Preaching to the choir isn’t always as easy as it sounds: On Sunday, Rev. David Weekley went before congregants at the Morningside United Methodist Church in Salem, Oregon, and told them he was transgender.
Weekley, 60, was invited to preach at Morningside as part of the church’s 17th anniversary as a Reconciling Ministry, a movement within the United Methodists Church to welcome LGBT parishioners.
Transitioning starting in his early 20s, Weekley was ordained in 1984 but didn’t come out about being a trans man until he spoke to his own congregation in Portland three years ago. Since then, he says, reaction has been mixed: “A lot of people have stood by us, offering support, practical advice and hope. Some people rejected me and rejected us.”
Weekely—who is married and helped raise five children—made news when he first came out, which was also when his memoir, In from the Wilderness, was released. Though he gets invitations like the one from Morningside pastor Michael Powell, he’s also seen colleagues question whether he was fit for the ministry—”or even life,” reports the Statesman Journal.
But some have stood by him, and his right to wear the cloth: “Whether a transgender pastor can have a successful ministry [has] been resoundly answered in the affirmative in this story of three decades of effective and inspiring pastoral ministry,” says retired Methodist Bishop Cal McConnell.
While America is grappling with where gays and lesbians fit into organized religion, the role of transgender believers, not to mention clergy, has mostly been sidelined. The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church declares “the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching,” and only ordains celibate homosexuals as ministers.
But it doesn’t have a specific ban on trans clergy—probably because the issue never came up.
There was an attempt to oust another trans pastor, Rev. Drew Phoenix, at the General Conference in 2008. It failed, as did a measure to declare that transgender people denied “the sacred integrity of God’s good creation.” That resolution was voted down 699 to 175.
Weekley believes God made him transgender for a reason, perhaps to enable him to understand people who walk a different path. “As a person of faith, I believe God creates people with much diversity,” he told ABC back in 2009. “Doing his work means accepting all of those people.”
Billysees
“Man’s ways are determined by the Lord, so how can we really understand our own ways”……..Proverbs 20:24
XTIAAN
@Billysees: you god squadders have a nonsensical quote for everything dont you…
Billysees
@XTIAAN: Re 2
I’ve been a scripture quoter for many years, ever since being persuaded, by some unpleasant experiences, to appreciate what it was saying about my experiences. These experiences were unrelated to any gay issues.
And then I discovered that there is some pretty neat stuff in them that can apply to a variety of situations. I don’t like all of it and some attitudes expressed by the writers are not mature and certainly not applicable to my own life.
But most importantly, I became aware how comforting some words and thoughts expressed were to my own life-experiences.
To get an idea of what kind of meaningful interpretation I find enjoyable, please take a look at my series of comments I posted at — http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jaweed-kaleem/faith-shift-what-religion-stories_b_1412331.html
Start at April 24, 2012. I ran out of things to continue to say at the time and then they closed all further comment entries.
Maybe you’ll find interesting what little I did say and please check out the book called “The Man Nobody Knows” when you get a chance. It’s about a happy camper Jesus, a party animal of sorts. Very different and may be better than anything you’ve ever read.
Billw