Key points:

• There are no African Methodists in charge of any of the boards and agencies of the United Methodist Church, which has created a power imbalance.
• African Methodists have left the UMC in large numbers as a result of same sex marriage passing at the General Conference, even though disaffiliations have ended.
• African American GC delegates chose Liberation theology over Orthodoxy, ultimately rejecting solidarity with African Methodists.
• The General Conference passed legislation to form a US Regional Committee, making a US Regional Conference duplicitous.   

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Dear United Methodists: after same sex marriage and Regionalization passed at the 2020/24 General Conference last year, it’s time to talk about de-centering whiteness in our church polity and Christian practice. 

In my former article, Theophilus, I talked about how theological education is inherently anti-African, and as a result, the average theologian’s knowledge of the history of Africa and African Christianity is woefully deficient. Therefore, Westerntropes about colonialism are rooted in cultural unawareness. Now that Regionalization was approved at the last General Conference (GC), using similar contextual arguments that Southern Methodists made in establishing the Jurisdictional Conferences (JC), with the purpose of establishing a United States Regional Conference (USRC), it is time for us to have a conversation about power, relationships, and regionalization. The USRC is nothing more than a Trojan Horse, in that it will assure American Methodists will maintain power of the boards and agencies, as well as the money of the United Methodist Church (UMC). Now that the Americans have gotten their way, and LGBTQIA+ inclusion is now church law, the battle is over! Or is it?

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For the judgement you give will be the judgement you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

Matthew 7:1-2

 

East vs. West

The Western ways of knowing have centered whiteness through theological education, and 19^th century liberal German Protestant theology and biblical interpretation has colored the way Americans see other Christians. To further inclusion in the UMC, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs), and their allies, passed non-discriminatory laws to end all the bans against the LGBTQIA+ at the GC. However, they have alienated Methodists in the Eastern hemisphere in the process, as well as black and brown churches in the United States (US), who feel that you have gone too far! The disagreement over human sexuality and same sex marriage is not the result of the enlightenment or colonialization, as WASPs have previously articulated, it is the result of cosmology and methods of interpretation (as I stated in the previous article on this topic).  

The UMC adopted Regionalization as its ecclesiastical framework for the future at the 2020/24 GC. Was this a shrewd attempt to prevent Africans from taking control of the assets of the church? Or is it really an attempt to give African and Asian Central Conferences more flexibility to do ministry in their context? Oddly enough, there are some who believe that regionalization will strengthen the connection of the church. I doubt it! It seems strange to me that the world is getting smaller as a result of telecommunications and transportation, yet the UMC wants some distance theologically?

I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 17:23

 

As we approach the Annual Conference (AC) season in the UMC, which just so happens to coincide with the 100^thanniversary of the Scopes Monkey trial, as well as the 1700^th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, what the delegates in the UMC believe about God as creator, his divinity, and science will be on full display.

I need to remind you that the Methodist movement was a renewal movement within the Church of England led by lay people, primarily. The majority of the clergy, and their followers, maintained the status quo within the Church of England. Nevertheless, John Wesley did not look to the modern European Enlightenment theologians of his day to revive the church, instead he looked to the East (African, Asian, and European theologians in the Early Church). But I’m certain that you all have brushed up on the works of the African and Asian theologians since the last time that we talked. I’m also certain that you all have brushed up on the research on Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa prior to slavery and colonialization in the Kongo, Nubia, Mali, and Nigeria. As well as, the research on the resistance and rebellion movements of the anti-colonial period in Africa and Asia.

Pan-Africanism and Black Power

Pan-Africanism was an anti-colonial movement that united Africans on the continent with Africans in the diaspora, and was heavily influenced by former Atlanta University professor W.E.B. DuBois. This uniting act was accomplished by convening several Congresses in Europe and America, which brought the African freedom fighters face to face with the American civil rights activists, to plan for the liberation of black people around the world. That’s right, African Americans were in solidarity with Africans for the liberation of Africa from their European oppressors. But I can’t help but notice that this movement took place outside of the confines of the church. And so did the civil rights movement (NAACP, Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, and the Black Power movement), although that is not what is taught in most Methodist seminaries.

Africans and Asians contributed to the development of Orthodox theology in the Early Church, despite the artistic renderings of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The dispute at the Council of Nicaea was the result of a theological disagreement in the Church of Alexandria, Egypt. The antagonist and the protagonist at Nicaea were not Europeans living in Egypt, both Arius and Athanasius were Coptic, according to the research conducted by Tom Oden. Coptic is the last of the Pharaonic languages, or the language of the Pharaohs. And the indigenous Coptic people would have been black or brown, with an admixture of Persian, Greek, or Roman, as seen in the Fayum portraits. 

Athanasius was called a “black dwarf” by his opponents, and it is he who was arguing on behalf of what we now call Orthodoxy. The Center for Early African Christianity has confirmed the genealogical records of many of the African abbas and ammas of the Early Church, and they were indigenous to what we now call Africa. Alexandria, Libya, Carthage, and Axum were major centers of Christianity at the time of the Council of Nicaea, and their leaders were indigenous to their respective city states, and not Europeans living and teaching Christianity on the continent. In other words, Africans, as well as Asians from Syrian Antioch and Cappadocia, played a much larger role at Nicaea than the whitewashed versions of the Catholic and Orthodox churches portrayals and depictions. Simply put, Africans and Asians contributed just as much, if not more, to Christian Orthodoxy as the Europeans did. So, what am I saying? 

To denounce Orthodox beliefs, even to promote Liberation theology, is not Pan-African! Choosing the theology of the oppressor, over that of the oppressed, is not liberation. For African Americans to align themselves with American liberals and progressives at the GC is the antithesis to Black Power!

Africans had the numbers to take over the UMC during this quadrennium (2025-2028), which would have been an act of justice. However, African American delegates at the GC prevented that from happening by allowing themselves to be an instrument of the Methodist Empire to divide and conquer Africa. The churches that have left the UMC in Kenya-Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Liberia, and Nigeria is a direct result of African American’s poor diplomatic relationship with the African church. The silence of Black Methodist for Church Renewal (BMCR) at the GC, of which I am a member of, was deafening. They authored no petitions or resolutions to the GC. And their recent attempt at Pan-Africanism was more than a decade too late. Why did Africa Initiative align themselves with Good News instead of BMCR? Was it because of money? Was there a language barrier, or was it something else? In the final analysis, Africans and African Americans have now become a permanent minority in the UMC because of the complicity of GC delegates. The numbers don’t lie.

DuBois wrote in the Souls of Black Folk, 

“How does it feel to be a problem?”

“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,-- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

Regionalization and Bureaucracy

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body⁾ and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called.

Ephesians 4:3-4

 Here is what we know. Coming before you at the AC will be four constitutional amendments that need to be ratified with the approval of the delegates. Three of these amendments are not controversial, however the Regionalization petition would give American Methodists power that it will not have if the petition fails. In other words, Americans would be able to codify same sex marriage into church law without being accountable to the GC. By ignoring what Jesus said about marriage, American Methodists can adopt the marriage laws of the US, and the Congolese and Filipinos can do the same thing based upon marriage laws in their cultural contexts, all in the name of Regionalization. And we would be able do this on a whole host of issues, if Regionalization passes.

The GC approved a US Regional Committee (not to be confused with the US Regional Conference) as a backup plan just in case the USRC petition failed at the ACs, however the Regional Committee went into effect at the close of the GC. The US Regional Committee will operate similar to the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, which is to review and make recommendations to the whole GC about all legislative and business matters relating only or primarily to the US. The US Regional Committee would dissolve upon the establishment of the USRC. In other words, the framework of the structure is already there, but there is an institutional push to get the Regionalization petition passed, otherwise same sex marriage could be overturned at the 2028 GC in Harare, Zimbabwe.

When you here every one in leadership in the institution singing the same song, you need to ask critical questions of your leaders. When there is no opposition, there is either full support, indifference, or coercion.

Church politics can be nasty. There are lay people who have been in leadership positions in local churches who no longer attend church because of the things that they saw once the curtain was pulled back. Retribution is a tool that is used against clergy who oppose what bishops promote. This weapon is also used against lay people who dissent from the subjective rules of the church.

Now that most of the evangelicals have disaffiliated, and the USR Committee has been created, there will be little opposition to petitions passing that have nothing to do with the church if the USRC is approved by ACs. At last year’s GC there was a petition to divest of fossil fuel company stock that failed. However, you can expect to see a resurrection of the boycott, divestment, and sanction petition against Israel, as well as any petition that can be found on the Democratic Party’s Platform at the next GC.

What has gone under the radar is the abolishment of the JCs. American liberals and progressives weaponized this against the evangelicals during the disaffiliation period, but now in a sheer act of pretense, there is nothing but silence on the topic since Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association have ceased operations in the UMC. Because taking action against racism is not as important as saying the right words about racism for American Methodists. 

Based upon the power imbalance in the UMC, between the church in America and the church in Africa, I encourage clergy and lay delegates to reject the Regionalization petition because it will re-center whiteness in Methodism.

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.  We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 4:1-3