Taking Sides Fails To Solve Big Issues

This is the weekend we celebrate patriotic freedoms and even give some nod to religious freedoms.

Unquestionably, we do well to be grateful for all forms of freedom in our country and the world.

They are often such a fragile gift, in part because all freedoms are linked by the invisible threads we call human spirit and human dignity. When one freedom is threatened or fractured, so many other freedoms can be compromised and diminished.

One freedom I hold most dear is the freedom to be faithful. On the surface, that is a no-brainer!

Of course that’s one of our freedoms, one that everyone can pursue in his or her own way. Yet like all other freedoms, my freedom to be faithful to what I believe can bump noses with your freedom to be faithful to what you believe.

What seems very simple at first glance can quickly become complicated. So how we try to resolve our conflict is an act of faith in itself.

Here is a lively example of what I mean.

Almost two weeks ago, you might have read how United Methodists of the Pacific Northwest met in Moscow, Idaho, for their yearly conference. The item that made news was our discussion and debate regarding the place of homosexuality in our conference, yea even in our denomination.

We even made some recommendations for our national church to consider at its general meeting in May 2000.

The substance of those recommendations is almost secondary to today’s column. For even if the recommendations had been exactly opposite, they would have generated heated discussion and significant controversy.

But there was a difference in Moscow. What we decided to ask our General Conference to consider was, in one sense, anticlimactic to how we went about discussing our long-standing concerns underlying how we perceive homosexuality within our denominational faith community.

Oh yes, there were the usual “sides” represented: liberal vs.conservative, progressive vs. reactionary, compassionate vs. legalistic. You name the sides, and we’ll have folks standing up for them.

On each “side,” whatever it is called, we have people of faith. They are people who genuinely believe they are being faithful to their understanding of biblical, theological and ecclesiastical truth as related to homosexuality.

The struggle to be faithful is an honest one, a painful one, for United Methodists in our region and around the country.

Fortunately, we are beginning to recognize that fact. We are able to see more clearly that people who stand on “the other side” seek to be just as faithful as we are.

One of the ways we are discovering that in our Northwest churches is through a discernment process we have borrowed and adapted from the Roman Catholic tradition. I personally thank the Catholics for that!

Another thing I hope we are learning is that while to create sides may be the American Way, it’s predictably counterproductive when dealing with issues of great significance.

I put it this way: “vs.” is a symbol for destructive competition. In my lexicon, “vs.” could stand for “very silly” or “very stupid.”

It always stands for “veritas subvertere” or “truth subverted.”

When we square off against one another in matters of faith, we run the high risk of subverting the truth-pieces that each of us holds in our hearts and minds. None of us has the whole picture of truth.

So when we can listen to each other in an honest effort to understand what the other person believes, we may find to our chagrin and surprise that our truth-pieces may actually fit side by side. We stand a much better chance of finding the fuller truth together.

The struggle to be faithful in the complex matter of homosexuality within our church and society is far from over for the United Methodist Church. We aren’t alone in that.

If you have issues that are causing your faith community great pain, I encourage you to find people who will help you discover healing ways to listen deeply to each other.

Your issues may not be easily resolved. But you will rejoice - or simply be relieved - to know your struggle to be faithful will mirror the faith struggle of people with whom you disagree.

Together, you just may be able to more readily discern that God’s faith in you is what underlies your freedom to be faithful.