Follow the Money

In at least one of the police procedural shows I watch, the mantra of one of the characters is, “Follow the money.” When you figure out where the support is coming from you have a better handle on suspects, motives and timing of the crime. It seems to me that it is time to follow the money of one of the most divisive questions in church and social polity and policy - homosexuality. One of the folks who attended the United Methodist General Conference of 1972, the year the statement regarding homosexuality being incompatible with Christian teaching, said that a group of which he was a part was approached with a request for a favor from some avowed conservatives. The request was, give us this one paragraph, it won’t mean anything. And so that sentence was added to the Book of Discipline in 1972 and has been a bone of contention ever since. So, my question is, who is the driving influence behind this whole issue? As far as the Bible homosexuality is a matter of little import. Taken in or out of context it is a minor issue. If folks wanted an issue of moral weight why not emphasize a justice issue like caring for widows and orphans or an issue that impacts how we lead our lives such as fasting, hearing and doing the word and will of God? Because it became a social and religious issue, I have a suspicion, conspiracy theory though it may be, that there is a person or group who convinced a larger and larger piece of the population that this was and is an issue of great import. While the biblical witness, including Jesus, speaks against divorce it has become commonplace to allow divorced people to participate in most aspects of society and religion. When I was much younger my father introduced me to a friend of his and spoke to him for a few minutes. After the friend left my father told me that this man was a pastor until he got a divorce. He was not a run-of-the-mill pastor, as if there is such a thing, he had served directly under the bishop. Divorce is sad, and necessary, and still sin. That battle had already been fought and won and lost in the church and society by 1972. I guess we needed a new test of faithfulness. I am not really interested in who is right because we each know that we have chosen the side that will be vindicated by history, by God and perhaps both. I am interested in when and where and how this particular issue sprouted legs and began to toddle, walk, run and stomp among us. It may not even make any difference to the whole argument if we find out where it came from. It seems that our battle lines are drawn so deeply that there may not be any healing of the rifts in my lifetime. As is often the case with these questions a new generation will rise to power and they will come up with an answer that evaded us. From what I have seen of social research there is an answer brewing and perking in generations younger than I. For the most part their answer seems to be, so what? Denominations have taken stands for and against homosexuality, homosexual marriage, homosexual ordination as the principle issues. These groups may or may not reexamine their stances as years go by and we will learn to live with the decisions and choices made with varying degrees of comfort and ease or we will work to align our denominational stances with our principled views of the will of God. My question remains, where did this whole issue come from? Who birthed and nurtured this unimportant paragraph into a full blown culture war?