In a campaign reminiscent of those waged by opponents of integration in the 1950s and 1960s the Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy is campaigning to keep gay people out of a United Methodist Church run camp.

They are urging supporters to write Lake Junaluska, a United Methodist conference facility, to demand that a conference called “Hearts on Fire” be cancelled because the conference, in the words of the anti-gay IRD, is “organized by pro-homosexuality caucus groups working to overthrow United Methodism’s teachings about marriage and sexual ethics.”

United Methodist News reports:

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. (UMNS) - This placid United Methodist retreat center has found itself in the center of a summer storm over rental of its facilities by the Reconciling Ministries Network, which advocates full participation in the church by people of all sexual orientations.

E-mail and official statements have passed back and forth in recent weeks, and church-related blogs and internet forums are buzzing about the gathering. Several hundred participants are expected for the "Hearts on Fire" event Sept. 2-5 at Lake Junaluska, a Southeastern Jurisdiction ministry about 30 miles west of Asheville.

"SEJAC does not approve of or disapprove of the 'Hearts on Fire' conference program, said Jimmy L. Carr, executive director of Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center. "The participants in the event will use the facilities of SEJAC and we will host them, as we do other groups who are our guests, in a gracious way that is exemplary of the wonderful United Methodist Church that we so love and desire to serve in the name of Jesus Christ."

Conservative leaders within the church have marshaled their supporters to express dismay at the gathering being held at Lake Junaluska.

"The 'Hearts on Fire' conference should not be held," said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News magazine. "The conference will not just be advocating for change in the church's standards; it will include large doses of preaching and teaching which are in direct opposition to the Scriptural norm and to the church's standards. That should not happen at a United Methodist conference center."

"Since Lake Junaluska's own internal rules require it to rent its facilities only to groups that share the 'mission' of the United Methodist Church, it seems highly inappropriate to rent those facilities for a rally for same-sex 'marriage,' homosexual clergy, and various exotic forms of sexual expression," said Mark Tooley, director of UMAction, part of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

The Rev. Troy Plummer, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, said Lake Junaluska is fulfilling its mandate as a "faithful United Methodist retreat and conference center to serve the whole church."

IRD has no official relationship with the United Methodist Church. It receives funding from several extremist conservative figures in American politics and many of their board and staff is active in partisan Republican Party activities. IRD works to intentionally undermine mainline churches through the use of paid staffers who organize against the progressive ministries of denominations such as the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church.  Tooley is a former CIA employee and not a UMC minister.

Reconciling Ministries Network is a group of 194 Reconciling Congregations, 26 Reconciling Campus Ministries, and 22 other Reconciling Communities and Ministries working to fully include gay and lesbian people in the United Methodist Church.

United Methodist policy is confusing as it relates to homosexuality.

On the one hand, the Social Principles of the UMC state:

The Church offers a unique opportunity to give quality guidance and education in this area. Homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth. All persons need the ministry and guidance of the church in their struggles for human fulfillment, as well as the spiritual and emotional care of a fellowship that enables reconciling relationships with God, with others, and with self.

But they also say:

Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God’s grace is available to all. We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn their lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.

Conservative groups that oppose the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the United Methodist Church have recently been allowed to use the camp facilities, reports United Methodist News.

Rev. Plummer told UMN that by allowing Reconciling Ministries to use the facility:

Lake Junaluska officials are "practicing open hearts, open minds, open doors as they continue to make disciples for Jesus Christ," he said. "I am perplexed by any who would confuse the love of God and grace of Jesus Christ with closed doors, closed minds, closed hearts."

Unfortunately, IRD preaches a partisan message of hate and division in place of the Gospel each and every day.

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