United Methodist Women Honor Melvin Talbert

on December 13, 2013

The Scarritt-Bennett Center, a Nashville retreat center operated by the United Methodist Women (UMW), recently presented an award to retired bishop Melvin Talbert. Talbert has been in the news lately for his “biblical obedience” campaign urging clergy to perform same-sex marriages in clear opposition to the Book of Discipline. Most recently, the Council of Bishops called for charges to be filed against Talbert for publicly performing a same-sex ceremony in Birmingham, Alabama and consequentially undermining the authority of the local bishop. But despite the pending charges, Talbert was honored December 7th by Scarritt-Bennett with the Ann L. Reskovac Courage Award for social activism. In his speech accepting the award, Talbert railed against his battle with the UMC, and called on attendees to support President Barack Obama.

According to a United Methodist News Service (UMNS) news report, the executive director of the center Jocelyn D. Briddell claimed that Talbert was being presented the award “because of his selfless service and commitment to inclusiveness regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation. He believes that all humankind should be about grace and love, and therefore there is always room at God’s Table for each and every one of us.” While Briddell was not quoted explicitly mentioning the charges against Talbert, her reference to sexual orientation, the timing of the award, and the fact that the award is given for Godly ‘courage’ makes it hard not to see the award as an endorsement of his disobedience campaign.

In his acceptance speech, Talbert addressed what he termed as his “battle in my church.” UMNS reports that Talbert called the church’s conduct “criminal,” in that people living in same-sex relationships were forced to hide that fact. “When the church participates in that kind of hypocrisy, someone has to name it.”

Talbert also urged attendees to support President Obama, comparing him to respected civil rights leaders he had met in his lifetime. Only two days after the death of Nelson Mandela, Talbert declared that people should support leaders like Mandela while they are still alive. “[W]e have, as the president of this country, one of the leaders with the same kind of potential as a Martin Luther King Jr. and as a Nelson Mandela, but we are hating him,” Talbert lamented.

In addition to the award given to Talbert, Catholic nun and death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean was given the Belle Harris Bennett Vision Award for her anti-death penalty activism. But even then, Prejean managed to drag gay rights into the discussion by comparing it to the death penalty. “All of the deep human rights issues are connected to dignity,” she claimed, saying that the debate over gay rights was driven by the belief that someone who is gay is not quite human or normal.

Unfortunately, the honoring of Melvin Talbert by the United Methodist Women is par for the course for a division of the church that has a long history of unfettered liberal activism. In this year alone, the UMW have demanded a complete halt of border security and illegal immigration enforcement, praised Roe v. Wade while calling for a re-examination of the UMC’s support for crisis pregnancy centers, and lobbied for increased restrictions on the Second Amendment and against fracking and the Keystone pipeline.

However they may have crossed a new line by siding with actions that so brazenly breaks with the Council of Bishops. If the award given to Talbert does not indicate a support of his campaign to disobey the bishops and the Book of Discipline, or if the actions of the Scarritt-Bennett board do not reflect the views of their division, UMW should make that clear. In the meantime, United Methodist women who do not agree with honoring an activist intent on subverting the faithfulness, authority and unity of the United Methodist Church ought to make their disagreement heard.

  1. Comment by Marilyn on December 15, 2013 at 10:21 pm

    Your call for United Methodist Women who do not agree with honoring Bishop Talbert whose actions were “intent on subverting the faithfulness, authority and unity of the United Methodist Church” is wonderful. However, first they must be made aware of what is going on at the national level of the UMW. Our local church has no idea of this action of honoring Bishop Talbert. We are left entirely in the dark and loyally continue to send the required portion of our dues to some place beyond our local church. At our last meeting I asked the question of our president about where our money goes and how it is used. We work hard to raise money for missions not realizing how the “powers that be” at the top are betraying our trust.

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