Christ First Forum

A decision to allow a lesbian couple to testify during the annual meeting of Mississippi United Methodists has caused widespread controversy.

The couple spoke at the June 12 worship service at the Mississippi Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, held in Jackson. The two women spoke of their desire to see the denomination formally accept homosexuals. Mississippi Bishop Hope Morgan Ward later told The Clarion-Ledger newspaper their "witness was not a challenge to the law of the church in any way."

But at least two Mississippi-based ordained UMC ministers -- Don Wildmon, founder and chairman of the American Family Association; and Buddy Smith, who pastors in Tremont, MS -- see it differently. Wildmon, according to The Clarion-Ledger, views the women's testimony as an indication that the state's leadership of the UMC "is promoting homosexual marriage." And Smith voiced concerns that young people in the audience "heard glowing testimony about the beauty and innocence of the homosexual lifestyle, which the Bible clearly says is sinful."

Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, says the issue of homosexuality will affect United Methodists in every state.

"It illustrates the problem of when you have a liberal bishop or other church leader presiding over a conservative church area," Tooley explains. "Mississippi, like most of the southeast, is a theologically and socially conservative area for the United Methodist Church, as it is across the board. And so inevitably there was going to be some conflict and controversy -- and this is the first vivid example of that."

Bishop Ward has invited clergy and lay people to a dialogue on the issue in early July.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=582056