Conservatives claim victory in two Methodist rulings By John H. Adams The Layman Online Tuesday, November 1, 2005 A United Methodist renewal leader says two rulings by his denomination's highest court – one defrocking a lesbian minister and the other supporting a pastor who refused to grant membership to an openly homosexual man – are evidence that United Methodism "is not moving in the direction of the Episcopal Church and declining liberal Protestantism in the West." Both rulings were handed down Monday by the Judicial Council, reversing previous decisions by a Methodist appellate court and a Virginia bishop. They were key rulings in upholding United Methodist teaching and polity that homosexual practice is sinful. Elizabeth Stroud Evangelicals in the denomination claimed the rulings as a major victory. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a observer of denomination trends, agreed. "These two decisions may give conservatives within the United Methodist Church the gift of more time in which to make their case for a Biblical view of human sexuality," Mohler said. Mark Tooley, a writer-researcher for the Institute on Religion and Democracy and director of Methodist Action, a renewal group, said the decisions were further indication that "America's third largest religious body is moving in the direction of global Christianity, which is robustly orthodox." In a news release about the two cases, IRD said, "United Methodism is America's third largest religious body, with over 8 million members. It also has several million members overseas, mostly in Africa. Methodism is growing in Africa dramatically, and in the relatively conservative church in the southern U.S. It is fast declining in its more liberal regions of the West Coast and Northeast. These demographic trends seem to guarantee that the denomination will not shift course on the issue of homosexuality, which is fiercely debated in all of America's mainline Protestant denominations." The cases settled by the Judicial Council involved: Irene Elizabeth Stroud, who told her Philadelphia congregation in 2003 that she was a lesbian in a long-term relationship with another woman. The Rev. Edward Johnson, pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church in South Hill, Va., whose bishop ordered him to take an unpaid one-year leave of absence because Johnson would not admit a practicing homosexual into the membership of his church. Edward Johnson While Stroud's case was the most high profile, The New York Times said today that Johnson's case could have the most impact in the United Methodist Church. The Judicial Council ruled that Johnson was rightfully exercising his pastoral discretion by refusing the homosexual man from joining his congregation. Like the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church has an open-door policy that allows practicing homosexuals to become lay members of local congregations, but it also gives pastors discretion over their congregations. The Times quoted Stephen Drachler, a spokesman for the United Methodist Church, as saying, "The bishops are looking at this very carefully as far as what impact this may or may not have going forward. What sort of precedent does this create? What role does it create for bishops over their pastors? No one has answers to that yet." The Judicial Council ordered the Virginia Conference to provide a new call for Johnson. Stroud says she will turn in her ordination credentials, but continue to work as a lay pastor at the Germantown, Pa., church. The Judicial Council also issued a ruling in response to resolutions by two Methodist conferences – California-Nevada and the Pacific Northwest. In an effort to discourage bias based on sexual orientation, the California resolution said such orientation should be considered innate. The Pacific Northwest resolution asserted tolerance for a plurality of views on sexuality. In both cases, the Judicial Council held that church law barring gay members in the clergy superseded the resolutions.

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