by Ben Roe
The United Methodist General Conference in Portland in 2016 asked the Council of Bishops to establish a special commission to make recommendations on how to deal with the explosive issues of human sexuality which threatened to derail the Conference.
That "Commission on the Way Forward" asked for input from interested groups in the church. Affirmation: United Methodists for LGBTQ Concerns asked me to put together a statement which could be submitted with others for our witness. This is my part of the statement, and my solution for the "Way Forward."
I'm Ben Roe from Denver, a seminary-trained lay person. I grew up in Nebraska, and over the years since the early 70s, I have come to the realization that gender and sex are not binary, and that I am aware of and celebrate my attractions to persons regardless of their gender.
I've studied and taught human sexuality and it is clear to me that our Disciplinary statements about sexuality are woefully inadequate to the complexity of what we know now about human sexuality in the 21st Century.
Our scientific knowledge is growing, and so far we know that there are six biological markers for sexual differentiation: chromosomes, hormones, brain structures, external genitalia, internal reproductive structures, and gonadal tissue—and all of them have a continuum of characteristics. And this all underlies the continua of gender and sexual orientation. So, the use of the very word “homosexual” is nearly meaningless in the face of this complexity.
Since the General Conference of The United Methodist Church has been unable and/or unwilling to acknowledge, much less deal with this complexity, and since sexuality is viewed so differently in different world cultures, I believe it is time to vastly simplify our stances, taking out references to sexual orientation, gender and marriage, and letting individual Annual, Jurisdictional, and Central Conference cultures shape further statements. Human rights may suffer in some parts of the world, but more diversity and honest conversation may prevail overall. And we will be able to embrace a “United” Methodism that is about much more than sexuality!
God bless you in your conversations and decisions.
(See my Curriculum Vitae for my background to make these statements.)