United Methodist Church’s New Lobbyist Brings, Inherits Much Baggage

on August 16, 2013

The General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), the controversial DC political lobbying office of the United Methodist Church, has chosen its new chief executive, the Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe.

The selection of someone opposed to biblical teaching on sexual self-control (affirmed by the UMC Social Principles) was likely guaranteed the fact that the search committee in which the real decision was made was headed by Bishop Bob Hoshibata of Arizona, an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ cause who participated in an infamous pro-homosexuality protest that took over the floor of the 2008 General Conference. Yes, our denomination’s governing Book of Discipline requires that such senior agency staff be loyal the UMC Social Principles and charges the GBCS with promoting the positions in our Social Principles, rather than just any position it wants to promote. But as we have documented elsewhere on this site, basic integrity and honesty are often openly scorned by the self-described progressive wing of the UMC, to which the GBCS has long almost exclusively catered.

The already extremely unrepresentative, imbalanced GBCS board of directors did what they were expected to do in rubber-stamping the search committee’s choice, although, interestingly, the GBCS describes the largely pro forma directors’ vote as “overwhelming” rather than unanimous.

Henry-Crowe is currently Dean of the Chapel and Religious Life for the United Methodist-affiliated Emory University in Atlanta. She served two non-consecutive terms, from 1992 to 2000 and then from 2004 to 2012, on the United Methodist Church’s Judicial Council, our denomination’s supreme court. In 2001, she was an unsuccessful bishop candidate.

The plan is for current GBCS leader Jim Winkler, who has headed the agency since 2000, to be replaced by the Rev. Henry-Crowe in February 2014.

I have noted recently how under its previous leadership, the GBCS’s advocacy choices have included directly opposing our Social Principles on key, biblically clear points (particularly on abortion and non-marital sex), stooping to rather unnuanced, unthoughtful, and unhinged rhetoric (such as equating Christian non-public schooling with terrorist-training madrassahs), lobbying hard for the Obamacare bill while demonstrably lacking the diligence and/or competence to care much its negative implications for clergy health care, and taking money away from an alcohol-focused restricted fund to pay for all of this.

I have also noted more fundamental problems with the GBCS misrepresenting Scripture and Methodist theology, refusing (for 15 years!) to follow through on a resolution from its own board calling for dialogue with IRD/UMAction, knowingly misleading politicians into suggesting that they in any way represent grassroots United Methodists, and consistently operating from a secular, partisan political orientation rather than being rooted in Scripture, Methodist doctrine, and a commitment to faithfully representing the United Methodists in the pews who fund the GBCS’s work.

While Winkler bears great responsibility for these problems, they are far more deeply rooted than any single chief executive, and amount to a powerful legacy of institutional momentum which the Rev. Henry-Crowe inherits.

But IRD President Mark Tooley noted how the GBCS’s current path is unsustainable over the long run and how the new GBCS General Secretary would be wise to lead the GBCS towards honest reconciliation and trust-restoration with our denomination’s growing orthodox majority.

Unfortunately, though sadly not surprisingly, the new GBCS chief selected by the Hoshibata-led committee brings plenty of her own “baggage” that creates further barriers for trust. Last year, Henry-Crowe was honored at an Emory University gay “pride” (hardly a Christian virtue) celebration for having “played a critical role in negotiating a policy allowing same-sex couples to marry in campus chapels.” As a Judicial Council member, she went out of her way to defend the extremist Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), make clear that she “deeply regret[ted] the outcome” of how enforcing church law defrocked a homosexually active minister, and bizarrely claim that there was somehow an “historic understanding that the Church is open to all,” apparently without any firm expectations of belief or behavior before the important step of becoming a member.

As a non-conservative United Methodist pastor-blogger pointed out at that time, “Henry Crowe’s dissenting opinion does not give us any theological resources for helping us to make any faithful distinctions” and would mean that “a member of the KKK should be allowed membership in the UMC.” The Henry-Crowe standard would also seem to support, and perhaps require, granting membership-on-demand to that avowed atheist seeking church membership solely for the sake of his agendas as a self-described “political organizer.” It seems like the new public face of United Methodism on Capitol Hill should take some time to study the church’s actual “historic understanding,” from New Testament teaching about the demands of membership in the Christian community (and holding members accountable for sexual immorality, as in 1 Corinthians 5) to the first-century Didache’s clear moral demands of church members (including not committing abortion or sexual immorality, FWIW) to our own denomination’s history of having such high membership expectations that church attendance was typically several times larger than formal membership.

At IRD, we do believe in the Holy Spirit’s power to bring people to repentance and transformation.

But we cannot forget how the last time the GBCS chose a new chief executive, we also saw lip-service from him about building bridges with evangelical United Methodists, finding constructive ways to cooperate with IRD/UMAction, and at least having the basic integrity to follow the Book of Discipline. The record noted above speaks for itself.

Nevertheless, if the Rev. Henry Crowe is willing to offer more than just lip service, but sincere, sustained commitment to leading the GBCS into beginning, for a welcome change, to value things like non-partisanship, biblical groundedness (in contrast to politically-driven proof-texting), nuance, thoughtfulness, humility, serving and representing the whole church (rather than just a narrow liberal-caucus faction), offering Golden-Rule respectful treatment to those who may disagree with the staff’s views, and operating with integrity according to its own rules, then we at IRD/UMAction would be excited to support her leadership in such efforts.

What remains to be seen is if the Rev. Henry-Crowe will have any interest in such things.

  1. Comment by Stephen Kilpatrick on August 18, 2013 at 5:29 pm

    I’m very sorry to see any of my local UMC church’s money going to this liberal and disobedient ruling class of the denomination.

  2. Comment by gary on August 19, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    And I thought we couldn’t get any worse than Jim Winkler – think again.

  3. Comment by cleareyedtruthmeister on August 19, 2013 at 3:27 pm

    Ms. Henry-Crowe will likely be more of the same. Ms. Crowe has been touted “Dr. Henry-Crowe” by the GBCS—but her doctorate was honorary and awarded by an institution that does not grant doctorate degrees.

    In the recent past she invited J. J. Altizer to speak at the Emory U campus. Altizer is known for leading a “death of God” movement back in the 1960’s.

    The real question is why people like Winkler and Crowe feel the need to hijack Christianity for their own political purposes. I think the answer, in part, has to do with funding.

  4. Comment by Pudentiana on August 27, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    Money is the word here. Money and power. People who have no integrity and are ideologues blinded by their own selfish ambition and pride find churches to be such complete patsies for words like “justice” and “prophetic”. I regret to say that Mr. Winkler has not retired, he is only going out into Conferences to ply his craft of slight of hand with scripture and will be coming to a “workshop” or “seminar” on social justice near you in the near future. He will soon be at the E. Penna. Conference.

  5. Comment by Confused on September 3, 2013 at 5:50 pm

    What happened to separation of church and state?

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