Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
May 1999 – A guilty verdict in the ecclesiastical trial of a pastor who performed a same-sex “holy union” ceremony for two homosexual men has once again shaken the United Methodist Church (UMC) over the issue of homosexuality.
The Rev. Greg Dell, pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Lakeview, Illinois, and a minister for nearly 30 years, was found guilty of breaking church law by a jury of 13 ministers.
The jury also handed out a penalty that may effectively defrock Dell: he is suspended from further ministry, beginning July 5, until he promises never to perform another same-sex commitment ceremony. Dell has repeatedly said he would never make such a pledge.
The controversy surrounding homosexuality has threatened to split the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination. While the pro-homosexual minority has grown increasingly vocal, the UMC has taken steps to crystallize the denomination’s position.
In 1996 the UMC’s General Conference, which governs the 8.5- million-member denomination, voted 2-1 to explicitly prohibit its ministers from performing same-sex unions or its churches to host such ceremonies.
But controversy erupted last year when Nebraska pastor Rev. Jimmy Creech was also placed on trial for performing a commitment ceremony between two lesbians. Using the argument that the General Conference vote was not binding as church law, Creech was acquitted by a jury.
In August, however, the UMC’s Judicial Council, its highest court, ruled that the prohibition on same-sex ceremonies was, in fact, church law. Dell’s trial is the first following that court decision.
An unrepentant pastor
Dell has been favorable to the pro-homosexual faction within the UMC, calling the presence of unrepentant homosexuals in his ethnically-mixed congregation part of a “wonderful tapestry.” Self-avowed homosexuals make up a third of his church.
While Dell freely admitted performing the ceremony, he said he also felt it was part of his duty as a pastor. “And when they bring to you a relationship that is filled with love and commitment, that understands the mystery of God in that love and commitment, and when they say to you…‘We want the blessing of God on that relationship,’ you do that as a privilege,” Dell said.
Rev. Stephen Williams, who acted as counsel for the UMC, said, “If the church cannot enforce this binding provision, then the General Conference is stripped of its full legislative authority. The Judicial Council is stripped of its judicial authority. And 8.5 million Methodists are stripped of their right, through the General Conference, to determine what may or may not be done in the name of the church.”
Following the jury decision, Dell was unrepentant. “I make mistakes, but I don’t think I did when I celebrated this service,” he said. He also said he considered the UMC ban on homosexual unions to be part of the denomination’s “rigid legalisms.”
Not over yet
If conservatives within the UMC have breathed a sigh of relief over the Dell verdict, it may be premature. There are signs that the struggle to validate same-sex relationships is not yet over.
UMC Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago, who signed the complaint against Dell, said he did so with deep regret, and may not do so again if another similar case arises. Sprague has acknowledged that he has himself twice performed same-sex ceremonies.
Meanwhile, the impact of the Dell decision may be felt further west, where 69 UMC pastors of the California-Nevada Conference have had a complaint filed against them for jointly officiating at a commitment ceremony for two lesbians. (See AFA Journal, March 1999.) Bishop Melvin G. Talbert referred the complaint to church counsel, which will decide whether a trial in this matter is imperative.
But Talbert, like Sprague, is in favor of homosexual unions. In a press release in which he lamented his responsibility to refer the complaint to church counsel, Talbert said he nevertheless would “join [the 69 ministers] in stating I personally disagree with this area of church law.”
Dell, facing the prospect of no longer having a pulpit, has promised nonetheless to remain within the UMC and fight to overturn the ban on same-sex unions at the next General Conference in 2000. 
