Surgeon General Nominee Drops Out of Methodist High Court Meeting
President Bush's nominee for America's top doctor has declined to participate in a United Methodist Judicial Council meeting this week that will address the case of a transgender pastor.
Dr. James Holsinger, nominee for Surgeon General of the United States, heads the Methodist Council – the United Methodist Church's supreme court – but said Tuesday that he is concerned his nomination could become an "unnecessary and unproductive distraction."
"As is always the case, members of the Council will travel thousands of miles to attend this meeting and have spent untold hours studying and praying in preparation," he said in a statement. "In order to maintain the integrity of the proceedings of the Judicial Council and in order for Council members to focus solely on the cases in front of them, I have chosen not to participate in the meeting.
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"While I remain dedicated to fulfilling the role to which I was elected, I believe this is a time in which my service to the Council can best be demonstrated by my absence," he added.
Holsinger's appointment as the 18th Surgeon General has been stalled, partly over comments he had written in a 1991 paper for a church committee that described homosexual sex as unnatural and unhealthy. Critics have blasted his comments as anti-gay, but many have backed the nominee for the nation's chief health educator, saying he would not discriminate against anyone when distributing health care or information. Holsinger said the paper does not reflect his position today.
While his appointment remains on hold, the United Methodist's top court opened a meeting on Wednesday in the absence of Holsinger and is scheduled to take on a transgender case – an issue the church has yet to grapple with.
The Rev. Drew Phoenix had led St. John's United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Md., for five years as the Rev. Ann Gordon. The pastor underwent surgery and hormone therapy in the past year to become a male and adopted a new name. Phoenix was reappointed in good standing by Baltimore-Washington Bishop John Schol, amid opposition. The transgender pastor's appointment will be reviewed by the denomination's court at the Oct. 24-27 meeting in San Francisco.
The United Methodist Church bars self-avowed practicing clergy from ordination and does not support gay unions, according to the denomination's Book of Discipline, but it says nothing about transgender clergy.
Members of St. John's say their minister's sex change was no big deal, according to Religion News Service.
Conservatives in the church, however, said they would pass a ban on transgender pastors at the 2008 General Conference, the church's highest legislative body that meets every four years.
