{"id":13746,"date":"2016-08-05T14:36:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T21:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=13746"},"modified":"2016-08-25T15:02:47","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T22:02:47","slug":"commentary-reflections-on-a-strange-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/commentary-reflections-on-a-strange-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Reflections on a Strange Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections on a Strange Silence<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

By the Rev. Vince Hart<\/strong><\/p>\n

About 25 years ago I submitted a paper at the Portland hearing of the UMC Committee for the Study of Homosexuality which had been authorized by the 1988 General Conference and was to report back to the 1992 session.  The central point of my paper, reflecting my thoughts as I had followed the controversy, was my belief that at the core of the controversy, yet rarely if ever mentioned, were two distinctly different understandings of the true character of the Bible and the nature of its authority.  This was not a deep \u201cfundamentalist-inerrancy\u201d view over against a \u201cmodernist-secular\u201d view.  But there was enough difference between the two perspectives that their views of \u201cscriptural authority\u201d were almost poles apart.  Yet that issue seemed never to get serious discussion!  A \u201dstrange silence\u201d indeed, given the central role of Scripture in all UMC pursuit of truth and God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today I would frame the \u201cunmentionable\u201d core issue somewhat differently.  The two starkly contrasting views of the nature of the Bible and its authority still confront us, never fully acknowledged or seriously explored. Yet the deeper (deepest?) issue concerns the nature and authority of the Bible as a revered but ancient text on the one hand and the nature and authority of our living God on the other!  Yet our debates continue to focus on Bible texts or on broad issues of \u201cjustice\u201d and \u201cinclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why are we not discussing the evidence of God\u2019s present action?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I believe that the closest biblical analogy is found in Acts 10-11, the remarkable little drama of God\u2019s utterly surprising acceptance of Gentiles (pagans) into the new community!  The shock is hard to perceive or comprehend 2000 years later.  The unconditional acceptance of Roman Cornelius and his whole household, as evidenced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit just as it had come onto the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost, was extremely controversial, stirring rebuke and great controversy   For us, the hatred, the despising of Gentiles, the conviction that they were enemies of God, an instant source of ritual contamination, is so very far from our present awareness.  After all, most of us are Gentiles!<\/p>\n

\"The
The Rev. Vince Hart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The totally unconditional grace offered to Cornelius\u2019 household, without any prior change of \u201clifestyle\u201d was a divine act quite contrary to the tradition and much of the Scripture of Jews at that time.  Today that same unconditional grace is evident in the lives of thousands of LGBTQIA persons, many of them United Methodist clergy!  Those clergy in particular have been scrupulously examined as to whether they evidence the gifts and graces and fruits which we profess to be the essential evidence of God\u2019s will for all clergy\u2014and they have passed the test in Conference after Conference, at least until they \u201ccame out.\u201d As in Acts 10-11, the test is, ultimately, whether God\u2019s present action has revealed God\u2019s present will for these persons.  Thus, to reject the present evidence upon the basis of a very few somewhat obscure verses in an ancient text, however highly respected, borders on idolatry\u2014granting divine authority to something created rather than to the Creator!  Further, it risks \u201chindering\u201d God (Acts 11:17).<\/p>\n

It is time to break the strange silence on this issue!
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The Rev. Vince Hart is a retired clergyperson from The Pacific Northwest Conference.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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