MoSAIC Rallies Liberal Youth

Following a 24-hour drumming circle next to the Fort Worth Convention Center, young General Conference attendees opposed to the current United Methodist policies on homosexuality proceeded to First Christian Church  for a luncheon rally on Saturday (April 26).

A seminarian from Wesley Theological Seminary addressed the audience, urging those gathered to claim leadership within the denomination. “We are not called to simply do church; we have been called to be the church,” he explained.

Rachel Birkhahn-Rommelfanger addresses a rally of young Methodist activists in Fort Worth.

For these progressive youth, “being church” takes on a wholly different meaning than has typically been understood. Where others have interpreted “being church” as a call to holiness, youth from the Methodist Students for an All-Inclusive Church (MoSAIC) and the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) caucuses have identified the term with the push for ecclesiastical recognition and acceptance of homosexual behavior.

“You cannot stop the force of this generation,” said Rachel Birkhahn-Rommelfanger, a young woman addressing the rally.  “We [young people] are ready to be leaders now,” she stated, adding that “we would like to be listened to; we would like the Church to meet us where we are.”  Birkhahn-Rommelfanger predicted, “As young people are elected to General Conference change will come. We are already accepting of our LGBT friends.”

According to Brian Schlemmer, the chairman for On Fire, a progressive caucus for young United Methodists, the movement “isn’t just about being gay. . . . It’s not just about this special interest or that special interest; we all have a special interest in God’s justice.”  One young woman, Laci, stated that “being queer . . . is about saying that the powers of this world don’t reign over us. God reigns over us.”

After a brief march, the demonstrators reconvened across from the convention center, where Sean Delmore, a transsexual candidate for the diaconate in the Northeastern Annual Conference and student at Boston Theological University, warned that “They [conservative delegates] are legislating out the love at General Conference.”

Joey Heath, a young man who was denied membership in his South Georgia church because of his homosexual lifestyle, contended that “[Judicial Council] Decision 1032 [a decision placing authority of church membership with the local pastor] is a discriminatory policy that must be ended. . . . If we’re going to have policies like that we’re going to have to stand before God and tell him why we turned away his children. . . . This is happening to people and it must stop.”

Schlemmer said it was wrong that “I’m told to come on in and Joey’s told to wait at the [church] door.” Employing liberationist motifs, he told his progressive audience, “We’re waiting until that day when we can cross arm and arm through those doors and into the Promised Land and usher in God’s Kingdom.”