Today, I saw Reverend Frank Schaefer back in the pulpit, just three days after officially losing his papers. I was privileged to sit in the pews at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington DC, and listen to him preach. I am happy to say that things are moving very quickly in the Methodist church.
For those of you who do not remember, Frank Schaefer was defrocked last week for officiating the marriage of his gay son. Thirty Four days ago, he was given an ultimatum: Repent for performing a same sex marriage for your son, or lose your job, your home, your station, and your ability to preach in the Methodist Church. He said that he could not go back to being a silent supporter of the LGBTQ community, and this thursday, his papers were removed during a 20 minute church meeting.
He was back in the pulpit today, preaching. The Full Audio of those sermons will be up some time Monday, and you'll hear the congregation react with raucous applause during his sermon, where he preaches that he will not stop being a vocal advocate for change, for love, and for marriage equality.
I was so glad to be there, personally, because as someone who grew up in the United Methodist Church, I had been seriously considering jumping ship for the Episcopals. Reverend Schaefer's message to those of us who were considering the same: Stay, and fight. Stay and fight we shall. And the fight has already begun!
In refusal to accept the defrocking of Pastor Schaefer, Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño of the California Pacific Conference contacted Schaefer and offered to license him to preach in California. This is an extraordinary and unprecedented step. To license a defrocked pastor is a serious breach of normal protocol. But we don't care anymore. We're not cooperating with evil anymore. Pastor Schaefer is also appealing his removal, and is hopeful that he will once again be ordained in the UMC, but that process can last until 2015, and he needs to find some kind of work now.
More than that action, progressive Methodists are now attempting to stop the process of church trials, with another Bishop, John R. Schol calling church trials a damaging, secular institution, and announcing in an emotional video that he not only disagrees with the Schafer decision, but that he will doeverything in his power to end such trials within the United Methodist Church.
When a pastor is defrocked, their membership in the United Methodist Church is completely revoked. Today, at the end of their service, Foundry UMC Officially welcomed Pastor Schaefer back, granting him an Emeritus Membership in Foundry UMC, to a thundering standing ovation.
When he preached today, it was as a lay pastor: he wore no robe, no representation of office, because his office had been taken from him. But as one minister put it during the service, as he prayed for Frank and for our church: we believe Frank to be ordained by god, not by a human institution, and so while the church may seize his papers, his home, his income, and his healthcare, we will not accept that his right to preach has been removed.
This has been a hard time for me, personally, with my relationship to the Methodist church. It is unconscionable to me that the man who married his gay son is put on trial, while the African delegate who stood on the floor of our decision making body in 2012 and accused homosexuals of bestiality will face no consequences. As I said earlier, I had been considering leaving the Methodist church altogether.
This is especially tragic because my family has served in some capacity in the United Methodist Church for over a century. (As a disclaimer, if you know one of my family members personally, and you want to know what they think, ask them, because they are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, and we don't always agree. And for those of you who wonder, I am speaking today only for myself.)
There are things, now, that I think must be said: The bigoted policies set forth in the book of discipline, the church trials, and the homophobia expressed by a great many Methodists are an affront to God, an affront to our Wesleyan tradition, and affront to the whole of humanity.
I've posted anonymously for a while, because when I started posting, I lived in the rural south, and was afraid of the bigoted society around me. I was afraid that if people knew that I was Bisexual, I would lose my status in society, I would lose my welcome in churches, and that I would be treated like a pariah. I saw what happened to LGBT folks in the extremely conservative Holston conference, I heard the ignorance that came from my fellow Christians, and I decided that while I'd be open about who I was with a select few, I wouldn't talk about it with society at large.
I was afraid of the voyeuristic sickness of fundamentalists, where they warped scripture for the purpose of leering through their neighbors bedroom curtains. I was afraid of the promised violence and social reprisals that open LGBT folks in the rural south could expect.
And I think it's time to come out of the closet, and tell everyone in all of the communities of which I am a part exactly who I am: My name is Will McLeod. I am Bisexual. I am a United Methodist.
Until my dying breath I will fight for a church that lives up to our Wesleyan traditions. I will fight to guarantee that when we preach love, we mean it. I will fight to make sure that the phrase "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" isn't a lie.
The UMC is my church. It is the church of my parents, my grandparents, and My great grandparents. It is where I was baptized, where I was confirmed, and where I was raised. And fundamentalists: you may call me a faggot, you may preach hatred from your pulpits, you may try to take my preachers from me, but no matter what you do: I will stand on the rock of scripture, I will dig in my heels, and I will never go away.
And I am not alone.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
With every Methodist and every Christian who has been a silent supporter, and who decides to come out of the closet and take a stand, who decides to refuse to cooperate with the bigoted policies of our church, that statement is proved true again, and again. We won't leave, we won't break, and we will never stop fighting. And what the past few years have proved is that the more desperate the fundamentalists become, the more Methodists, and the more members of other denominations, will come to stand on the side of justice.
Time is on our side, and no matter what you do, you will never stop us.
We will never again be silent. We will never again be silent supporters. We will never again cooperate with bigotry in our church.
We will fight for justice with every step, and every breath. When you take our pastors from us, we will license them to preach in a reconciling conference. When you call us faggots, or preach hatred, we will turn the other cheek, and shake the dust from our feet. We will not cooperate with your teachings, your rulings, or your court decisions.
This is our church, and we are never going away.
This is our church, and you will never stop us.
This is our church, and we will force the doors of it open, so that the whole world will be welcome.
We will drown out your hatred with love. We will see our church stand on the right side of history, as it so often has. When the southern church cooperated with slavery, we refused to cooperate with them. When John Scopes taught science to his students, and was charged in court for it, we paid for his lawyers. When Martin Luther King marched on Washington, my Father was there. When Vietnam was bleeding, we marched in the streets for peace. When the reproductive rights of women were threatened we, we joined the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
And now, today, we will stand for marriage equality.
If the bigots want to leave, that's their perogative. But we're not going anywhere, and we're not going to cooperate.
1:56 PM PT: Reclist? On a sleepy Sunday?
Thank you, Kossacks.
The only thing I want to add is this:
Pastor Schafer has lost his source of income.
If you feel like donating to him, there's a link at Foundry UMC which will let you do so. He mentioned today the incredible support he felt from netroots activists.
The only thing I'll ask is this: if you do choose to donate, add $.01 to the end of your donation, to let them know that the Netroots will stand up with those who fight for marriage equality.
[Link]
[As an FYI, you can ignore the "login" section of the website. You don't need to create an account with the church to donate. I am assured that 100% of your donations will go directly to Pastor Schaefer]
I often include music with my posts, and in the emotion of today, I forgot this.
There's one song that I think is particularly appropriate:
They Shall Not Pass, by Grace Petrie.
The chorus especially:
Why fight the good fight, fight the good fight? Why not let them burn?
I dread the day when the suff'ring of my fellow is none of my concern.
Stand up today that we might save tomorrow, oh I
Know there's a way, but we might save tomorrow, yes it's
Late in the day that we might save tomorrow if we try.
I will not turn against my brother for his creed or for his color
nor the one he takes his lover or his class.
You that beckon me that way, you shall not pass.
They Shall Not Pass, By Grace Petrie [Soundcloud Embedding won't work.]