The phrase that haunted United Methodists for 52 years is gone

Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the updated Social Principles of The United Methodist Church.

Back in 1972, delegates to the first full General Conference of the four-year-old United Methodist Church struggled to adopt a set of guidelines for Christian living known as The Social Principles. Their deliberations came amid massive social upheaval in the United States as marginalized groups agitated for equal rights.

The United Methodist Church struggled with its own social upheaval. The racially segregated Central Jurisdiction was eliminated in the merger that created the church in 1968. Women had been granted full clergy rights only in 1956.

What challenged some in the new denomination most was the open discussion of human sexuality. Human sexual variations were known universally as “homosexuality,” typically referring both openly and tacitly to gay men alone.

Back in 1972, on a late-night vote of that General Conference, a group of conservative delegates proposed an amendment to the Social Principles: “The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Whether worn out or sympathetic to the proposal, delegates approved the amendment.

That phrase came to haunt the UMC for the next 52 years.

“That phrase came to haunt the UMC for the next 52 years.”

Even though the Social Principles, contained in the Book of Discipline, are held to be guidelines, not church law, the “incompatible” phrase was used as the biblical and theological rationale for enforceable church laws that officially discriminated against LGBTQ Christians. Until 2024, the UMC banned LGBTQ people from ordained ministry although dozens of closeted gays and lesbians served local churches. Some pastors took a hard line, refusing church leadership and sometimes even membership to “out” members of the LGBTQ community.

Even after same-sex marriage was confirmed as a constitutional right by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016, the UMC still refused to allow same-sex and nonbinary marriages and punished clergy who conducted such ceremonies. After 2016’s unsanctioned election as bishop of an openly lesbian, married clergywoman, Karen P. Oliveto, the issue of “human sexuality” came to a head at a February 2019 special General Conference. By a 58-vote margin, delegates upheld the “incompatible” phrase and the church laws based on it. The special session also enacted harsher penalties for transgressing the UMC’s anti-LGBTQ laws.

Backlash to the special session’s actions took the UMC — especially its “traditionalists” — by surprise. During 2019’s spring and summer, nearly 75% of U.S. annual (regional) conferences and a few European conferences adopted measures resisting or rejecting the special session’s actions. Most importantly, dissenting annual conferences elected progressive delegates to the scheduled 2020 General Conference with the mandate to overturn the “incompatible” language and the laws and penalties based on it.

Then came the global coronavirus pandemic and the world stopped.

UMC leaders postponed the 2020 General Conference to 2021, and then to 2022, and finally to 2024. During that time a proposal to divide the UMC amicably was independently negotiated and promoted, but the third postponement of General Conference delivered the coup de grace to that idea. Angry traditionalists began taking advantage of a “gracious exit” provision from the 2019 special session and aggressively promoted leaving the UMC “for reasons of conscience,” a process known as disaffiliation.

When the 2024 General Conference finally came, 7,500 congregations had left the UMC, leaving behind a far more congenial and cohesive legislative assembly.

At the same time the UMC’s outward dissolution proceeded painfully in public, a more circumspect movement was taking place, namely the development of the Revised Social Principles. Gone was the phrase “homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching.” In its place a more inclusive definition of human sexuality emerged:

Human sexuality is a healthy and natural part of life that is expressed in wonderfully diverse ways from birth to death. It is shaped by a combination of nature and nurture: heredity and genetic factors on the one hand and childhood development and environment on the other. We further honor the diversity of choices and vocations in relation to sexuality such as celibacy, marriage and singleness.

The human sexuality definition was followed by a new definition of marriage:

Within the church, we affirm marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith, an adult man and woman of consenting age, or two adult persons of consenting age into union with one another.

Delegate Molly Hlekani Mwayera, then a member of Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court, proposed the amendment defining marriage also as between two people of consenting age. Mwayera said her amendment was intended to address two cultural practices prevalent in Africa and Asia: child marriage and polygamy. Both practices, along with divorce, are addressed as well in separate paragraphs.

Nonetheless, anti-LGBTQ forces led by Jerry Kulah of Liberia raged against the marriage proposal. Unlike 2019, they were unsuccessful in convincing 2024’s delegates to uphold the “incompatible” phrase and all law that hung on it.

The specter that had haunted the UMC for more than half a century finally was exorcised — on paper at least.

With human sexuality overshadowing “The Social Community” for half a century, other topics in the section that address aspects of human life were overlooked. The 2024 version took full advantage of the moment to assemble topics of concern to non-U.S. church members.

The revised “Social Community” section begins with an affirmation of diverse forms of families. It pleads for the welfare of children and urges family members to treat one another with love and respect. The section also commends singleness as a lifestyle.

Under a subheading “Other Social Issues,” the UMC:

Opposes abuse of addictive substances including alcohol and tobacco
Opposes bullying and other forms of violence
Denounces colonialism, neocolonialism and their consequences
Supports death with dignity including faithful care of dying people but rejects euthanasia and suicide
Opposes gambling, a stance that puts the church at odds with its Native American members whose communities often benefit from gaming revenue
Supports gender equality for women and girls and gender diversity in decision-making and leadership
Cautions against misuse of media and communication technologies
Opposes pornography
Urges high ethical standards for medical experimentation and research
Supports organ donation and transplantation
Supports reproductive health access for women and girls; opposes abortion except in cases of incest or danger to the mother, but supports legal abortion when conditions warrant
Opposes racism, ethnocentrism and tribalism
Opposes sexual harassment, abuse and assault

In each case, the UMC pledges to minister to people no matter what their circumstances. Each subsection laments practices endangering individuals’ health and welfare and their effects on communities. Churches could spend a long time deeply parsing the UMC’s official stances on multifaceted aspects of human life as they plan ministries in their communities.

One thing is for certain: The United Methodist Church no longer officially discriminates against people who aren’t sexually heteronormative. In so doing, it has done away with a decades-old characterization of LGBTQ sexuality as contrary to Christian teaching and, by implication, a sin.

Institutional discrimination has ended, but not the UMC’s conflict. Recent unrest among United Methodists in Nigeria, Liberia and Zimbabwe over the Social Principles have shown that changing hearts is a lot harder than writing new definitions.