Amid shutdown, bishops called to moral witness

Key points:

• United Methodist Council of Bishops President Tracy S. Malone urged her fellow bishops to “embody the radical love of Jesus.”
• She opened the bishops’ fall online meeting at a time when a U.S. government shutdown grinds into its sixth week and many see Jesus’ name being misused to justify hate and division.
• During the Nov. 3 morning session, the bishops also discussed how they would confront the cutoff of U.S. international aid and distortions of the Christian faith.

At a time of rising threats to basic human rights, Council of Bishops President Tracy S. Malone challenged her fellow United Methodist bishops to “embody the radical love of Jesus.”

“The Church exists to embody God’s Kingdom, not human systems of power,” preached Malone, who also leads the Indiana Conference. “Bold, Spirit-led leadership transforms lives, dismantles injustice and reveals to the world who Christ really is.”

Malone delivered her presidential address at the opening of the Council of Bishops’ online Nov. 3-7 meeting. She spoke to about 100 bishops gathered from across four continents as well as other fellow United Methodists watching on the bishops’ Facebook page.

Her address came as a U.S. government shutdown drags on into its sixth week, forcing people to work without pay and threatening American food security. United Methodists around the globe also are grappling with the effects of Trump administration actions including the cutoff of international aid, increased military deployments and a crackdown on immigration.

“We live in an age when authoritarianism and political violence threaten the foundations of democracy and human dignity,” Malone said.

“We are seeing how systems designed to protect and serve the common good can so easily fail when justice and moral courage are set aside, when expediency and greed prevail and when privilege and wealth are placed above the needs of the vulnerable.”

She thanked God for United Methodists who are doing what they can to stock food pantries and defend human rights even as masked federal agents snatch suspected undocumented immigrants from the streets.

Through all these challenges, she said, United Methodists are seeking to live into the denomination’s new vision that bishops unveiled in May. That vision calls United Methodists to love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously.

Malone and other bishops denounced those who, instead, seek to use Jesus’ name to justify hate and division.

“The Gospel we proclaim is not neutral — it is good news for the poor, release for the captive, sight for the blind and freedom for those who are oppressed,” Malone said, quoting Luke 4 and Isaiah 61.

“As bishops of The United Methodist Church, let us declare: Christian nationalism is not Christianity. It misrepresents who Christ is and betrays the Gospel’s core message of love, humility and justice.”

Christian nationalism is a worldwide problem, Bishop LaTrelle M. Easterling said after the presidential address during a report by the bishops’ Anti-Racism Leadership Team.

“It manifests itself across the globe any time one group of people elevates themselves, their interests, their very lives, and tries to wed that with some kind of preferential connection with God,” said Easterling, who chairs the leadership team. She also leads the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences. 

However, she and other bishops acknowledged that the rise of a particularly self-serving view in the U.S. has a global impact.

Sierra Leone Conference Bishop James Boye-Caulker initially planned to report on the impact of the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development on United Methodist health care facilities in Africa. Because of technical difficulties that prevented him from joining the meeting, Florida Conference Bishop Tom Berlin delivered the report in Boye-Caulker’s stead.

Berlin has a long partnership with Sierra Leone United Methodist leaders and visited the west Africa country earlier this year.

He noted that researchers at United Methodist-related Boston University estimate that funding cuts to USAID and support organizations are leading to 88 deaths per hour — most of them children.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the closure of USAID “has severely disrupted the delivery of medicines, diagnostics and essential health services to our UMC health centers,” Berlin said.

While funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — known as PEPFAR — continues, Berlin said, it was USAID operations that enabled medicines the funding bought to reach African patients. “The question is: With USAID down, will the PEPFAR funding still continue to bring supplies where they’re needed?” Berlin told his episcopal colleagues.

This all goes counter to the message of Christ, who proclaimed God’s love for the whole world, said Western North Carolina Conference Bishop Ken Carter.

“God does not prefer any one nation to the exclusion of others, or anyone’s skin color to the exclusion of others,” Carter said. “This is why we do this work, why it matters.”

The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, the denomination’s mission agency, has shifted resources to address the worsening humanitarian crisis. The agency’s funding enabled United Methodist-related Africa University in Zimbabwe to restart its malaria research program. However, the agency is in no position to replace all the federal funding lost.

Bishop Mande Muyombo, who leads United Methodists in Tanzania and Congo’s North Katanga Conference, said he is grateful to Global Ministries for stepping in with the emergency funding to fill the gaps.

However, he suggested that the bishops work with their ecumenical partners in the World Council of Churches to see how they might advocate for the restoration of funding. What he is witnessing is appalling, he said.

“Those statistics are people who are dying,” Muyombo said.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble, who is the top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, raised a separate concern that voting rights in the U.S. could be in danger — impeding the ability of people to peacefully change the direction of their government. A case before the U.S. Supreme Court threatens to dismantle a core provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that enables voters to challenge discriminatory election practices.

“Our Social Principles declare in The United Methodist Church that our involvement in political systems is rooted in the Gospel imperative to love our neighbors, to do justice and to care for the vulnerable,” Trimble said. “United Methodists, historically and currently, affirm the basic human rights of all people, including civil and human rights. This includes the right to vote without impediments.”

With all that is happening, United Methodists have more needs to supply and justice concerns to advocate even as the denomination tries to rebuild after a season of church disaffiliations.

Malone acknowledged that United Methodists are living and leading in challenging times. But she added discipleship and transformation happen not through the size of the church but through faithfulness and surrender to the Holy Spirit.

“Our hope is not in perfect plans, agendas, systems and structures,” she said, “but in the Risen Christ, who continues to make all things new.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.