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Conservative Methodists Protest Lesbian Speaker

Renewal members of the United Methodist Church are protesting the invitation of a lesbian activist to speak at an official denominational Women’s Assembly.

Renewal members of the United Methodist Church are protesting the invitation of a lesbian activist to speak at an official denominational Women’s Assembly.

Musician Emily Saliers, a member of Indigo Girls, was invited as a keynote speaker to the United Methodist Women’s Assembly in Anaheim, Calif., along with her father, theologian Don Saliers. The two are expected to discuss music and spirituality – the topic of the book they co-wrote.

Members of the Renew Network, an evangelical women’s group within the denomination, are protesting Salier’s address because of her “open practice of lesbianism.”

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``Emily Saliers' open practice of lesbianism and her promotion of the acceptance of the lifestyle is contrary to church teaching,'' said L. Faye Short, president of the Renew Network.

The United Methodist Church, like most mainline denominations, rejects the practice of homosexuality as a lifestyle that is incompatible to the Scripture, although it accepts homosexuals as people of sacred worth. Its ordained ministers are also prohibited from engaging in homosexual relationships and taking part in same-sex “marriage” ceremonies.

Despite such teachings, Jan Love, chief executive of the United Methodist Women’s Division, is supporting Saliers’ invitation.

``I wasn't unmindful of'' Saliers' sexuality,” Love told San Jose Mercury News. ``But it's not the basis on which she was chosen. Nor will it be a basis on which we discriminate.''

Saliers, meanwhile, said she will try to attend the May meeting despite protests.

``I can't say it didn't hurt my feelings. If you are a part of an oppressed group you get used to it,'' said Saliers, who has been in a decade-long relationship, according to Mercury News. ``I see it as an opportunity. I think these things come up for a reason.''

Such conflicts have come up in the past within the eight-million-member church. Last year the denomination came under fire allowing a pro-homosexual conference to be hosted at an official Methodist conference center.

Prior to the conference, renewal leaders began a denomination-wide petition against what they viewed as an outright rejection of the church’s teaching. However, despite their collecting thousands of signatures, the conference was held as planned.

Renew Network is now organizing a petition letter to the United Methodist Women Assembly board with hopes that the division would revoke Saliers’ invitation.

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