Press Release: United Methodists Elect High Court In The Midst of Controversy

RECONCILING MINISTRIES NETWORK
3801 N. Keeler Avenue Chicago, IL 60641      
www.generalconference2008.org     www.rmnetwork.org

Press Release:  April 28, 2008

Contact Persons:

Ann Craig, Media Coordinator
craig@glaad.org, 213-703-1365, cell

Rev. Troy Plummer, Executive Director,
troy@rmnetwork.org, 773-315-9225, cell

Monica Swink, Board Chair,
monicaswink@cox.net, 405-473-3942, cell

UNITED METHODISTS ELECT HIGH COURT IN THE MIDST OF CONTROVERSY

United Methodists gave a cold shoulder to conservative candidates for the Judicial Council, the high court of the denomination.  Two lay members and three clergy were elected on April 28 from the slate of moderate candidates put forward by the Council of Bishops and supported by Reconciling Ministries Network, a group working for full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

The election came just days after the General Conference was rocked when it appeared that the Judicial Council election had been compromised by an apparent attempt to buy votes with gifts. At a luncheon sponsored by a conservative coalition, cell phones were given out along with a list of conservative candidates.

“It is a great day when our church withstands an apparent attempt to buy votes from any of our delegates. When I saw the flier with the offer of cell phones on the same page as a list of candidates for the church’s highest court I was shocked,” said Troy Plummer, Executive Director of Reconciling Ministries.

Ryan Chewning, United Methodist from Cincinnati, said, “I was present at the luncheon on April 24.  I saw first hand members of the Renewal Coalition, including the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) overseeing the distribution of cell phones and gift bags exclusively to international delegates.”

Bishop Ken Carder said, "This seems to be an undue influence and violates the very essence of what it means to be Christian community."

Responding to criticisms of bishops and agency heads, Mark Tooley said in an April 26 IRD press release, “These clueless church elites don't understand the obvious. America [sic] evangelicals and Global South evangelicals support each other because of their common faith.”

International delegates protested that their votes could not be bought. A delegate from Liberia said, “African delegates are already conservative, there is no need to persuade us with cell phones.”

A video released on youtube.com shows the distribution of the gifts with Mark Tooley sitting at the speakers’ table. The “Renewal Coalition” includes six conservative Methodist groups, one of which is UMAction-IRD, staffed by Mark Tooley.  The others are Good News, Renew Women’s Network, Confessing Movement, Lifewatch, and Transforming Congregations.

When the scandal first came to light, action was taken on the floor of the General Conference to form a committee on ethics but since it is new and must develop a protocol, the committee on ethics  will not begin functioning until the 2012 General Conference. 

Plummer said, “Although sanctions by the General Conference will have to wait four years, the General Conference and the whole church can respond to this unethical behavior by rejecting the ongoing attempts of the IRD to influence the United Methodist Church and other denominations with the politics of negativity.”

Ryan Chewning noted that all delegates at the luncheon were given a copy of the February 2008 edition of, Faith & Freedom, the magazine of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Writers in the magazine critiqued three denominations, United Methodist, Presbyterian Church USA and the Episcopal Church—the three program areas over the last decade or more for the IRD.

Presbyterian officials are described in Faith & Freedom as being “on the verge of doing things deviantly,” Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams job performance was uniformly rejected and the entire “Church in the West” is described as being in “spiritual chaos.”

“Much of the very real conflict in the denominations can be connected to strategies of the IRD.” Plummer said. “Conservatives supported by the IRD are acting to gain control of church property, even whole Episcopal dioceses, through civil law suits encouraged by the IRD and are based on accusations of breech of contract defined as church dogma.”

“Over the years, leaders in these denominations have been undermined and members are encouraged to withdraw giving and to sign petitions to require orthodoxy, dogma and creeds as narrowly understood by IRD allies.” said Plummer.

A February 25, 2004, investigative article, by Matt Smith and published in the San Francisco Weekly, discovered that the IRD had spent some $4 million financing conservative groups within primarily three mainstream denominations. Mark Tooley who was hired in 1994 to critique the United Methodist Church, came from eight years as a CIA East Africa analyst.  When Matt Smith, asked Tooley about similarities between his current work and his previous job as an Africa analyst for the CIA, he said, “None that I see, except that I was a writer there and I'm a writer here.”

Comments

[David]

Oddly, I have mixed feelings about these votes.
This year hosts two major events for my local church. General Conference is one; the other is the arrival of our new pastor. The results of both are still ultimately unknown.
We have learned who our new pastor will be; his credentials are not hopeful. His doctorate is from Asbury, known to be quite conservative. I have a feeling his stand on social justice issues will ensure my husband and I will no longer be comfortable sitting in our pew.
Up to today I also felt that I had an idea how GC would play out. But the election of moderates and liberals to the judicial council makes me wonder. Do I dare to hope social justice will prevail in Fort Worth? While my local church may no longer be habitable after June, is it possible to hope that I can find another UMC home in Tulsa? Or do I follow where my understanding of God leads me, away from a church who has failed to be the Church? Away from a church obsessed with doctrines and creeds toward an understanding of God that brings me closer to the Ground of Being, the Unity of Life, Prevenient Grace.
-David