Wrestling Long into the Night: Sources on the Mainline Protestant Denominations’ Debate about Homosexuality

Abstract

For nearly forty years several mainline Protestant denominations confronted and attempted to resolve the issue of accepting gay or homosexual persons within their fellowships. For some denominations, such as the Church of Christ—Disciples of Christ (CCDC), Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and the United Church of Christ (UCC), a collective dialogue and process proceeded, and decisions were reached about whether homosexuality “was consistent with Christian teaching” (the language most often used to describe the issue in denominational official statements), or if openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons (LGB) were eligible for ordination into the clergy of a denomination. These decisions did not come and go without repercussions. In the case of the ECUSA and the ELCA, several congregations broke with the main body because of disagreement with the denomination’s decision and set off down the road to forming an association with other like-minded congregations that believe that homosexuality is not affirmed by scripture. And dissent is not absent from the fellowships of the PCUSA or the UCC on the regional or congregational levels. As this essay is composed, the PCUSA will come to grips with the issue of same-sex marriage and the celibacy of gay clergy at the denomination’s biennial General Assembly.1 The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) and the United Methodist Church (UMC) continue to debate the inclusion of homosexuals into their fellowship at the regular biennial or general conferences as indicated above. The faction that upholds the position that “homosexuality is not consistent with Christian teaching” still holds sway within these denominations.