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Forcing all United Methodist pastors and congregations to submit to a system of completely "open membership" appears to be emerging as the top priority of the various liberal interest groups for the 2008 General Conference. Contrary to the claims of such activists, this scheme runs counter to our Methodist heritage. John Wesley and the early Methodist societies were famous for the rigorous moral standards they demanded of members. The early movement's rapid growth rebuts modern claims that a church cannot grow if it requires vital Christian living by its members.

American Methodism has traditionally had high standards for membership. A snapshot of this can be seen in the January 1860 issue of the Methodist Quarterly Review, the theological journal of United Methodism's largest predecessor body, which reported that congregations of the various Methodist denominations "generally" included a total of roughly four times as many people in their communities as were full formal members. Early American Methodist Disciplines quite explicitly empowered pastors to safeguard the integrity of church membership.

That churches could have many more people in regular worship attendance than are on the membership rolls (rather than the other way around) seems quite foreign to many "open membership" advocates. And yet throughout America, countless "evangelical" congregations are routinely packed with many more people than are full members. The conservative, growing Free Methodist and Wesleyan denominations (both of which broke away from mainstream American Methodism in the nineteenth century largely over opposition to slavery) respectively attract 33 percent and 36 percent more attendees than members on Sundays. But we need not only look outside of our denomination. There are less than 900,000 members of the United Methodist Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but another four million worship in their churches.

We in the rapidly declining U.S. portion of the United Methodist Church would do well to seek to humbly learn from these brothers and sisters in Christ at home and overseas.

Defending the integrity of church membership has nothing to do with keeping people away. However, the integrity of membership is critical for determining what our church will have to offer a needy and hurting world. In his speech at the Confessing Movement conference last fall, Bishop Scott Jones of Kansas told of one United Methodist congregation that, "when asked what was the difference between them and the Rotary Club, could not think of any difference."

Should the sacred covenant of membership in our congregations imply deeper interpersonal ties than any social organization? Or does the Christian church have uniquely, incredibly "good news" that offers a restored relationship with our Creator? Should church members share basic belief in this gospel of repentance, redemption, and moral living?

At the 2008 General Conference, delegates will have to decide. Will they obey the call of the leadership of the "progressive" caucuses and the California-Nevada Conference (which has lost 50 percent of its members in the last generation) who have been some of the most vocal advocates of the "open membership" movement? Or will they remember our church's heritage and defend the calling of members of the United Methodist Church to be bound as humbly repentant sinners at the foot of the cross in loving relationships of mutual accountability, spiritual support, and outward service?

By John Lomperis, a research assistant for UMAction in Washington D.C.

Tinseltown Nativity

The Passion of the Christ generated over $600 million worldwide and single-handedly opened the eyes of Hollywood executives to the money-making possibilities of faith-friendly films. Of course, the movie was bankrolled with independent financing, the lifeblood for virtually all religious films in recent memory. That's all about to change.

New Line Cinema's December 1 release of The Nativity Story will be the first Bible-themed film produced by a major Hollywood studio in fifty years (Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments). The epic will explore the anxiety, joy, and love of Mary and Joseph leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ.

The film hosts an award-winning international cast with Oscar-nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) as Mary, Oscar Isaacs (Syriana) as Joseph, and Oscar-nominated Shoreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) as Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist.

Along with a small group of journalists, Good News was invited to be a guest of New Line on the set of Nativity in the ancient city of Matera, Italy. The photogenic city, with its homes carved out of the rock, was the location for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. It was jokingly observed that Matera looks more like Jerusalem than Jerusalem does.

On a blistering hot day, we visited the set where Mary and Joseph were making their way down a steep and rocky path with their donkey and dozens of smelly sheep impeding their path, despite the best efforts of local shepherds. In the midst of the busy day of filming, we were able to talk to director Catherine Hardwicke, Isaacs, and Castle-Hughes about the film. We later visited make-shift replicas of Nazareth (Mary's home) and Bethlehem (the manger) with our host Mike Rich, the film's screenwriter.

Rich's past films included Finding Forrester, Radio, and The Rookie but he was looking for a slightly different inspiration in his writing. "My father had passed away recently, and I was looking for something deeper to write-something that would take me into a new area other than sports."

After seeing the Nativity of Christ on the cover of both Time and Newsweek's Christmas issues in 2004, Rich spent months researching the birth of Christ and consulting with scholars. "Talk about limited source material," Rich, an evangelical Christian, confessed to Good News. After all, the only description of Joseph in the Bible is that "he was a righteous man."

Rich believes that the Christmas story had always been told from an "event-based story-this happened, then this happened, then this happened," he explained. "It's rarely presented as a character-based story. That's how I wanted to do it." His script, which Good News has read, is a beautiful love story. It is rich with character development that will engage the imaginations of viewers, and inspire faith. Although it is largely based on theological speculation, Rich's screenplay is faithful to the spirit of orthodox Christianity.

"This can't be that interesting," Hardwicke said about the first time she read the script. "I have read this story a hundred times. I have read the Bible backward and forward-Old and New Testaments-when I was 12- and 13-years-old. But then I started getting so intrigued the way Mike had gotten right inside the story-right inside the heart and soul of these characters. How would it really feel if you were a teenage girl and this happened to you? If you were a man, and this happened to your betrothed? With this kind of miracle, how do you take that leap of faith? I thought it was so fascinating, interesting, just a huge challenge, and totally scary. It made me want to do it."

For her part, 16-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes is attempting to keep the coveted role in proper perspective (she was nominated for an Academy Award at age 12 for her role in Whale Rider). "When I first got the part, it didn't hit me at first," she told us. "But on the plane over here, I was writing in my diary, and then it hit me: Ohh! I'm playing Mary!"

By Steve Beard, editor of Good News.

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Straight Talk News, Views and Uproars

"Open Membership" forgets our Wesleyan heritage

Tinseltown Nativity

Straight Talk
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