Philadelphia United Methodist Bishop: No More Gay Weddings!

on October 3, 2014

United Methodist Bishop Peggy Johnson of Philadelphia, who supervises nearly 1,000 United Methodist congregations in Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and eastern Maryland, has just declared that despite her personal liberal sympathies, “it is unacceptable to disregard and disobey” our denomination’s rules forbidding our ministers from conducting and our churches from hosting same-sex union ceremonies. She pledged that from now on, any United Methodist minister in her jurisdiction who “officiate[s] or host[s] a same-gender ceremony” will have complaints against them “handled swiftly” and will face “significant and appropriate consequences,” potentially including “trial, involuntary leave of absence without pay, or other significant consequences.”

This was achieved by a group of several dozen evangelical United Methodists in Bishop Johnson’s area, who in exchange agreed to seek no further punishment of the “Philadelphia 36” clergy who participated in a publicity-stunt same-sex union last November.

This episode presents another example of United Methodism’s traditionalist majority going out of its way to be gracious and conciliatory as they uphold the historic Christian faith and seek to minister to all people in a biblically loving way, while a disruptive liberal minority keeps playing hardball in undermining our church.

Most of the Philadelphia 36 demonstrated a striking lack of courage to stand by their professed liberal convictions, refusing to publicly release their names.

I welcome Bishop Johnson’s strong statement putting her clergy on notice that she will no longer allow them to get away with violating our denomination’s biblical standards. There is indeed no integrity in people choosing to pursue United Methodist ordination without intending to keep their own word to uphold our compassionate standards.

Bishop Johnson is a nice person.  But it is sad commentary on her leadership that she made people go through so much time and trouble before she finally made this statement that from now on she will actually do a bishop’s job of upholding our standards. This reflects a larger problem of how some of our bishops demand congregations pay apportionments for their lavish salaries, which put them in the top tenth of one percent of the richest people in the world, while they neither personally support our church’s historic doctrine nor have meaningful accountability for not doing their jobs.

  1. Comment by Creed Pogue on October 3, 2014 at 8:45 pm

    John,
    I say this in love: when you win don’t kick people in the teeth. E PA has a lot of challenges and Bishop Johnson could have stayed in the same path as Bishop Dyck has. Congratulations to Jane Bonner and the rest of the E PA group!

  2. Comment by David Watson on October 3, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    John, thank you for this post. I’d like to express a different opinion about Bishop Johnson’s leadership, though. I believe that she has conducted herself as a bishop with integrity from the beginning of the Schaefer complaint. She is one of our best bishops. Personally, I have tremendous admiration for her.

  3. Comment by Pudentiana on October 5, 2014 at 4:03 pm

    Bishop Johnson has done many works which are admirable. However, .her personal positions which have been published on her EPAUMC bully pulpit have only encouraged those who broke Covenant. Being Bishop for all the people in her Conference would be better served if she did not use this and local newspapers to promote this agenda. Additionally, she has consistently urged the use of Holy Conferencing “dialogues” which have been attended almost exclusively by same sex advocates leaving them with the impression that they have no opposition in this Conference. These have become viewed as a “punishment” for those who must endure hour after hour of said “Holy Conferencing” experiences where traditionalists are invariably portrayed as “bigots” and “unloving”. They have had no good effect, but to scare off traditionalists from this debate.

  4. Comment by SunnyL on October 5, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    At our conference she made us feel like outcasts and blatantly lied to portray us as the ones who were wrong!…I was almost ready to leave the UM church (member for 56yrs)…but those who love the Lord reminded me that God is still in control and his WORD is complete truth!

  5. Comment by John Lomperis on October 3, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    Thanks for the comments, guys. I know Bishop Johnson, realize she is hardly an across-the-board theological liberal, believe she really does want to be a bishop for the WHOLE of her church (in welcome contrast to some of her more militantly progressive colleagues), and agree that she handled herself with integrity in the Schaefer case, which was different from this one. And I celebrate the new statement of hers. But I am not comfortable settling for “it could have been worse” as the best I expect from the episcopal leaders of my church. Ideally, more bishops will have the courage to right away do what they should have been doing all along, without having to first have to go through such a drawn-out process.

  6. Comment by David Watson on October 3, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    And to you as well.

  7. Comment by SunnyL on October 5, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    She DID NOT handle herself with dignity…at annual conference….She hung Dr. Pastor Christopher Fisher out to dry and “SHUNNED” him……SHE SHOULD NOT BE A BISHOP and she is as Liberal as they come!!!!!

  8. Comment by DMurphy on October 3, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    This is very encouraging. Thank you.

  9. Comment by Pudentiana on October 4, 2014 at 1:57 pm

    Now we have seen that an organized group of Methodists can actually have an effect on a Bishop’s public personna. We need to give a shout out to the brave souls, especially clergy, who took the chance of challenging a group of clergy who Bishop Johnson obviously favored. Take a look at her personal statements on her blogs which she publishes on the Conference website. If there was an affront to the BOD in her Conference, she has only herself to blame. Has not anyone wondered why these offending clergy who have mysteriously kept their identities a “secret” were not charged by her almost a year ago. Yes, she smiles sweetly in her photos, but her disregard for the Biblical view of marriage and her own Church’s position on human sexuality makes it hard for me to commend her on doing what she should do and should have been doing years ago. Stop the propogandistic blogs and newspaper guest editorials and write in support of the UMC Church position instead of mouthing the liberal line. Bishop Johnson will have to answer to more than the UMC. She must face her Maker someday. I hope she repents.

  10. Comment by David Watson on October 4, 2014 at 3:16 pm

    Like any of us who confess Christ, Bishop Johnson will lean upon her faith in Christ–which I assure you is quite deep–in facing her maker. If she were judged by her works, however, perhaps she could point to 20 years in deaf ministry and tireless work on behalf of people with disabilities. Just a thought….

  11. Comment by SunnyL on October 5, 2014 at 9:00 pm

    I pray for her soul….she is in danger of hearing “I never knew You”

  12. Comment by John S. on October 9, 2014 at 10:21 am

    If one were to be pointing to one’s work as merit I would expect them to not be of the Reformation but perhaps good catholics. OTOH the christians who face their maker without sin in their lifes do not exist.

  13. Comment by Duane Anders on October 4, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    Sorry to read this.

  14. Comment by SunnyL on October 5, 2014 at 8:53 pm

    I think Bishop Johnson was backed into a corner and did not think the Church would push back….I think Bishop Johnson does not support her church’s. I have NO respect for her, nor do I trust her!

  15. Comment by JohnHoward on October 6, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    All this division and tension can be avoided by getting Congress to enact a Natural Marriage and Reproduction Act that preserves marriage’s reproduction rights and bans same-sex reproduction using stem cells or any other method. We just need to call our reps and tell them to introduce it, and it’d be law, and the marriage debate will be over.

  16. Comment by MatWeller on October 8, 2014 at 1:59 pm

    The idea that the Church would waste money and effort to legislate something that in no way affects the continuation of the rights of it’s members and only seeks to hobble some other population is outstandingly abhorrent to me.

    Nobody has to have a homosexual relationship just because the government doesn’t pass a law against it. Nothing changes about marriage within the Church if the government decides to allow our brothers and sisters outside the fold to have the same rights and privileges as the other human beings under its reign. Not legislating against is not the same as endorsement, no matter who tells you otherwise.

    If we sunk the same effort into protecting the things that will keep people alive — food, water, shelter, environment — that we do to worry over what someone else does that affects us in no way whatsoever, maybe we wouldn’t be in danger of having an uninhabitable planet (much to the disgust of our God who has trusted us with this amazing gift) within our children’s lifetimes. Solve those problems, in Jesus’ name, and people will easily see why they should follow Him.

    Heal. Serve. Love. If your cause is righteous and your example inspiring, they’ll line up around the block to get into the church and learn the rest. That’s how He did it.

  17. Comment by John S. on October 9, 2014 at 10:24 am

    The Methodist Church has a long history of telling the government how it should be doing things, even if it doesn’t directly impact the Church. You should watch what the GBCS does on an almost daily basis.

  18. Comment by MatWeller on October 9, 2014 at 10:34 am

    Hopefully Judgement involves every church administrator standing before every person left unhoused, unclothed, unfed or unwitnessed to and telling them why regulating other people’s genitals was more important than saving them.

  19. Comment by John S. on October 9, 2014 at 10:44 am

    True, all that money poured into liberation theology, pursuing marriage equality, nuclear disarmament, abortion (the list goes on) that could have been better spent on evangelism. How will they justify themselves?

  20. Comment by MatWeller on October 9, 2014 at 10:52 am

    Jesus knew, taught and proved that lasting positive change has to come from the bottom up.

  21. Comment by John S. on October 9, 2014 at 11:21 am

    Ahh, so he was’t God, sent by God, otherwise known as the top working down. But I’m glad you agree that all that wasted resources listed above calls for judgement.

  22. Comment by MatWeller on October 9, 2014 at 12:09 pm

    He was. Is. But he was purposely born of humble people. He didn’t work through the government. He didn’t even work through the religious leaders. He spoke to them (like anyone else), but when they didn’t listen He didn’t persist because he knew you can’t reason with those determined to be damned. You don’t clean a mess by grifting the greasy. God/Jesus went to the masses.

    Who cares about 500 fools in DC? We’ve got millions nationwide that can reach every other soul out there. Help them, improve their lives, bring them into the fold, and the fools will come begging to be let in.

    Spending money and resources in one small place begs for a garbage return on investment. It’s an insult to God; an underestimation of His power and the power of the Church he built. Let’s be stronger. Let them know that we are Christians by our love.

  23. Comment by Christian on October 7, 2014 at 10:41 am

    John,

    Your comments are right on target.

    Anyone who thinks otherwise is missing the point.

    This is again ointing at the symptoms of the real problem. I mean read her statement: ““it is unacceptable to disregard and disobey the Book of Discipline.” There is NOT one mention of The Bible. The Scriptures are our one true guide, not the Book of Discipline. It is a shame that the leaders of the UMC refuse, absolutely refuse, to address things Biblically.

  24. Comment by bonniewheeler on October 15, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    You can burn the church down but that will not change God’s Word . The Church is created on His Word. (or should be) The Word should be preached in its entirety so that it will go out like a two edged sword.
    Preachers ares not called to “tickle the ears” as so many of today
    are doing. They are called to get the truth out to the people. The truth is hard to accept, sometimes.
    And To the contrary to what someone said here, God does discriminate against sin and he expects us to do the same. He even gives us the right to judge (Matthew 7:16) although we must first get the mote out of our own eye.

  25. Comment by bonniewheeler on October 16, 2014 at 2:03 pm

    Thanking God for those who stood up for His Word and Commandments. Pastors and evangelists are called to proclaim God’s Word, not their own preferences.

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