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Amid tremendous controversy, Lake Junaluska hosted "Hearts on Fire," a rally for over 500 activists trying to overturn United Methodism's disapproval of homosexual practice.

Lake Junaluska, located in western North Carolina, is the official conference center for United Methodism's Southeast Jurisdiction. Seven bishops spoke at "Hearts on Fire." Thirty-two active and retired bishops sent letters of greeting.

Throughout "Hearts on Fire," speakers compared Christian teachings about sexual morality to racism. They alleged that supporters of the church's beliefs want to prevent the church from reaching some people with the gospel.

Biblical interpretations were sometimes strained to suggest approval of homosexual practice. Referring to the 5,000 men whom Jesus fed, Bishop Minerva Carcaño of Phoenix remarked, "I doubt seriously that anyone asked about their sexual orientation." She lamented that people are being excluded because of their race, culture, socio-economic status, and "sexual orientation," declaring "that is just wrong!"

Retired Bishop Richard Wilke continued on a similar theme. "I'm so frustrated with people who take a prejudice and then find a Bible quote to support it," Wilke said. He likened disapproval of homosexual practice to earlier defenses of slavery, discrimination against women, and support for war.

"Today people are coming out of the closet, being honest with God and neighbor about who they are," Wilke enthused.

Retired Bishop Melvin Talbert agreed. "I'm here to say that I believe, as a bishop of the church, the position that our church has on this issue is wrong, and I say that unapologetically!" he declared.

The United Methodist Church officially believes that sex is for marriage between man and woman. It regards homosexual practice, like all other sexual activity outside of marriage, to be "incompatible with Christian teaching."

Bishop John Schol of Washington, D.C. said that he was there "to go give honor and glory to God" and also "to say 'I'm sorry'" for the "times in my life" when he "found it easier to make fun of or to make jokes about people that I didn't understand or people that I didn't think I wanted to associate with." He said he was making sure that "gay and lesbian, transgendered and bisexual persons are also in leadership positions" in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Lamenting that the church has not done enough study about homosexuality, Bishop Sally Dyck of Minneapolis said, "I believe that fear is the original sin." She noted that she had been outspoken about affirmation of homosexuality for "quite some time."

Bishop Susan Morrison of Albany, New York, lauded the "gifts of the Denver 15" bishops who in 1996 publicly declared their opposition to the church's teachings about sexual ethics. They "broke the myth about the Council" of Bishops being composed of leaders who "all agreed," she enthused.

Also speaking, in the interest of dialogue, was Bishop Scott Jones of Wichita, Kansas, who supports the church's position on homosexuality. He urged going back to John Wesley, the church's doctrines, and the Bible for guidance. His remarks were received politely.

Besides the bishops, several prominent violators of United Methodist law were also prominent speakers at "Hearts on Fire."

"I'm aware that there are people in the United Methodist Church who think that I'm a Jezebel," said Beth Stroud, the Philadelphia pastor who publicly declared her active lesbianism two years ago. Her ordination status will be decided by the church's highest court this Fall.

Stroud called her "coming out publicly" the "most faithful witness" she could offer. The church is like a "boxing match," she fretted, noting how homosexuality has divided United Methodism.

Last year Karen Oliveto presided over a string of same-sex unions in San Francisco, in defiance of the United Methodist Book of Discipline. "When will the exclusion of sexual minorities end?" she asked at Lake Junaluska. Oliveto said that she had been really discouraged at times with the United Methodist Church, but has also been encouraged by "God, who marches with me."

Like other speakers, Oliveto criticized traditional Christian teachings beyond just sexual ethics. Specifically, she criticized Jewish and Christian teachings about "chosenness," which she claimed led to racism, colonization, "destruction of native cultures," slavery, and now purported discrimination against "gays and lesbians."

Oliveto criticized St. Paul's casting a demon out of a slave girl, as recorded in the Book of Acts. By depriving the girl of her fortune-telling abilities, Paul did her "economic injury" and made her "damaged goods," Oliveto complained. She urged a "progressive theology" guided by "pluralism," "feminism," "liberationism," "post-colonialism," and "ecological and environmental responsibility." Oliveto explained that her remarks were a combination of her own biblical exegesis and the thoughts of the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, a fellow United Methodist professor at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, who was unable to attend.

Bishop Morrison eliciting boisterous cheers by recalling, "one of the greatest events that I ever went to was Re-Imagining," the 1993 ecumenical women's conference where goddess worship and lesbianism were acclaimed. She bemoaned that "it is by far, for me in my own personal journey, the hardest struggle in dealing with wanting to say more and feeling silenced."

"We know there is death in this pot called the United Methodist Church," opined James Preston, a Northern Illinois minister and board member of Cokesbury Publishing. "What would the United Methodist Church be without us? There would be death, death."

The sponsor of "Hearts on Fire" was the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN). Its director, Troy Plummer, read a letter of support from Bishop Mary Ann Swensen of the California-Pacific Conference that included the warning that "The children of God will be persecuted."

The audience gave a standing ovation to Lake Junaluska executive director Jimmy Carr, who controversially made the decision to rent the facility to "Hearts on Fire."

"Well, I thought I'd never run for General Conference again!" Carr smilingly responded to the crowd's applause. He told the pro-homosexuality activists that there were a lot of people in the immediate area and throughout the Southeast Jurisdiction who wanted them to be welcome at Lake Junaluska. "They understand that 'open hearts, open minds, open doors' really does mean something!," Carr added, referring to the church advertising slogan.

Carr lamented Lake Junaluska's policy decades ago of not renting to black people, by implication agreeing with the "Hearts on Fire" claim that disapproval of homosexual practice is similar to racism.

John Lomperis and Mark Tooley work with UMAction, a committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

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