Thousands call for United Methodist Church to permit LGBT clergy

A petition signed by more than 5,000 people calls for the United Methodist Church (UMC) to allow lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGTB) people into the clergy.

The petition also asks the UMC to allow same-sex marriage in the church. It says that the church is now threatened with division primarily because of its "punishment of LGBTQ persons and its allies."

"Immediately stopping all such actions is the only way to ensure the work of the special commission has credibility and can work towards a solution or set of solutions that will finally mend The UMC," the petition, which was started by the Reconciling Ministers Network (RMN), reads.

The issue was raised after the church's Council of Bishops announced on May 18 that it would form a special commission to study its law and doctrines, which are found in the Book of Discipline, and open up the possibility for its revision in light of questions on sexuality.

At present, gay people cannot be ordained as ministers in the UMC. The church also does not recognize same-sex marriage.

During the church's general conference, which was concluded on May 20, LGBT activists took the opportunity to push their agenda forward. They sought to discuss the Book of Discipline's "discriminatory language" against LGBT ministers in the hope of having such restrictions removed.

Before the conference began, more than 100 UMC clergy came out as LGBT. In the surprising move, the group tried to show that having LGBT ministers is a reality in the church.

The issue has brought the UMC "at a point of crisis," Matt Berryman, RMN's executive director and former UMC clergyman, told Christian Today, adding that it is causing a breakdown of the system.

"The powers that be will need to come together to figure out a way to revise the present system to create new room for people to live and move and have their being in the Church," he said.

An earlier petition also initiated by RMN was signed by more than 2,000 UMC clergy urging the church to stop "requiring" LGBT clergy to hide who they really are. 

"There is much in The Book of Discipline that is beautiful, life-giving, and grounded in scriptural holiness. But the current language prohibiting LGBTQI people from serving as ordained clergy is discriminatory, unjust, unChristlike, and inconsistent with both holy scripture and the best of our United Methodist heritage," the petition, which was written in support of UMC clergy who have come out as LGBT, reads.

UMC leaders from Africa previously commented that the American UMC churches may be preaching a gospel differently from what they first received.

Rev. Jerry Kulah from Monrovia commented that cultural Christianity has replaced Biblical Christianity in the United States, and this "baffles the mind" of someone who considers the Bible as the primary authority for faith, UMR reported.