Maybe the Methodists need to change their focus

By DAVID WATERS Scripps Howard News Service 04/28/2004

Episcopalians, take heart.

The Methodists are coming to pick up your cross and bear your burden, at least for the moment.

The white-hot spotlight of the Gay Christian Debate will shift this week from the Anglicans to their Protestant progeny, the Wesleyans.

Hundreds of United Methodists are gathering at the confluence of three rivers to spend 10 days addressing great issues of religion and society.

Given the dismal state of the economy, the growing health care crisis, the distressing war on terrorism and the depth of poverty in the Third World, you'd think they'd have plenty of things to talk about other than sex.

Apparently not.

A survey of the 998 delegates to the United Methodist General Conference, which opened this week in Pittsburgh, ranked homosexuality as the top issue facing the denomination and society.

And that survey was done before the recent church trial of Rev. Karen Dammann, who was charged with violating church doctrine because she is a lesbian.

Dammann was acquitted in a ruling that would have had Judge Judy shaking her head.

"We searched the Discipline and did not find a declaration that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," one clergy juror said.

Actually, both Paragraph 332.6 and Paragraph 161G in the United Methodist Book of Discipline state that homosexual practice "is incompatible with Christian teaching."

And delegates have rejected motions to revise or delete that language every four years since 1972.

This year, delegates have filed about 70 petitions on the matter. Some will seek to strengthen the language. Others will try to soften or delete it.

A big, loud, divisive debate seems inevitable. Many hope it won't last long.

"This issue must not cause us to lose focus," Bishop Joe Pennel of Virginia told the United Methodist Reporter.

"We must stay focused on worship, nurture, missions and evangelism."

To that end, I have a suggestion for my fellow United Methodists. The theme of this year's conference is "Water Washed, Spirit Born."

In the midst of the conference, when the discussion seems to be getting out of hand, stop the debating and legislating.

Baptize a baby.

Roll out the font. Pass out the hymnals. Ask everyone to turn to Page 33. Tell the presiding bishop to read these words: "Brothers and Sisters in Christ." And let the sacrament begin.

A friend of mine, a United Methodist pastor in Kansas, the son and grandson of United Methodist pastors, reminded me last week of the grace and peace of baptism.

Dr. Allen Polen, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Winfield, Kan., was preparing to baptize his ninth grandchild, seven-month-old Annalie.

Annalie is a seventh-generation Methodist and an umpteenth-generation Christian.

"A hand and water will be put on her little head in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," Polen wrote in an E-mail he sent to me.

"It is my deepest prayer that this is for her the beginning of a lifelong journey in an active maturing relationship with God. It is my prayer that her journey will help her to see and understand God through the eyes and heart of Jesus and that she will know God is love and God loves her."

Now there's a focus for a Christian conference.

(Memphis columnist David Waters may be reached by e-mail at waters(at)gomemphis.com or by mail at The Commercial Appeal, P.O. Box 334, Memphis, TN 38101.)