of successfully carrying out Jesus' commission. Being a single, legally bound denomination in every corner of the world means that faithful members somewhere will have rules and practices imposed on them that may be appropriate for some parts of the world, but not for theirs. And this imposing of rules and practices from another part of the world hampers their effectiveness in carrying out what Jesus told us to do.

I would love to see strong, vital, faithful, but independent Methodist denominations spread across the world, who are allowed to carry out their missions and ministries in the ways they see fit: as many different African Methodist denominations as are needed (because not all Africans are alike!), Korean Methodists, Japanese Methodists, British Methodists, German Methodists, South American (see comments about Africa above) Methodists, etc, and of course USA Methodists. These various denominations can be united in mission and spirit, but there is no need to be joined together into a single, legally bound, corporate entity. This leads only to imposed UNIFORMITY, which I truly believe is a broken, distorted version of the UNITY already promised to us as parts of the Body of Christ.

The push to become a global church was driven by several different motivations, but I think one of the most powerful ones was also a sinful one: PRIDE. After generations of numerical decline (I suspect we would have quite different views on the causes of this decline), it gave the UMC a chance to brag about a very large membership again. And it is surely no accident that those most in favor of "going global" also share a basic theological perspective with the millions of new members that would come in and vote for delegates to General Conference, guaranteeing a continued (if slim) majority of delegates to pass conservative rules and policies opposed by 47% of total delegates and 2/3 of American delegates.

With the help of African delegates, American UMs are being forced to carry out mission and ministry under circumstances the great majority of them oppose.

Surely, this is NOT what Jesus meant by "Go into all the world."

I think the Holy Spirit is making amazing things happen in Africa, and I celebrate that! But, I also think the HS is working a great, new work here in the US, and I celebrate that miracle as well. But the HS isn't doing the same thing in both places. That's where I think WCA, Good News, Confessing Movement, etc have gotten it totally wrong. They see what's happening in Africa and in other places around the world and lament, "Why can't that happen here in America?" And they seem to think the only way to make it happen is by cracking down on rules (calling it "orthodoxy" because that sounds better) and ejecting those who don't agree, those who aren't doctrinally pure.

But the work I see the HS doing in America is a work of prophetic justice, not some old-fashioned evangelical revival. There are LGBTQ+ United Methodist Christians of great faith making a powerful witness in the face of religious and political persecution by evangelicals (mostly but not exclusively trump supporters, btw) right here in America, in a way that is totally opposed to what we Americans say we stand for. But instead of standing and fighting alongside them for justice (about which the Bible has MUCH MORE to say than it does about human sexuality), the UMC just voted once more, by the slimmest of margins made possible only because we are now a "global" church (at least in name), to tell these brave, faithful folk they aren't good enough to be fully part of us.

The UMC will be lucky indeed if God doesn't curse us for joining in this oppression of the weak and marginalized instead of hearing their cries! That is, after all, what is promised in scripture.

So, THAT's why I say "a global UMC was a bad idea."