This is a series of exchanges between a large number of Asbury Seminary alumns and the president of Asbury. The originals are linked in the first few words of the excerpts which follow. See also this earlier story from Cynthia Astle of UM-Insight.
The original letter notes that many Asbury-related people have participated in the harm being done to LGBTQ United Methodists. Excerpts:
We recognize that many of Asbury’s faculty, administration, students, and alumni have either actively aided the passage of the Traditional Plan at the Special General Conference or have stood by silently and been complicit with its passage. Either way, this is sin. As signers of this letter we confess our culpability in not making space for LGBTQ+ people in our lives, churches, and ministries. We have asked God for forgiveness and we seek to live in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings. As we learned at our time at Asbury, to persecute people for who they are - for who God has created them to be - is a denial of the Imago Dei within each person. To stand in judgment over others and to attempt a systematic purge of LGBTQ+ people through a series of complaints and trials is sin.
We urge our fellow Asbury administrative leaders, faculty, current and fellow alumni to repent of this sin and to join us in standing in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings in Christ.
Further, we ask for the current administration of Asbury Theological Seminary, as well as past presidents, to publicly repent from the harm done against LGBTQ+ people in the United Methodist Church as well as LGBTQ+ students who have attended Asbury in the past and who attend Asbury currently.
President Tennant;s response outlines Asbury's ethos and history. An excerpt:
For nearly 100 years Asbury Theological Seminary has been dedicated to “Scriptural Christianity” which joyfully embraces the historic Christian faith, as well as the particular rich heritage of our grand wesleyan tradition. Today, we serve over 90 different denominations around the world.
First, let me clarify that Asbury Seminary has no official relationship within the United Methodist Church and had no role in crafting any legislation for the UMC. We are not one of the 13 official United Methodist Seminaries, though we are approved to train pastors for ordination in the UMC. We train pastors and leaders for a broad spectrum of churches, including United Methodist, Wesleyan, Free Methodist, Anglican, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Salvation Army, Nazarene, as well as a wonderful array of Pentecostal denominations and newly emerging Christian networks. Our nearly 12,000 graduates around the world are, as your own letter powerfully illustrates, free agents who share a wide range of views regarding the issues you raised in your letter....
Second, it is true that Asbury has always embraced the view, as reflected in our ethos statement, that Christian marriage “joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union.” Our ethos statement is annually re-affirmed by all of our Trustees, administrators, faculty and senior staff members of the Seminary. We believe that those who are demanding that the church change its position regarding the Christian view of the body and human sexuality have not offered a compelling biblical, historical and theological case for such a dramatic change in the historic ethic of the church....
It has become increasingly clear to many around the world that, despite the importance of the issues you raised, the deeper issue facing many in the contemporary western church is the authority of Scripture....
Bill Mefford's reply to President Tennant's letter (excerpts):
First, I would like to thank you for your thoughtful response to the letter signed by a large number of Asbury alumni that I sent you urging you, Asbury Seminary’s board, administrative leaders, and past Presidents Dunnam and Greenway to repent of the harm to our LGBTQ+ siblings in Christ in the United Methodist Church....
You made several points that I feel deserve a response. In your letter, you repeated a claim made by many who support the Traditional Plan: that this is about traditionalists supposedly holding to a higher authority of Scripture. All the while, you ignore what I feel is more central to what is happening right now and is central to Scripture itself: addressing harm against and marginilization of children of God, particularly to LGBTQ+ people in this context.
The insinuation you and others make with this argument is that we who hold to a more open and inclusive understanding of marriage do not also hold to the authority of Scripture. You and others who have asserted this are simply wrong. I and the signers with whom who I have been in communication are just as passionate as you are in our belief in the authority of Scripture. It is time to let this baseless assertion die. Holding rigidly to a culturally biased and eisegetical interpretation of six verses in the Bible does not a belief in the authority of Scripture make. There are numerous instances in Scripture of God moving God’s people out of culturally informed teachings into a more missional and just praxis of loving people. This is a legitimate form of fidelity to the authority and transformational power of Scripture that many members of the Body of Christ hold.,,,
I was most saddened that in your letter there was no signal of repentance for the tremendous amount of harm caused over the years by our beloved seminary to LGBTQ+ people. There was not even a simple and appropriate apology for the harm that has been and is being done.. There certainly should be....
Bill Mefford is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary, and is a lay person who serves as primary coordinator for The Fig Tree Revolution, a justice ministry. This post (on UM-Insight) is republished with permission from The Fig Tree revolution's blog.
Read this reflection on Tennant's letter from Gil Caldwell, retired clergy from Mountain Sky Conference.