The Republican Party aligned-Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) is on the war path again against gays and lesbians. A piece posted on their site – written by 2004 Bush campaign worker John Lomperis - attacks two United Methodist bishops for supporting the ordination of homosexuals.
IRD is a group funded by people like extremist Richard Mellon Scaife and has a stated goal of “reforming” all mainline churches. The true intention of their supporters – some of the most conservative political activists in America – is to undermine the prophetic voice of Christianity to further their own political and personal goals.
Wouldn’t the president love it if his party could finally silence the churches from speaking out against his preemptive war and economic policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the least of these?
IRD’s anti-civil rights agenda has drawn support (unwelcome from IRD because of the obvious public relations implications) from the Klu Klux Klan.
One of their frequent targets has been Beth Stroud. Stroud, a United Methodist minister who has come out as a lesbian, has been put on trial by her denomination (which prohibits open homosexuals from serving as clergy) because of her sexual orientation. She was convicted of “practices incompatible with Christianity” and stripped of her ministerial credentials. Stroud is now involved in an appeals process.
Many United Methodists, however, oppose the official UMC policy regarding ordination are working to overturn it.
Stroud recently preached at the chapel at Eden Theological Seminary. She spoke about the call to ministry.
The story of Moses’ call begins with these words: “The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of their slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.”
That’s how Moses’ call begins: with not one word about Moses. It begins with the pain of the people of Israel, with their cry for help, and with God’s hearing their cry and taking notice of their pain and remembering God’s covenant with them. That’s where it all starts. The pain and the need of the people are primary; Moses himself is secondary. It’s very dramatic when God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush, but the drama is not grounded in Moses’ potential for leadership; the drama is grounded in the human suffering of which God has taken notice.
Once God has Moses’ attention, God’s first complete sentences are not about Moses but about the people. God says, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” It’s only after all of that has been said that God says, “I will send you.”
Then, God promises to make a way. Moses has reasonable objections to God’s calling him, beginning with, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” And what I notice is that God never answers that question. God never does tell Moses who he is that he should go. Maybe there’s no good answer to that question. God responds by saying, “I will be with you.” Moses asks, “Who am I?” and God responds as if to say, “Who you are is not the point; the point is who I am.”
It’s taken me a while to learn that my calling is not about me. It’s still often hard to remain clear about that. It’s not about my gifts and potential, and it’s not about my limitations, either. It’s always about a need or a hurt in the world that God has seen, a cry that God has heard, and what God intends to do about it.
Click here to read her full sermon.
God calls all of us to ministry in one way or another and plenty of imperfect people have heard the call to ordained ministry. Stroud is quick to point out her own imperfections. However, homosexuality, at least from my understanding of God, is not an imperfection but is in fact as much as a gift as my heterosexuality is. We are all created in God’s image.
IRD does not base their political stands in understandings of God (though they may mask them that way) but instead seek to divide the body of Christ to further their own interests.
IRD nearly goes so far as to equate the platform of the Republican Party for the Gospel teachings of Jesus.
This group supports war, opposes civil rights, fights against programs that help lift people out of poverty, and works to tear churches apart.
Standing in their way are people like Beth Stroud. She has been called by God to minister to all of us – even the supporters and staff of IRD. Let us pray that they take a deep breathe, let the Holy Spirit move them just as God has moved so many others from stands of oppression, and allow the love of Christ to fill their hearts so that they might abandon their campaigns of division. And while we pray for that let those of us who care for God’s justice pray that we learn new ways of sharing the Gospel that does not inflame people but instead inspires.
It is fair to say that Beth Stroud is helping to show us the way. Praise be to God for calling Beth to ministry.
