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Pastors’ courage offers hope that bigotry can be countered

Bigotry against gays and other sexual minorities is deeply rooted in many of the cultures within which the United Methodist Church works, and the UMC is at grievous fault when it does not combat this bigotry (“Pastor defrocked for same-sex rites,” Page A1, Dec. 20). There is no excuse on biblical, Christian, or moral grounds for refusing to acknowledge the full humanity of gays. In the religious context this means embracing sexual minorities fully within the ministries of the church.

Lisa Wangsness correctly quotes me to the point that there is still an appeal process within the church for the Rev. Frank Schaefer, who was defrocked Thursday for performing the marriage ceremony of his gay son six years ago. However, the fact that the church’s democratic judicial and legislative processes are currently subject to the majority power of cultural bigotry underscores the imperative to speak out against this bigotry, and to protest with ecclesial disobedience when ministers have the opportunity to perform same-sex weddings. Courageous pastors such as Schaefer and others who publicly have run afoul of the legal binds in the UMC system are reasons that the hemorrhage of members in the UMC is not greater than it is now in areas such as New England, where the root cultural bigotry against gays is not so profound. They provide hope that the church and other denominations can escape the cultural drag that contradicts the ministries of grace to all people, as they did bigotry against racial minorities in decades past.

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Robert C. Neville
Milton

The writer is a professor of philosophy, religion, and theology at Boston University, and dean emeritus of BU’s School of Theology and Marsh Chapel.