Methodist church weighs homosexual marriage

March 12, 1998
Web posted at: 3:48 p.m. EST (2048 GMT)

KEARNEY, Nebraska (CNN) -- Should church laws be binding? And should love between same-sex couples be sanctioned by church officials?

These issues are taking center stage in this Nebraska town, where a Methodist minister is defending his frock because he performed a lesbian marriage ceremony last September.

The Rev. Jimmy Creech was the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church of Omaha, the flagship Methodist church in the state, before he fell out of favor last fall.

Now Creech could be defrocked, if a jury of 13 ministers finds him guilty of violating a 1996 clause in the United Methodist Church's Social Principles prohibiting "ceremonies that celebrate homosexual union."

Creech

Creech and his supporters contend the Social Principles are intended to be guidelines, not rules.

Opening statements in the church trial got under way Thursday. Creech pleaded innocent a day earlier, before jury selection began.

A Methodist bishop last year warned Creech not to perform the service, but Creech did it anyway. And he doesn't regret it.

"There was no way I was going to say 'no' to the two women," he told CNN. "I will not treat them with disrespect. I will not question their dignity and their right to love and commit themselves to the persons they love and are committed to."

Creech plans to argue that the traditional stance against same-sex marriage has no biblical basis and that it is not valid church law.

The great divide

CNN's Jeff Flock interviews the Rev. Jimmy Creech and the Rev. Eugene Winkler

"I will not treat them (homosexual couples) with disrespect." - Jimmy Creech AIFF or WAV sound (204 K / 15 sec. audio)

Winkler discusses the issues involved in the case AIFF or WAV sound (332 K / 28 sec. audio)

There are some among Creech's congregation who say the minister is on a mission, but that he's going about it the wrong way.

"I have a real problem with anyone using the church as a pawn to advance his cause, and I don't have a problem with the causes, but don't use people," one church member told CNN.

Creech left his previous church, in North Carolina, after parishioners complained he too strongly advocated gay and lesbian causes.

But Creech does not believe he's responsible for the division the issue has caused within his Nebraska congregation.

"There was a division there already, it just had not manifested itself," he told CNN. "The covenant ceremony brought it to the surface so it could be seen."

And regardless of what happens to him, there are some who say it is the church that will suffer the most.

"The church is the real loser in this because it's become a very prominent issue. A lot of split (exists) between more conservative Christians and people who want to be completely open to gay and lesbian people," the Rev. Eugene Winkler, a Methodist minister in Chicago, told CNN.

A national concern

More and more, churches, state governments and federal officials are struggling with the issue of sanctioning same-sex marriages.

The Hawaii Supreme Court touched off the furor in 1993 when it ruled that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples amounted to gender discrimination and violated the state's constitution.

States went into a panic, fearing that under federal law they could be required to recognize a gay or lesbian marriage performed in Hawaii, if Hawaii were to legalize same-sex marriages.

More than two dozen states moved to ban same-sex unions.

Congress had its say in 1996, passing the Defense of Marriage Act. The law denies both recognition of same-sex marriages and federal benefits to partners in such unions, and allows states to do the same.

But no matter what government officials do to try and quell the issue, they're not likely to end the debate.

Even if gay and lesbian groups decided they no longer wanted to pursue the issue, it is too evident within the churches that this is an explosive and divisive social debate.

A debate among Christians

A year ago, the U.S. Presbyterian Church passed a law requiring all unmarried ministers, deacons and elders to be sexually celibate.

Some Presbyterian leaders argued that the purpose of the law was to keep gays and lesbians out of the Presbyterian ministry. Scores of Presbyterian churches signed a covenant of dissent, and now Presbyterians are voting on the issue again.

In the Episcopal church, officials voted not to bless same-sex marriages -- but the vote was 57 to 56.

The United Church of Christ allows homosexuals to be ordained ministers. It, along with the Metropolitan Community Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church and the Jewish reform congregations support same-sex marriages.

"Thirty years ago, this issue could not be talked about in polite company," said Senior Pastor Michael Nikolaus of the First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta. "Today we're in the middle of this furor. There are major debates going on in almost every Christian denomination."

Just what direction the issue takes next may very well depend on the fate of the Methodist minister in Nebraska.

Correspondents Jeff Flock and John Holliman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related sites:

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• Stephen P. Dresch: Homosexual Marriage: U.S. Debate Misses the Fundamental Issue
• Gay and Lesbian Rights

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