My latest entry exploring the Biblical Witness Fellowship’s “Chronology of Actions Taken by Various United Church of Christ People and Bodies Regarding Sexual License” has taken me on a few twists and turns as I find myself focusing less on Rev. Johnson’s background and more on the circumstances surrounding the ordination listed immediately below:
1972 - The Rev. William Johnson becomes the first openly homosexual person ordained in modern times to the ministry by an historic or “mainline” Christian church. He is ordained by the Golden Gate Association in Northern California without fulfilling the requirement of having a call to local parish ministry. An extensive bio can be found at: www.lgbtran.org.
I posted a question on uccforums.com asking about the ordination requirement of having a call to a local parish. I asked for clarification. Do you have to be a parish minister in order to be ordained in the UCC? Can you go through the training, serve in some other form of ministry, and become ordained in the UCC? (In a nutshell, I was informed by a couple different folks that you do indeed need to be called to serve as a minister or similar type of ministry program – like a chaplaincy – before becoming ordained or at the very least can be ordained “pending a call”.)
One of the uccforums participants, Beliefnet’s own Puffball, referred me to an article about Rev. Bill Johnson’s ordination from the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle. Check out the article. It’s a pretty interesting read. After reading the article, I was left with a couple observations:
This advisory committee interviewed him twice, found his credentials in order, and found him "well qualified in all aspects of training, theology, experience, etc." Nevertheless, the (Church and Ministry) Committee decided in May 1971 by a split vote of 4-3 not to recommend him for ordination.
And…
The Association set up a "Credentials Committee" to review Bill Johnson's qualifications. Association Moderator Bonnie Ploeger, a professional parlimentarian, encouraged his actionout of her concern to keep the whole procedure so ecclesiastically sound that no matter what the outcome, the process could not be faulted. This five member committee met for three hours, conversing with Bill Johnson and listening to his paper.
Afterwards they issued a statement affirming Bill Johnson and his current ministry, but voting to recommend against his ordination by a split vote of 3-2.
In an article that goes into great detail describing Bill's stylish suit and plump cheeks, as well as several other details that don't actually tell the story but flesh it out, I'm left wondering why these committees find him qualified or his ministry affirmed, but his ordination denied?
Did it basically come down to this phrase?:
"I remain open to God's guidance. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm deeply committed to the parish church," Johnson replied, leaving unsaid what everyone was thinking -- what parish church would call him to be their pastor?
Obviously, there are parish ministers in the UCC who were gay at that time. They just hid it during ordination. Rev. Robert Wood was mentioned earlier in the sexual license chronology. I'm sure that there were more active gay ministers than just him.
What was the reason for his initial ordination rejection?
The question-and-answer part of his ordination reminded me of Gene Robinson’s installation as Bishop within the Episcopal Church of the USA. Check out these questions:
“If we ordain this man, won’t it attract more homosexuals to the church?”
“As a homosexual minister, how would you relate to prostitutes?”
“Wouldn’t you be a negative example to young people?”
“How would you get along without a ‘ministers wife’?”
“Would you be willing to forego the personal pleasures of homosexuality in order to accept ordination?”
I can’t imagine any candidate in the UCC ever being asked if they would be willing to forego the personal pleasures of heterosexuality in exchange for their ordination. But that’s the joy of living in a heterosexist society, I guess.
Ultimately, Rev. Johnson was ordained by a vote of 2-1.
I gotta run, but I’ll submit a second journal entry on this chronology entry later.
This is interesting to read Jon. As a Catholic I know how this issue has touched our Church. We probably have a higher proportion of gay clergy than most other churches. From what I have read about 30% of priest are gay and in some dioceses it is 50%. It is hard to get an accurate figure though because in the Catholic church, clergy take a vow of celibacy, so their sexual orientation is pretty much their own private business in most cases. It is not much accepted for a priest to be openly gay. But I have read that gay men are influential at the highest levels of the Catholic Church. There is a problem though in that many lay Catholics have prejudice against gay people but probably not any more than in other churches and in most cases probably less. The UCC however, seems to be a leader in acceptance of gays.
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