Students try less rancorous ways of discussing homosexuality

June 3, 1999   News media contact: Thomas S. McAnally· (615)742-5470· Nashville, Tenn.    {314}

NOTE: This report may be used as a sidebar to UMNS #313.

By Tom McAnally*

OKLAHOMA CITY (UMNS) -- United Methodist college students are trying to model for their elders how to avoid hostility when dealing with emotional social issues such as homosexuality.

The annual Student Forum of the United Methodist Student Movement, meeting at Oklahoma City University May 27-30, included guest speakers, workshops, prayer, small covenant groups, music, worship and an afternoon of community service. It also included a time for the 251 students to consider six resolutions, two of them dealing with homosexuality, a topic that has confounded church members for at least 25 years.

Each annual event since the UMSM was founded in 1996 has been marked with hostility and anger as students have debated issues related to homosexuality. This year, leaders were determined to avoid such rancor without sacrificing the organization's prophetic role.

The process began with resolutions from individual students sent to the UMSM office in Nashville and then distributed to participants in advance and posted on the movement's World Wide Web site.

"We believe that Christians may discuss important issues without acrimonious debate and traditional parliamentary maneuvering, which can divide a group into contending factions," UMSM leaders said in a statement accompanying the resolutions. "We want to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in all things, and avoid making decisions in a fashion which leaves some feeling like winners and others like losers. "

The process included a session for clarification followed by caucuses of students who supported or rejected the resolution and those who were undecided. At each caucus, two members were chosen to serve as spokespeople in a later plenary session where all points of view could be expressed. This dialogue or "conferencing" took place in front of the entire assembly, but only eight designated representatives were allowed to speak.

The session was moderated by UMSM steering committee chairman Ben Heavner, of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. The conferencing was a microcosm of debates on homosexuality throughout the denomination. Some students argued that the practice of homosexuality is a sin and should never be approved, while others argued that it is a gift of God and that the church should support loving relationships between two people of the same sex.

After the conferencing, students gathered in one of five geographic U.S. jurisdictional settings where they voted, without discussion or debate, for or against the resolution or as "still discerning."

Two-thirds of the total votes were required for approval of the resolution. Heavner described the statement as a "snapshot in time" that was not intended to represent all college students.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the process. Some grumbled that the steering committee was attempting to stifle debate and determine the outcome of the vote.

"It is hard to evaluate an experiment while you are in the middle of it," Heavner observed after the votes were announced. Yet, he was clearly pleased. "There wasn't a feeling everyone was trying to kill each other, and that has been a change."

The students drew praise from the Rev. Donald Shockley, campus ministry executive of the church's Board of Higher Education and Ministry. In his final comments before retiring, Shockley commended them for their efforts and said they have the potential of leading the United Methodist Church "through its present troubles."

Noting that conflict is not new to the church, Shockley applauded the Student Forum for not becoming a political legislature or a debating society where there are winners and losers. "Keep trying to move away from systems not suitable for the body of Christ," he urged.

Early in the meeting, the Rev. William Abraham, a faculty member at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, drew applause when he stressed the importance of distinguishing between people and their acts, a direct reference to the issue of homosexuality. "You can love people without agreeing with what they do," he said.

He also related a story of John Wesley, Methodism's founder, who in 1732 ministered to a man imprisoned for "homo-erotic activity" by visiting him, providing legal counsel and protecting him from attack.

Of the two resolutions dealing with homosexuality, one calling for UMSM to become a "Reconciling Student Movement" was approved with only one vote beyond the required two-thirds total of 143. The other resolution, calling for the elimination of negative language about homosexuality in the church's Book of Discipline, fell far short of the necessary two-thirds vote.

The approved resolution says the Book of Discipline establishes a framework for becoming a reconciling movement by calling for a "fellowship that enables reconciling relationships with God, with others and with self."

"By becoming a reconciling student movement, we can further this goal," the resolution said. "Moreover, we affirm the value of life and baptism for all persons regardless of their sexual orientation."

A sentence was added saying that adoption of the resolution does not necessarily align the Student Forum with the Reconciling Congregation Program, which has offices in Evanston, Ill. Reconciling Congregations is a coalition of United Methodist churches and organizations that publicize the fact that they are open to the full participation of all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation.

The resolution that failed sought to strike all language from the Book of Discipline that "excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people from the leadership and ministry of the church, and thereby accept God's call to people of all sexual and gender orientations to a community of faith and leadership in the United Methodist Church."

The resolution proposed deletion of prohibitions against same-sex union ceremonies and a phrase in the Social Principles that says the practice of homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching."

The four approved resolutions expressed grief for acts of violence (see UMNS story #313); authorized a UMSM Mission Fund; established a partnership with United Methodist students in Russia; and endorsed Jubilee 2000, a campaign to forgive the debts of poor nations.

Complete texts of the resolutions may be found on the UMSM web site: www.umsm.org/studentforum.html.

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*McAnally is director of United Methodist News Service, the official news agency of the denomination with headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., and offices in Washington and New York.