Commentary: Muddled in the middle
9/1/1998 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. NOTE: With this commentary, the Rev. Leicester R. Longden becomes a regular columnist for United Methodist News Service. A brief bio of Longden follows this article, and a head-and-shoulders photograph of him is available. A UMNS Commentary By the Rev. Leicester Longden* The United Methodist Church has been the focus of much media attention lately.
The furor over "blessing ceremonies" and "same-sex unions" led to a church trial for the Rev. Jimmy Creech and a ruling by the Judicial Council, the denomination's supreme court. Theological parties and political caucuses within the church have publicly railed at each other. Numerous press reports depict the 8.5 million-member denomination as more divided than "United." Even the bishops of the church have begun warning United Methodists against behaving badly in public.
Methodists used to be famous for the phrase, "we think and let think." The current internal frictions may lead observers to wonder what has happened to that historic Methodist generosity toward "opinions."
The phrase goes back to the founder of Methodism, John Wesley. In a famous essay called "The Character of a Methodist," he claimed that "the distinguishing marks of a Methodist are not his opinions." He then added: "But as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think."
Contemporary Methodism often overlooks Wesley's distinction between opinions and "distinguishing marks." He regarded the latter as foundational, the former as peripheral. Wesley identified marks that distinguish Christians from Jews or Buddhists or secularists. He also taught that Christians were free to hold differing opinions as to modes of worship, styles of organization, and historic customs as long as the "root of Christianity" was held in common.
The source of much confusion in church and society today can be traced to the collapsing of distinctive communal beliefs and practices into the private opinions of individuals. The root of Christianity becomes not a mark of identity but just one more opinion. "Think and let think" becomes a catch-phrase for a vague tolerance where communal agreements are always trumped by individual opinions and experience. This form of tolerance has been elevated in United Methodism and other mainline churches to the status of a theory or theology often called "pluralism."
Pluralism in United Methodism has been an institutional compromise constantly increasing the diversity of opinion while downplaying the distinguishing marks of agreed-upon Christian belief and practice. It is understandable that those who have lived by this pluralistic compromise are feeling threatened now that some United Methodists have begun to insist that the denomination has constitutionally established doctrine.
Other United Methodists have posed an even greater challenge to the compromise by demanding that the church welcome opinions that deny moral commitments foundational to Christianity. The obvious example here is the attempt to legitimize homosexuality.
Typically, the pluralists describe these challenges as extremist threats from the left and the right. They call the church to stand firmly in the "middle" or the "center." Such a "middling" strategy is curiously devoid of content. It appeals to the "think and let think" emphasis, but it studiously avoids taking a position on the root of Christianity, which Wesley saw as the tether of Christian thinking.
The "centrists" often summon the parties in the church to love each other and stay together. However, until their position on the "distinguishing marks" or the root of Christianity is spelled out, their pleas are no more than veiled attempts to maintain the pluralist compromise of keeping as many opinions together as possible.
Further, when a community of faith cannot say, "Here we stand," it makes itself vulnerable to real extremists. If there are no agreed-upon boundaries, then extremists can "push the carrot of unity further out on the togetherness stick as the price of their cooperation" (as Rabbi Edwin Friedman memorably put it).
One step toward the unity that United Methodists claim in their very name would be to recapture John Wesley's distinction between the root of Christian faith and opinions about it. At the very least, his encouragement to "think and let think" was an admonition to real thinking about the central and the peripheral. Wesley still stands as a challenge to contemporary Christians to move beyond the easy "let think" of "everybody doing their own thing" to the harder thinking of what constitutes clear thought in the church.
If United Methodists could achieve greater clarity about their distinguishing marks as Christians and identify the limits of "think and let think," they might provide a real service to the surrounding society. At a time when partisan political groups tear at the social fabric and "culture wars" are continually moving to higher intensity, the church may do some of its best work by learning how to fight fairly and think clearly in its own
household. Christians have a phrase for this in their Scriptures: "Judgment must begin at the house of God" (I Peter 4:17).
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EDITORS, THIS BIO MAY ACCOMPANY THE COLUMN:
*Les Longden, a native of Canada and permanent alien resident of the United States, is senior pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Lansing, Mich. He is a clergy member of the West Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, where he serves on the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and writes a column entitled "Catholic Spirit" for the Michigan Christian Advocate.
Longden has pastored churches in both Michigan and Oregon, been a college teacher in Oregon and New Jersey, and served as a chaplain to Drew University and an instructor at Drew Theological Seminary. He has taught both laity and clergy in numerous ecumenical settings.
A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1971 (the last class to receive the bachelor of divinity degree before it was changed to M. Div.), he earned a doctorate in historical theology at Drew Graduate School in 1992. He wrote his dissertation on Albert C. Outler, has edited Outler's essays on Wesley and the Methodist heritage in a book entitled The Wesleyan Theological Heritage, and is currently editing the volume on Outler's ecumenical writings for the Albert Outler Library.
Longden has been married for 30 years to Linda Maas Longden and has two children, Les and Lisa.
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