Who Votes at General Conference?

Friends,

What Annual Conference will have the largest delegation at the 2008 General Conference? Looks to me like the Nigerian Annual Conference beats out the largest U.S. delegation. Nigeria will have 44 delegates compared to the largest U.S. Annual Conference which is Virginia with only 30. The second largest delegation in the General Conference is also from Africa--the North Katanga Conference (in Congo) with 38 delegates.

Nigeria, as you may know, is also the home of the Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, who has called for draconian legislation criminalizing homosexuality in Nigeria, and denying gay persons the freedoms of speech, association and assembly. The voting power of African delegations at the United Methodist General Conference has been credited with the continuance of anti-LGBT policies of the United Methodists in the United States.

Here's a link to the delegate distribution for the 2008 General Conference.

Transgender Pastor Speaks for Himself

The Rev. Drew Phenix delivered the following statement in a session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. Formerly, the Rev. Ann Gordon, Drew Phoenix is a female to male transgender person. The statement is informative and articulate!

Statement to the plenary session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference
May 24, 2007

Last fall, after a lifelong spiritual journey, and years of prayer and discernment, I decided to change my name from Ann Gordon to Drew Phoenix in order to reflect my true gender identity and to honor my spiritual transformation and relationship with God.

My transition to live fully as the male I know myself to be is very personal and deeply spiritual. As a Christian, I worship God – I AM. People frequently asked Jesus, “Who are you?” His response was, “Who do you say I am?” “Who do YOU say YOU are?”

I believe that our spiritual path is, in great part, the answer to: Who am I? I am ...

I realize that my transition may be confusing and surprising for those of you who have known me for years but were unaware of what I was going through. I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to share.

It is my intention and hope that, by sharing my story – my relationship with God and my spiritual journey – we will commit ourselves to becoming educated about the complexity of gender and gender identity and open ourselves to those in our congregations who identify as transgender.

When I was born, society declared that I was a girl, and my parents named me Ann Gordon. But for as long as I can remember I have felt like a boy, acted like a boy, dressed like a boy and wanted to hang out with the boys. And for the first several yeas of my life, my parents let me by my boy-self. In fact, I was referred to by everyone in our small town as my father’s son, Dave Gordon’s son.

So it was very difficult when I reached puberty to be pressured by family, friends, church and community to conform, to dress and act, like a female. At the time (unlike now), there was no language or body of knowledge about gender identity, and certainly no available medical expertise, to help me describe and understand the disconnect I was experiencing between my physical, external self and my internal, spiritual self. I identify as male. The gender I was assigned at birth has never matched my own true, authentic, God-given gender identity … how I know myself.

Fortunately, today, God’s gift of medical science is enabling me to bring my physical body into alignment with my true gender. I am making this transition under the care of an excellent medical team. I am grateful for their expertise. They have been instruments of God’s grace for me.

As I continue to transition, to fully claim myself as a male, I find myself coming home to the Child God created me to be. I find myself joyful, whole, and peaceful. And I find myself even more effective as a pastor.

You may ask what effect this is having on the church I am currently serving, St. John’s of Baltimore City. I can tell you that St. John’s is growing and thriving on its Discipleship Adventure. In the past 5 years, membership has quadrupled, for the first time in years families with children are participating, stewardship has tripled, several new ministries have been initiated, and the congregation has plans to begin renovating its old, historical building in order to be more efficient, effective, and relevant in its vision and mission.

As I have chosen to transition, the congregation has studied, listened, and prayed in order to understand and embrace the meaning of my transition within my call to ministry and within our call as a congregation. My prayer, and greatest concern always is that the congregation continues to grow and thrive.

Gender identity diversity is not easy for most people to understand, as we have been steeped in an either/or, male/female-only understanding of gender. It is hard to believe that our bodies do not tell the whole story about what we are. I assure you that I am not one-of-a-kind, that there are many people like me in our congregations who are suffering with the disconnect that I have felt.

Jesus’ central message is that God’s love and grace extend unconditionally to all of us, not because we look a certain way or have a particular identity, but because we are all children of God created in God’s image. Each of us is a beloved child of God. No exceptions.

Today, in your congregation, in your communities, are young people and adults struggling with who they are and how they fit in. Maybe their families do not understand them; perhaps their friends have isolated them. They are wondering if they fit into the church. As Christians it is essential that we communicate to them God’s unconditional love and their worth and value as children of God made in God’s image. You can begin that process today as I stand here and witness to the complexity and joy of God’s creation.

Institute on Religion and Democracy on Transgender Pastor

The American Spectator carries an article produced by the right-wing Washington think tank Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). Predictably, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, an organization backed by a lot of non-Methodist right-wingers, has plans to meddle in the business of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference and the congregation of St. John's Church where Pastor Phoenix has been appointed. Unfortunately, IRD is likely to succeed in spreading their misinformation and prejudice about transgender persons because transgender folks are not well-understood by the general public. I refer the curious reader to my post on the subject which immediately precedes this post (below).

The Institute on Religion and Democracy has experienced a good deal of success in using the struggle for lesbian and gay equality as a "wedge issue" to divide and manipulate mainline denominations--notably the Methodists, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. IRD's backers are threatened by the perceived "liberalism" of these denominations. IRD's loyalties are more with the neoconservative political movement and "big business" than the cause of Christ. Their goals include putting a stop to Christian support for enviornmentalism and the peace movement--a clean environment and world peace are bad for business after all. (Please excuse the irony.)

Transgender United Methodist Pastor Continued in Appointment

The United Methodist News Service reports that the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference and Bishop John Schol have approved the reappointment of a pastor to St. John's United Methodist Church who is a female to male transgender person.

The term "transgender" is unfamilar and poorly understood by most chuch folks, I suspect, and so I provide the link to the wikipedia article on the subject. As a rather ordinary gay man, I'm no expert on the transgender experience and defer to others to express "expert" opinions. Nevertheless, I am convinced that transgender persons have as much and more to offer the body of Christ to which they belong as do those of us who have always taken for granted that the gender we were assigned at birth defines who we are as male and female.

Transgender persons have probably experienced greater oppression and less understanding than have gay and lesbian people. For one thing they are fewer in number. For another they are less well understood by the general public than gay and lesbian persons. From my experience working with Soulforce, I was struck by the large proportion of violent assaults visited upon transgender persons as compared with gays and lesbians and the apparent fact that assaults on transgender persons are particularly violent and deadly as compared to the assaults on lesbians and gays (which can be really awful).

The wikipedia article cited above raises the issue of whether the transgender experience should continue to be labeled a mental illness, especially since homosexuality has been removed from the official list of psychiatric disorders since 1973. I think our problem is that we don't recognize that "male" and "female" are categories that have a lot of cultural content that does not always reflect what we Christians call the "created order." From rather simplistic readings of Genesis many Christians conclude that "male and female" are clear categories established by God. A close scientific study of God's creation as it actually is, however, reveals that the male-female categories are not always so neat and clear. Many, maybe most, individuals are born with varying degrees of masculinity and femininity. Humans come in all shapes and sizes. When it comes to the physical charcteristics of gender--the genitalia of infants for instance--it is not always easy to determine the gender of newborns. Even more mysterious, there are persons whose sense of self as male or female simply does not match their apparent physical characteristics--and so we have people who feel they are some how trapped in the body of the wrong gender. Simply because a given individual does not fit certain cultural categories does not necessarily make them "ill." For many decades one common treatment for this condition involves hormone treatments and gender reassignment surgery--not to "cure" the person of the feeling of gender that they have, but to bring their body into accord with the gender which the individual identifies as their true gender.

Some folks, I believe wikipedia uses the term "genderqueer" are quite content to live with ambiguous gender--neither entirely male or female. Gender reassignment is not the solution for everyone. Society is troubled with folks who don't fit clearly into either the male or female box--but that is society's problem. Nature and God always defy our neat little categories--that's what makes creation and God so awesome, don't you think?!

The "transgender issue" tends to overlap the "gay issue" because both issues challenge powerful cultural notions of gender. Although I have always been comfortable, as a gay man, with my male body and identity, my choice for a life partner, my husband Jim, violates our culture's gender rules.

Still here!

It's been a good while since I've posted to this blog. Life has been busy and "the well has been dry" as far as writing goes. Rest assured I am still here, alive and active. Married life remains blissful and the grand-baby has been a real joy. We celebrated baby Jordan's first birthday six weeks ago already!

Right now I'm pondering writing a piece about transgender persons in the church. Coming soon!

The Theocons

I've recently begun to read Damon Linker's book, The Theocons. The Institute on Religion and Democracy is an organization which exists to promote "renewal" in mainline Protestant Churches (chiefly the United Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches), and yet it has a Board of Directors which is largely Roman Catholic. Andrew Weaver has written about this phenomenon.

Roman Catholics prominent in IRD include: Father Richard John Neuhaus, Professor Robert George, Michael Novak, George Weigel. These are not ordinary Roman Catholics, but men with connections to and affinities with the neoconservatives or "neocons," thus the moniker "theocon."

Damon Linker's book, The Theocons makes an important contribution to the many books coming out lately on the topic of the Christian Right. Most of these works focus on the Evangelical portion of this movement. The Theocons gives us a bigger picture which goes a long way to explain the connections between Evangelicals, the Bush White House and neoconservative intellectuals with Washington ties.

Mary had a baby!

"Mary Had a Baby" is the name of an old spiritual. It's also a tune that may be hummed in the Cheney household . Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of the Vice President of the United States, is having a baby with her partner Heather Poe. The Christian Right is, of course, outraged that while there is, no doubt, a sperm donor, there will be no father in this household. Soulforce very helpfully points out that mainstream science would predict that a child raised in the Cheney-Poe household will do very nicely even if she/he may confront from time to time some angry members of the Christian Right.

Same-Gender Marriage--a Heterosexual Invention?

It is now not quite two months since Jim and I were legally wed at the City Hall in Toronto. I've already posted on this blog the homily which I composed for that wedding service. Although the City Hall ceremony is a "civil ceremony" there was a tremendous amount of freedom to craft the service to suit the couple. We chose to use the wedding rite found in the United Methodist Book of Worship. It's a very Episcopalian-like service containing lots of well-crafted prayers. I did some very light editing, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that very little editing was required to remove either sexism or heterosexism.

The familiar introduction of the service refers to the Bible story of Jesus' attendance at the wedding feast at Cana--a story in which "bride and groom" play no part except as the excuse to party! There is also a reference to the biblical analogy that compares the relationship of Christ and the Church to the relationship of husband and wife, but in the modernized United Methodist rite there is absolutely no reference to gender differences between husband and wife, for example nowhere in the rite is there a statement that the husband is "head" of the wife as Christ is the "head of the church."

Someone has already pointed out that modern marriage has already been changed by modern heterosexuals who have removed the gender differences between husband and wife. With these gender differences removed there is no longer any reason to deny marriage to same-gender couples. Heterosexuals, in effect, created "gay marriage," long before gay people began to take advantage of it.

Here is the "Greeting" from the beginning of our wedding service:

Friends, we are gathered together in the presence of the God to witness and bless the joining together of James and Steven in Christian marriage. The covenant of marriage was established by the Creator, who made humanity for companionship. With his presence and power Jesus graced a wedding at Cana of Galiliee and in his sacrificial love gave us the example for the love of one spouse for another. James and Steven come to give themselves to one another in this holy covenant.

And here is the "Prayer of Thanksgiving" from the conclusion of the service--a prayer which I especially liked:

Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love
in making us a covenant people through our Savior Jesus Christ and for consecrating in his name the marriage covenant of James and Steven. Grant that their love for each other may reflect the love of Christ for us and grow from strength to strength as they faithfully serve you in the world.
Defend them from every enemy.
Lead them into all peace.
Let their love for each other
be a seal upon their hearts,
a mantle about their shoulders,
and a crown upon their heads.
Bless them in their work and in their companionship;
in their sleeping and in their waking,
in their joys and in their sorrows;
in their lives and in their deaths.
Finally, by your grace, bring them and all of us to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Amen and Amen!