Black denomination upholds stance against same-sex marriage

WHEN THE African Methodist Episcopal Church, arguably the world’s largest independent Black Protestant denomination, held its quadrennial General Conference in Ohio in August, among the agenda items was an issue that the Rev Jennifer S. Leath had laboured over for two decades: same-sex marriage.

Leath, 43, self-identifies as “quare” – terminology designed to capture both her same-sex attraction and intellectual heritage as a “blackqueer womanist” thinker. She was a 23-year-old future seminarian when a voice vote was taken in 2004, making participation in same-sex marriages or unions punishable according to official AME church law.

The move was widely seen as a response to the Episcopal Church’s election of the Rev V. Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop the year prior.

Since then, marriage equality has become the law of the land. And now Leath is at the forefront of a fight within her own denomination on whether it should moderate its stance.

In doing so, she’s attempting to hold together two opposing sides: one which hopes the AME church moves toward acceptance of same-sex marriage and the other, opposing same-sex marriage, which prevailed in August in scrapping a bill that would have triggered an open debate about the issue.

The recent conference decision effectively threw away three years of research by the Sexual Ethics Discernment Committee, which was established in 2021 by resolution in order to make a recommendation on how the AME should move forward.

It left her “disappointed and frustrated” but not prepared to leave. Instead, Leath contends that the church’s posture explains the alienation of LBGTQ+ members of the church.

“LGBTQ+ people in the church suffer in relative silence while those who have left are forced to find or even create new spiritual communities,” Leath told The Associated Press,

In the AME, according to interviews with clergy, lay leaders and academics, there is generally an older group who consider LGBTQ+ sexual relations as sinful and believe that God ordained marriage to be between a man and a woman. In contrast, Leath is mindful of a younger generation that accepts sexual diversities while celebrating that all are created in the image of God and should feel safe – especially in the church.

“I feel the undeniable urgency of the children who are feeling like the only way through this is death or out of the church,” Leath said. “As a pastor who follows the way of Jesus, that weighs on me.”

Her profile as an Ivy League-educated academic and her status as the daughter of an outspoken AME bishop adds heft to her commitment as a champion for LGBTQ+ members of the church.

She hopes to help her denomination avoid the schisms that have ruptured most of America’s mainline Protestant denominations. Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians – and most recently United Methodists – dismantled their bans related to same-sex marriage, but substantial minorities of their US congregations joined more conservative denominations.

“To me the AME church is a place where diverse perspectives on issues like these can co-exist while we faithfully pursue justice for all,” she said. “But this is only viable and sustainable as long as we are collectively and individually committed to recognising the least among us, and recalibrating our faith and practices accordingly.”

Leath felt called to Christian ministry at a young age. She grew up at Mother Bethel AME in Philadelphia, the flagship congregation of the denomination. Her father, the Rev Jeffrey N. Leath, served there for 14 years in his final pastoral assignment.

“Her dad is one who is willing to stand for what he believes in, even if he is bumping up against opposition,” said the Rev Reginald Blount, an AME pastor and associate professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

“I do believe that Jennifer carries some of those traits as well ... the willingness to be that voice in the wilderness when you truly believe that what you are fighting for is right,” Blount said.