What Maxie Forgot...

The Rev. Dr. Maxie Dunnam, former president of Asbury Theological Seminary and chair of the World Methodist Council Evangelism Committee, is up to it again. In the March 21st issue of Newscope, Maxie made 10 recommendations for General Conference. What was #1 on his list? Dr. Dunnam's first recommendation is that General Conference "Make a decision the first day to table all discussion related to changing the position of the church on the issue of homosexuality." He goes on to say, "for at least four General Conferences, the mind of the church has been clearly stated. The time and energy needs to be spent on mission and ministry."

This is no light weight when it comes to theology, United Methodist history, doctrine or polity. Maxie Dunnam has published a number of study guides; helped in the development of the popular "Disciple" Bible study video courses that are used in many United Methodist Church congregations; and he was even instrumental in helping to start what is now the very popular spiritual growth program, "Walk to Emmaus." My point here, is that the Rev. Dr. Maxie Dunnam knows his Methodist faith well, or at least he should!

So why does someone so steeped in United Methodist tradition want to silence the process of open dialogue and Christian conferencing? Why would he want to keep other United Methodists from being able to exercise their right, under the Discipline, to petition the denomination on issues that concern them? Is it because his comment that, "for at least four General Conferences, the mind of the church has been clearly stated," is at best, misleading? In reality, votes have been close and getting closer. Maybe it is because Maxie, who has been playing himself off as a "mainstream United Methodist" for years, is actually more of an extremist. Why else would he have been one of founders and leaders of the "Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church"? An organization that helped to draw up a document on "amicable separation," that surfaced near the end of the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh; and, after realizing how much they had over-stepped their sphere of influence and alienated the true middle of the United Methodist Church, suddenly became advocates for church unity. In "The Confessing Movement Conference in September of 2005, they issued a paper, “Unity In Christ, That The World May Believe” in which they began by saying that "Unity is the critical issue in The United Methodist Church today." Then why has Maxie's group done so much to undermine the social ministries of our denomination's main missional boards and agencies? If you don't know what I'm talking about, please do some homework in finding out how the Confessing Movement, Institute for Religion and Democracy, Good News Movement, Renew, and Mission Sending Society are connected; and how they are funded.

Troy Plummer, the Executive Director for "The Reconciling Ministries Network," responded to Maxie's, let's silence the discussion, proposal this way... "We have been aware of extremist hopes that consideration of petitions regarding full inclusion could be dismissed in one dramatic action. Pieces of this hope surfaced at the Memphis conference" (recently sponsored by the above named organizations for General Conference delegates) and in other places. Interestingly, conservatives decided not to use the word "homosexual" in their messaging. I wonder if they had read the Barna research (unChristian, 2007) showing how anti-gay rhetoric is harming evangelism and the perception of Christianity and how this upcoming generation is just walking away."

Troy went on to say, "I believe Maxie's move is one of bravado designed to create anxiety in the rest of us, and that it is also his true hope. So in the extreme situation it has enough resonance with those 'tired of talking', we also have entertained direct actions that would be implemented. I believe the church will do everything in its power to avoid direct action caused by silencing or moratorium."

More important than Maxie's call to undermine our Wesleyan heritage of Christian Conferencing at this General Conference; and his back-handed attempt to fix his organization's reputation by undo their long standing history of promoting division and the dismantling our denomination's ability to do effective social and mission ministry; is his absolute denial of scripture. Did he forget what Luke reported to have happened when Jesus was entering Jerusalem? Did he forget how Jesus responded when those who cared more about position and power than faithful ministry, cried out for him to silence his followers?

Maxie don't forget... When "some of the" religious elite "in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out' (Luke 39:40)."