Confirmation class refuses to be confirmed in protest of United Methodist Church’s stance on LGBTQ issues
Teens' refusal to be confirmed follows First United's tradition of challenging larger Methodist Church's stances on social issues
A group of Methodist teens has taken a bold stance by refusing to be confirmed because of the United Methodist Church’s official stance on LGBTQ issues.
On Sunday, the eight teenagers, aged 13 to 14, who made up this year’s confirmation class at the First United Methodist Church in Omaha, Neb., stood before the congregation and read aloud a letter saying they do not want to join the church at this time.
The teenagers said they were refusing to be confirmed because they disagreed with the recent vote at a special session of the General Conference in St. Louis, in which a majority of Methodist churches voted to bar LGBTQ individuals from becoming priests and refused to recognize same-sex marriages. The vote has prompted several churches to consider splitting from the United Methodist Church or withholding their dues until the church’s stance on LGBTQ issues changes.
The teens in Omaha said they believed the vote by the General Conference was both “immoral” and “unjust.”
“We are concerned that if we join at this time, we will be sending a message that we approve of this decision,” the confirmation class wrote in its letter. “We want to be clear that, while we love our congregation, we believe the United Methodist policies on LGBTQ+ clergy and same-sex marriage are immoral.”
The eight teens received a standing ovation from the congregation.
The teens’ action on Sunday is the first known refusal to join the church at the end of more than a year enrolled in confirmation class, reports Religion News Service. But it is not the first time that the First United Methodist Church of Omaha has clashed with the larger denomination’s stance on social issues: in 1997, the then-pastor of the church, was defrocked after performing a same-sex blessing for two women on church grounds.
More recently, the church council voted to host same-sex weddings should its clergy choose to perform them, and also voted to withhold apportionments, or portions of a church’s funding, to the larger United Methodist denomination for the remainder of the year.
“Myself and our associate pastor are in full support of [the teenagers’] decision,” the Rev. Kent Little, the church’s pastor, said. “We’re proud of them. It’s not an east thing to do to resist.”
Last Friday, the United Methodist Church’s top court upheld most of the February vote regarding LGBTQ issues. The Judicial Council also ruled that, starting in January 2020, any clergy member who performs a same-sex wedding will be suspended for one year without pay for the first offense and will lose their credentials after the second offense.
The council also upheld an “exit plan,” by which churches who disagree with the larger Church’s stances on various issues may choose to leave the denomination — a move that First United Methodist has not yet ruled out.
Little, who became pastor of First United Methodist in July, said the church would be considering three options: staying in the denomination and continuing to resist church rules excluding LGBTQ individuals and couples; affiliating with a more LGBTQ-friendly denomination, such as the United Church of Christ; or becoming an independent, non-denominational congregation.
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