I am a born and raised United Methodist. I often get the question “So, how did you end up going to a Mennonite school?” In a nutshell I enrolled at Eastern Mennonite University because it was here that I first caught a glimpse of community. As a senior in high school, I would have thought that community was more or less a synonym for neighborhood, but as the concept of community began to unfold, and is still unfolding for me, I realize it has nothing to do with geography, or types, or numbers. Community, I think, begins as an agreement; an agreement for people to support one another. Perhaps at first this idea of community seems cold and systemic, but community does not remain as an “agreement”. As people begin to develop sincere interest in others, agreement transforms into a rhizomatic network where the welfare of the individual affects the entire body.
In the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees a character named Bernard attempts to explain existentialism. He actually provides an excellent illustration for community in the process. He says that that the entirety of everything that exists is actually a blanket – as in a blanket that goes on a bed. Each unit of existence is a piece of that blanket. Regardless of how one part of the blanket is affected, every other part experiences consequence. If a section is neglected the whole integrity of the blanket is compromised. Now let this ‘blanket of the universe’ become a blanket of the church. When I say church, I mean to say everyone on earth; not simply a group of denominations and clubs, but a global community.
In April 2006 I attended the Immigration Rally on the National Mall. Some 500,00 people attended this rally. Most of the people there were Spanish speaking, and had immigrated from countries across Latin America. There were people everywhere. As I walked through the crowd, I could hear the Rally leaders from the stage. They were excited. They were influential. They knew how to get a crowd going. Most of the speakers and crowd were speaking Spanish. And to be honest, I had no idea what they were saying. Every now and then the whole crowd would erupt in cheers and whistles after a particularly vibrant speech, and I would follow suite. It was a lot like when I go to basketball games. I have no idea what is going on, but I cheer when everyone else does. As I continued to walk around the rally I read signs like: “Protect immigrant families”, “We are not criminals”, and a favorite of mine, was a t-shirt that read “Hey pilgrim, you’re an immigrant too.” All of sudden an older woman, about this tall, stopped me as I walked by. When I turned to look at her, she looked back at me and said nothing for a moment. She then said “Thank you for being here.” For me that moment was exactly what it means to be in community. I had never met this woman before, and yet we both loved and supported one another. On a giant lawn filled with a half million people from across the world, Community was defined.
Language describing and calling for Community is found throughout Judeo-Christian traditions, and something that I feel Anabaptists identify with strongly. I believe that in order for community to work there cannot be hierarchy among the members. When hierarchy is removed it is tempting to fill it with either anarchy or egalitarianism. While both options have attractive benefits, community means to forget the language of systems
It is one thing to make theories about what it means to be Community, and about what it means to be the church, but is something different to actually do it. How do we do it? Luckily, we aren’t left out in the cold on this one. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus starts out with a check list of sorts about how to be in Community. Often this text is interpreted as if speaking to the individual. We see the Beatitudes as a ‘Personal Holiness Check-list’. Mercy, got it. Meek, yep. Mourning, need to work on that one. I think it is fair to look at the Sermon like that, but I don’t think it can stop there. The Sermon on the Mount was before crowds, a group of people, laborers and merchants and families. Jesus was speaking to a collective. So, how does the Sermon on the Mount change, when it is seen through the eyes of community rather than the individual? First, the Beatitudes can no longer be viewed as a list. They, like people in Community, become an interconnected network – think of this one as a ‘Beatitude Blanket’. One cannot function without the other. Secondly, personal and social holiness are brought to the same plain. There is no longer room for dogma or hierarchy.
Each Beatitude has two parts. The first part lists the condition (For example, blessed are the hungry), and the second says how they are blessed (for they will be filled). Now, for most of my life I understood the first half of a beatitude to apply to people and the second half to God; meaning, that I only had to focus on covering each part of the ‘Mercy, Meek, Mourning Checklist” and God would take care of the blessing. This is an individualistic view. When approached from the standpoint of Community, we are not only responsible for the first part, but also the second part. Now, how one defines the “Kindom of God” will affect how much stock they put into the idea of a Community based interpretation.
I believe that we are on this earth to create the Kindom of God. We are in the process of it; it is not something that is going to happen all of a sudden one afternoon, leaving empty cars on the interstate and abandoned trousers on dirt paths. If the Kindom of God is indeed a process then we are called to engage in it, always seeking to support, or to use Sermon on the Mount language always seeking to ‘bless’, members of the Community. This is what it is to go and make disciples.
A powerful tool in this, and one that I believe the Sermon on the Mount points toward, is inclusion. Inclusion is not a product of Community, but is a part of that first agreement to support one another. If a person is never acknowledged as a part of Community, then it is impossible for the Community to pursue its call. For the Community to deliberately exclude people is the antithesis of the gospel.
We have all likely come into contact with exclusion before, either as ‘exclude-er or ‘exclude-ee’; often we play both roles. I would like to tell you a part of my story. After coming out as a gay about two and a half years ago, I slowly began to identify more and more with those people who had been excluded. I feel guilty saying this, but most of my life was spent in the comforts of being a white, middle class, American male. Now though, I began to realize the injustices that were happening in the church. For a long time I have felt called to serve the United Methodist church as a pastor, but as a gay United Methodist I am not permitted to be ordained in the church. To be technical the Book of Discipline says that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be accepted as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.” (¶ 304). This seems like such a paradox to me considering the churches tag line is “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.”
Another instance I would like to share came about very recently. I was encouraged to apply for a position at EMU. The position worked in a department that was responsible for my most formative experiences while at EMU. I was excited to give back to a university that had given me so much. I soon found that EMU, like the United Methodist Church, would not allow me to serve them and have a partner. Again, I could work for the university on the condition that I was not in a homosexual relationship. I am not in a relationship right now, and may not be in one for a long time. I will not however, sacrifice my capacity to be in a committed relationship.
When discussing inclusion it is easy to put all of the responsibility on the larger group. This behavior though does not move toward change, nor does it benefit anyone. For a community to become inclusive everyone must take responsibility. If Community is truly without hierarchy there can be no one deciding party discerning what is ‘right’. Dialogue and organic action is the only way inclusion, and ultimately reconciliation can occur. Nothing can be done to transform injustice unless the Community is aware of it.
In closing, I have hope that we are in process of becoming a true Community. Of course, this will take many generations yet. As for me, I still plan to pursue ordination in the United Methodist Church, though exhausting it may be. I am disappointed that I will not be working for EMU, and I challenge those here to speak against injustice and work for change at this university, for me and for the others who have experienced the same thing. Thank you for your time and God bless.

Categories: Open Hearts Open Minds Open Doors, Ordination, Reflections
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My faith is an integral part of my life. For as long as I can remember I have had a relationship with God. At times it has been really strained and at times it’s been smooth sailing. Throughout my life this relationship has been fostered by my participation in the United Methodist church.

Over the last couple of years, however, I have had to ask myself why I am involved with a church that seems bent on rejecting my participation based on one aspect of my being. The answer comes out in several forms, but to me it comes down to my hope to see us become a fully inclusive church and family tradition. I come from a long line of Methodists who have been pastors, and teachers in the church and I too would like my turn to serve the church in the same way that my predecessors have.

While my list of predecessors is very much like that of everyone else, the one slight difference is that I am an African, Southern African to be exact. My great great grand father served the missionaries. He helped out as a translator but never fully participated in the church due to the laws of the country at the time. My great grand father was educated by the missionaries and eventually joined the seminary at the urging of his father. He became a rev and served the church until his passing. My grandfather was also educated by the missionaries but never made it into seminary. He instead taught elementary education at the Methodist mission. He made it up the ranks and eventually became the headmaster of the school which is the equivalent of the American principal. My father was educated at the mission at the same school that his father and grand father had been educated at. He taught at the high school which is where he met my mother who was also a teacher there.

When it was my turn to step up to the plate, I joined laity, the first in several generations to take a step in the church away from the family congregation ( I was several time zones and and an ocean away). I have been blessed with the opportunity to attend a reconciling congregation. My pastor knows about my sexuality as I made a conscious decision to not hide it. He has also helped me to see why it is important to not only be out, but to also speak out. And that is why I am offering this small contribution as we head towards General Conference. It is my prayer that we as Methodists will live up to the expression of having “Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors. ” and that this year’s General Conference will be a giant leap in that direction.

Tags: african,church,family,tradition
Categories: General Post, Open Hearts Open Minds Open Doors, Prayers and Hopes
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I am confident that 50, maybe 75 years from now we will have resolved the “gay issue” as some call it. We will have reached a consensus and moved on. It will be a non-issue, instead we as a church will likely be splintering over another hot button issue. In fact, I imagine my grandchildren and great-children will look back on my generation with the same sort of wide-eyed amazement and disbelief that I feel when I look back on my ancestors who participated in slavery, denied women the right to vote, and promoted white supremacy. They will wonder why in the world it took us so long to shake free from our oppressive self-imposed myopia of denying the reality that God uses all persons even those of different sexual orientations. They will wonder, like many have since Constantine officiated the wedding of the church and the nation-state, why the church, who should always be the first to decry injustice and oppression, once again remained silently and paralytically complacent with the diseased status quo.

But that does no good for us now as we are wrestling to guarantee the rights of all persons regardless of sexual orientation and we are fervently fighting to ensure that God’s grace is never, ever limited by human parameters. So, what to do?

When faced with these challenges, I think perhaps the best thing we can do is turn to the narrative of scripture, the ongoing, unfolding story of God in which we are graciously invited to participate. This is tricky because many have and will use scripture as a tool of exclusion, as a proof-text to deny persons God’s grace. We’ve all heard the quotations whether they be taken from some obscure collection legalisms found in Leviticus (and I find it quite interesting that persons are willing to deny homosexuals rights based on this rubric, but are unwilling to follow the rest of the purity laws) or from one line Paul wrote in Romans which when situated within it’s context is likely condemning sexual promiscuity rather than a particular orientation.

On the subject of sexual promiscuity, I find it fascinating that many of those who are so worried by what they call “the homosexual agenda” (I don’t even know what that means) rarely if ever point the same finger of judgment towards sexual promiscuity among heterosexuals. Furthermore, it is very hard for me to take evangelicals, who argue that homosexuals are “destroying the family,” very seriously when statistics show that the divorce rate among evangelicals is significantly higher than most other religious demographics in the US.

But I digress. Back to scripture.

Rather than pulling a few verses out of context as a means of proof-texting, I propose that we take a more holistic view of God’s story in and with God’s people. And on this issue I can think of no better example than that of the early church in its growing pains struggling to discern who was in and who was out. When read together, the entire New Testament following the life of Jesus is an account of early church leaders struggling to make sense of God’s universal grace, the in-discriminatory offer to participate in the life of the divine, and join God’s redemptive action within the narrative of history. And they wondered, who is right, the Jews, or these newish Jews that call themselves Christian? What about the Gentiles, do they need to be circumcised? Should they eat kosher? Should they keep all the purity law? Who’s in the “in” group and who is in the “out” group? How can we parse God’s grace?

And of course the truth is you can’t parse grace and we’re all quite grateful that ultimately Peter, James and others decided, as Paul wrote in Romans 8, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Absolutely nothing. Yes, we are very grateful indeed because if they hadn’t come to this conclusion most of us wouldn’t be Christians and we would still be adhering to strict ancient laws. All were welcome into the fold of God’s family; Jew and Gentile, male and female, circumcised and uncircumcised. Grace is liberally offered to all.

So, given that history, I think it would behoove us as a church to take a serious look at how we are parsing God’s grace today and the “in groups” and the “out groups” we have and continue to construct. If we’ve learned anything from scripture it is that God is always jettisoning our finite groups and categories. If we’ve learned anything from our history as God’s people it is that we love to cast ourselves the part of being God’s gatekeeper, deciding who is in and who is out, who is worthy and who is unworthy. But of course, God needs no gatekeeper. In fact, God has done away with the gate completely. We don’t live under that model anymore. We live under grace. And all are invited to be a part of the story; all are invited to be a part of God’s creative process.

One of my favorite passages in the New Testament is Galatians 3:28 where Paul conveys this message most explicitly, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Because I believe that Christianity is inherently contextual–indeed, that is the very essence of the incarnation–and because I believe it is the task of the church and of the Christian to interpret and re-interpret the scriptures within their contemporary worlds, I can’t help but wonder how Paul might write that verse were he here today. Perhaps it might be something like this, “There is no longer graced or ungraced, there is no longer gay or straight, there is no long heterosexual or homosexual; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

I could go on and talk about Jesus’ life and his welcoming the unwelcomed, accepting the unaccepted, and loving the unloved, enabling the disenfranchised, but I won’t. We know the story. At least I think we do. Perhaps we know the story, we just don’t believe it. Perhaps we need to be converted to the true essence of the gospel, to our high and noble calling to re-imagine the world, acknowledging that all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are invited to respond to grace and to participate in God’s work in/with/to the world nurturing this alternative reality called the kingdom of God.

Lord, help our unbelief.

Blake Huggins is an aspiring theologian, a blogger, and a social justice activist. He recently graduated from Oklahoma City University and is entering seminary at Boston School of Theology. He is a certified candidate for ordained ministry in the Oklahoma conference of the United Methodist Church. He and his wife Bonnie currently reside in Oklahoma City.

Categories: General Post, Open Hearts Open Minds Open Doors, Reflections
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A friend called me last week with a very unusual request. He was looking for a Methodist church to attend. Now, this is unusual because my fried is one of those that I call “Christians in hiatus”. He was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition and attended seminary with the intention of preparing for the ministry. After some time in seminary he realized that this was not his call and decided to follow other endeavors.

He teaches at a small college in Iowa where he lives. He is very active and involved in his community, taking part of political activities, social activism, and education. Recently, he bought a house and adopted a dog. As you can see, he has a very normal life.

When he asked me about possible churches to attend I would have been more than willing to give him the name of the closest Methodist church where he would feel comfortable. However, this was not easy for me. The reason is because my friend has been in a committed relationship with his male partner for the past five years.

He asked me about the position of the United Methodist Church on the issue of homosexuality. And here is where all came to and end. I told him the “official” position of the church and how a precedent was established by the Judicial Council allowing local pastors to deny membership to anyone based on their sexual orientation. I also mentioned the Church’s stand on ordaining gay and lesbian clergy and how some local churches have taken an open stand by becoming Reconciling congregations.

All these baffled him. “Isn’t this the Church that has the nice announcements about ‘Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.’?” That was his question. What could I say? The Church that presents itself as the place of “Open doors” might just close its doors to him just because his sexual orientation. The Church that proclaims to have “Open minds” is actually closing its minds to understanding human sexuality. The Church that is trying to make itself known as the place of “Open hearts” is actually closing its hearts to a family just because it does not conform to society’s “norm”.

This hurt me and hurt my friend. There are no Reconciling churches where he lives now, even though the town has three United Methodist congregations. The closest one is too far from him to attend. This should not happen in our beloved Church. Why do we have to look for that special place where we are actually welcomed when the Church as a whole should be that place? We should not be a Church that has to explain to the world as a divided community where you might be accepted here but not there. Our faith community should be a community of radical welcome, just as Jesus ministry was. Our friends should have the opportunity to just come to church no matter where they are and feel welcome.

I wish I could have told my friend to just go to this or that United Methodist Church, but I could not. I felt really bad. But at the same time, I have faith that the Church will come to understand that we must live our proclamation as the place with Open hears. Open minds. Open doors.

Tags: church,exclusion,family,open
Categories: General Post, Open Hearts Open Minds Open Doors
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