Virginia UMC pastor accepts practicing homosexual as member

An official with the Institute on Religion and Democracy believes the recent approval of an active homosexual for membership at a Virginia United Methodist church will force the denomination to take a closer look at its guidelines for church membership.

Minister Ed Johnson, who was pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church, was approached two years ago by a homosexual man who wanted to join the congregation. Johnson declined to grant immediate church membership to the man, who was living with his partner.

The presiding bishop, Charlene Kammerer, removed Johnson from his pulpit and eventually moved him to another congregation. The new pastor at South Hill United Methodist Church has accepted the homosexual man for membership, despite the UMC's teaching that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.


Mark Tooley, director of United Methodist Action at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, feels this case will prove helpful and challenging to the church. It is a chance "for us to confront what the liberal side of the church has been advocating," he says, "which is that church membership is a right to which everyone is entitled, because they believe in a gospel of what they call inclusiveness rather than in the gospel of what, I think, the orthodox would call divine calling."


According to Tooley, the liberalism in the United Methodist Church has contributed to the denomination's rapid membership decline over the past 40 years. Having been an outspoken critic of the church's liberal policies, he says he is not surprised the Virginia pastor now in the pulpit at South Hill UMC has allowed an active homosexual man to join his congregation.