Two Protestant Groups Will Put Sexuality Issue to Test

Two more mainline Protestant denominations are testing the deep waters of human sexuality.

In meetings across the country this month, United Methodists are showing strong resistance to relaxing the denomination’s policy toward homosexuals. Of 39 districts reporting actions on the topic so far, all but eight are urging that rules barring homosexuals from the ministry be upheld.

Delegates to the 1991 Biennial Meeting of the American Baptist Churches called on their denomination to develop Christian perspectives on the issue. However, delegates to the recent gathering made it clear that they do not want a report that comes “from the top down” and called on the church to appoint a task force that would begin a study process on the local levels.

Despite pressure from gay and lesbian activists and their supporters in the denomination, delegates to regional United Methodist meetings showed widespread sentiment for retaining that language in the church’s official book of law.

The “Book of Discipline” does not allow “self-avowed practicing” homosexuals to become ministers. The church also describes the practice of homosexuality as “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

The United Methodist Church has 9 million members, making it one of the nation’s largest Protestant denominations. The meetings, known as “annual conferences,” are significant because they set the stage for the denomination’s General Conference, to be held in Louisville, Ky., next spring.

The denomination has 72 districts. All but five had filed reports on their meetings early this week. However, not all took action on the topic of homosexuality.

Tom McAnally, director of United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn., said the results of the regional votes on homosexuality are not surprising.

United Methodists historically have avoided extremes on controversial issues and have consistently “taken the taken the middle course,” he said. They also tend to be broadly representative of the general outlook of the American population, he said.

At the meeting of American Baptists, speakers said they did not want to repeat the experience of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which was thrown into turmoil earlier this year by a special committee report that questioned some traditional norms of Christian sexual behavior--such as prohibitions against premarital sex.

The call for an American Baptist study passed by a close 927-877 vote with 38 abstentions.

Delegates by a 2-1 margin also approved a statement of concern on homosexuality that calls for encouraging “the repentant homosexual to establish new relationships” and says, “we do not accept the homosexual lifestyle, homosexual marriage, ordination of homosexual clergy or establishment of ‘gay churches’ or ‘gay caucuses.’ ”

The statement on homosexuality is a surprisingly conservative statement for a generally liberal denomination with 1.5 million members.