By Chad Groening and Jody Brown
June 6, 2002
(AgapePress) - The United Methodist Church is embroiled in controversy. The 8.3-million-member denomination is considering whether to allow a man who underwent a sex-change operation to return to the pulpit.
In a closed session, the UMC's Baltimore-Washington annual conference will meet today to decide if Richard Zomastny, who now calls himself "Rebecca Steen," should be appointed pastor of a local Methodist congregation. According to UMConnection, the Baltimore-Washington Conference newspaper, the issue of the status of transgender clergy was raised at last year’s annual conference. Because Zomastny had gone on voluntary leave, no action was taken at that time. But Conference board members did acknowledge that the issue had the potential to severely divide the Conference.
 Mark Tooley |
"It's going to undermine the image of the [Methodist Church]," Tooley says. "When this individual is appointed to a local church, I don't care how liberal that local church may be, there are going to be some serious problems ... dealing with a minister who is a man but claiming to be a woman."
Tooley says the United Methodist denomination is obsessed with political correctness. He says the debate illustrates how when "liberal political correctness" gains influence in a church, the primary concern becomes how to remain politically correct or on the cutting-edge -- instead of how to serve and minister at the local church level.
According to Tooley, the influence of political correctness explains in part why the United Methodist Church and other mainline denominations have been continually losing members for almost 40 years.
Tooley says he hopes that some clergy at today's closed session -- or laity at tomorrow's open session -- will speak up and convince the conference to block Zomastny's appointment.
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