The United Methodist Church was founded by John Wesley on the core beliefs of Christianity, separated from the Church of England on some minor theological issues, and took the name Methodist because they were often described as being very Methodical in their daily practice and worship.
I was born and raised a United Methodist. My parents and grandparents were all Methodists, as was my wife’s family. The Methodist church, as is fitting with its name and reputation, has a book called ‘The Book of the Discipline’. It explains almost every aspect of Church life, from how a service is to be conducted to how a church should be managed and offerings collected. It included the rules about who may be ordained and married in the United Methodist Church.
For many years, the rules about ordination, worship, and marriage in the Methodist church were, plain, straightforward, and entirely in line with Christianity. It said, plain and clear, that the practice of homosexuality was incompatible with Christian teaching, and forbade the ordination of gay clergy who were not celibate. It also forbade any clergy form officiating at same sex marriages. Note that the discipline was very clear that it was the practice of homosexuality that was forbidden, and that gay clergy who were celibate could be ordained. Not once did it say that these sins were unforgiveable, or that LGBTQ+ people could not become members of the United Methodist Church or worship in the church.
Then along came Albert Frederick “Fritz” Mutti, III. Fritz Mutti was born in Hopkins, MO. A small Missouri town with a population of about 300 at the time. He was ordained an elder, what the United Methodist church calls a minister, in 1961. He had three sons. Two of his boys turned out to be gay and died of AIDS during the homosexual AIDS epidemic before the discovery of the drug cocktail that allowed AIDS to be controlled. This sad episode shaped Rev Mutti’s life and actions.
I met Fritz Mutti several times, and he was a nice, personable man. However, Mutti could never accept the idea that two of his sons were not qualified to be ministers in the United Methodist Church. I never received a clear answer as to why he could not accept that. There are many people who would never be suited for the ministry (I am one of them). But Mutti made it his life’s work to turn the United Methodist Church away from Christianity, specifically on the subject of homosexuality, and the consequences were both predictable and far reaching.
Of course, that is not the way Mutti described his intentions. Likely he thought it was turning back to Christianity. After all, many modern Christians have mistakenly decided that being Christian means accepting everyone, no matter what they do. But as a Pastor, an ordained leader, and someone supposedly well educated in Christian doctrine, his actions are not forgivable. There is no sin worse than purposely spreading lies about Christian beliefs when you know the truth.
Regardless of his intent, it is arguable that Mutti brought about the end of the United Methodist Church as the membership knew it.
Mutti was well liked and respected, and after being named a Bishop in the UMC despite his ongoing statements about homosexuality, he was able to rally support for the ordination of homosexuals and other LGBTQ+ Methodists. Thanks to his influence, the status of LGBTQ+ people started being brought up at every Annual Conference and General Conference of the United Methodist church. It reached the point that Methodists were actively tired of it being brought up all the time.
For clarification, an Annual Conference is held annually for each jurisdiction, typically a state or a large region of a state, such as Missouri West. A United Methodist Church general conference sets the rules for United Methodists around the world and occurs every four years.
The United Methodist Book of Discipline was the document that defined the Methodist posture around LGBTQ+ people, and it was clear and concise. Despite what many people who call themselves Christians seem to believe, Christianity is not about being yourself and accepting others as they are, Christianity is about accepting Christ, doing good and trying to make yourself better. Christianity does not demand that you accept people as they are, it demands that you accept people as you find them and try to help them be better.
Mutti, was demanding that the church abandon the mission of making people better, but instead simply take them as they are and do nothing to help them become better people. The words of Christ are ‘Go and sin no more.’ A clear expectation that we are forgiven, but also that we should behave as a people who have been forgiven despite our sins.
Despite this clear and obvious conflict, the vote was brought to general conference to change the Discipline with regard to LGBTQ+ people. And the general conference voted it down in 2019.
Sadly, many US churches chose to ignore the vote of the worldwide church, chose to discard the teachings of Christ, and voted to disaffiliate from the world church. In direct violation of the Discipline, the majority US churches decided that those US Churches that agreed with the World Wide United Methodist church were in the wrong and cynically allowed them to ‘disaffiliate’ from the US church. Ignoring the fact that it was the US Church as a body that was in the wrong according to the Discipline.
Roughly 7600 US Churches chose to stand with the Global United Methodist church and disaffiliate themselves from the US church. Many more likely would have, but because of the way Church property is owned, the process is difficult and only a certain amount of time was allowed to complete the process. According to the Methodist Discipline, the church building and parsonage were owned by the annual conference, not the local church, so the US Church cynically made it difficult for the actual Methodists to disaffiliate from the schismatic US Church.
Once US Methodist church dumped all the true Methodists out of the Church, and immediately chose to reverse the discipline on the status of LGBTQ+ people. It’s hard to envision a more cynical process, in effect the US Church decided to take its ball and go home after the Global Church told them they were wrong.
Fritz Mutti, a really nice guy, led the process. And he led his church into the pit. I have never heard of a better example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions.
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