Here’s the statement from the bishop of his “home” church in Mobile:
To complete the process of the complaints against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the following decision has been made:
The judicial process of The United Methodist Church cannot be used in the matter of United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions to address political actions. A political action is not personal conduct when the political officer is carrying out official policy. In this matter, Attorney General Jeff Session was carrying out the official policy of the President and/or the United States Department of Justice. It was not an individual act. We believe this type of conduct is not covered by the chargeable offense provisions of The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, 2016, for laypersons. Therefore, these complaints related to this have been dismissed by Dr. Debora Bishop, the Mobile District Superintendent.
The Cabinet of the Alabama-West Florida Conference and I concur with this decision.
Bishop David W. Graves
Resident Bishop
Alabama-West Florida Conference
This is not an unalloyed victory even from the perspective of other members of the United Methodist Church.
The complaint against Sessions was spearheaded by the Rev. David Wright, a chaplain at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, who said his goal was to urge Sessions to have a conversation with his pastor and "bring his position in line with church doctrine."
Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Department of Justice, who provided Bishop's letter to CNN, said that Sessions will not comment on the matter.
When Wright did respond, it was not in a milksop manner:
Rev. David Wright, chaplain at the University of Puget Sound and the author of the official complaint against Sessions, railed against Bishop’s decision and claimed that church officials were skirting the issue.
“As a tradition that has persistently challenged United Methodists to live our faith in all aspects of life and society, this abdication of both pastoral and social responsibility is deeply disappointing,” Wright said, according to CNN.
He claimed that the decision “avoids the most basic level of accountability” and “fails both Mr. Sessions and the denomination.”
Reverend Wright speaks for me. There is a Texas pastor involved whose comments in the original article also seem pertinent to me:
The Rev. Elizabeth Kevilus, a retired Rio Texas Conference pastor who once served near the border, was among those getting a letter. She said she hadn’t expected much disciplinary action against Sessions but was disappointed the letter didn’t mention what she described as a “cruel” policy on border enforcement.
She also questioned the logic of the decision.
“It just seems like it raises all kinds of issues and perhaps even established a precedent,” she said. “Do my vows as a member of The United Methodist Church not apply if I’m on the job?”
Now, I’ve been in an argument with a pastor over this, who saw it as a grandstanding by those who filed the complaints. That pastor’s views included the notion that kids in cages on the border were faked news. I am very sad to report this result here, because it says to me that a faith tradition fifty years in the building has refused to officially, as a church, stand up for “the least among you” in a very public way despite the efforts of its lay and clergy members to do so.