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Commentary
COMMENTARY: Hope deferred Arthur McClanahan, May 1, 2008
UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY PAUL JEFFREY
Gay-rights advocates weep at the 2008 General Conference's decisions on April 30.
By Arthur L. McClanahan Special Contributor
It was just a little before 5 o’clock when the bad news arrived. There was a gasp of breath, a waiting moment that challenged the unwelcome reality, a bargaining thought that wished the report could be changed.
It was as though someone most near and most dear had died.
In a way it wasn’t a person--a living, breathing, flesh-and-blood parent, spouse, daughter or son, sister or brother, or dear friend. It wasn’t some famous person or neighbor down the street.
Yet, in another way, it was.
Hope died.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” (Proverbs 13.12)
Four hundred and 17 people in the Fort Worth Convention Center were heartsick.
They stood in faith. They had just heard the church--one claiming to have an open heart, open mind and open door to all for its guiding principles--clearly state that all persons are of sacred worth.
Those same people also heard a “not now” to the promise that God holds for the “very good” reflection of the Creator: the promise that God’s unity embraces the prized and despised, those who claim a place of honor and those who are content to be even noticed.
Four hundred and 17 people were told by 510 others that they didn’t have enough tallies on electronic keypads, that they had lost, that the welcome mat would not be out for them.
And it wasn’t just the 417 who had 84 fewer votes. It was countless numbers of God’s “very good” creation, persons created in the image of God, who were told some are precious in God’s sight. Some, but not them.
The tally of 501–417, the 55 percent to 45 percent result clearly indicated that the delegates of the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church were not of one mind. The nearly even split showed there certainly were two minds.
It’s ironic that the divide was over adopting a factual assessment.
One position stated, “we have been, and remain, divided . . . ” and that “Faithful, thoughtful people who have grappled with this issue deeply disagree with one another; yet all seek a faithful witness.”
Extended, reasoned discussion in one of the Church and Society legislative sections had engaged in holy conferencing and holy conversation. Delegates had sought to come to one mind, or short of that, then respectful trust, acknowledging that God’s wisdom is more profound than is the understanding of any one of God’s created humankind.
An alternate point of view, the one that garnered 501 supporters, laid claim to being of one mind indeed--the majority mind. It was as though there was “no other way” to think, to act, to behave. Yet with extraordinary contradiction, there was a stated welcome--in fact an imperative--to provide a spiritual fellowship that “welcoming, forgiving and loving.”
Welcoming, forgiving and loving of persons whose life experience was not condoned and was considered to be “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
Four hundred and 17 people were hopeful that truth would prevail, that the people of the United Methodist Church could acknowledge what a casual, objective observer would note in the lead paragraph of a newspaper report: “The people who came to Fort Worth for the worldwide gathering of the 11-million member denomination aren’t in complete agreement. In fact, they don’t appear to have much common ground.”
Long ago, two people were walking home from Jerusalem. Their hope had died right in front of their eyes. As they told a stranger, “We had so hoped that he would be the One.”
They trudged toward home with heavy hearts. They were exhausted. They had all but given up. Their lives had been overwhelmed by a win-lose situation, and their side had lost. Hope had been killed.
On April 30 in Fort Worth, many were sick at heart, yearning for a day when together, it would be possible to simply acknowledge that there are many minds.
And in so doing, in the Spirit of the blessed discovery on the Emmaus Road that Jesus walked with them, to move closer to having the mind of Christ.
That’s where hope can come alive.
May the deferment be short. May our eyes be opened to the Christ in all sisters and brothers, as the two Emmaus Road travelers recognized Christ in their companion.
May the day soon come when we can have one mind--the mind of Christ--being One in the Spirit with a love for all.
Dr. McClanahan is the communications director for the Iowa Conference.
UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE PHOTO BY PAUL JEFFREY
By Arthur L. McClanahan 
Four hundred and 17 people were told by 510 others that they didn’t have enough tallies on electronic keypads, that they had lost, that the welcome mat would not be out for them. 
