Key points:
- John Wesley, Methodism’s founder, insisted on justice for people at the margins of society.
- Bishop Peggy Johnson urges United Methodists to remember their Wesleyan heritage as they look at how the proposed U.S. federal budget targets trans and gender-expansive people.
- With the U.S. facing a government shutdown amid continued budget disputes, she says, United Methodists still have time to advocate for a more just budget.
Photo courtesy of the author.
Commentaries
This fall I am helping to teach a study on the book “Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodism Identity” by Dr. Ashley Boggan, the top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.
The thesis of the recently published book is to remind the reader about the roots of Methodism’s laser focus on the ministry with those on the margins. It encourages us to re-examine our historical practices to revitalize our churches.
For some in the class this has been new information, as increasingly our attendees come from various religious backgrounds. Even “cradle” Methodists found this to be helpful. John Wesley, our 18th century English founder, brought many gifts to the church, but above all else was his insistence on justice — justice for people who were poor, unhoused, addicted, enslaved, sick, uneducated, imprisoned and rejected by society.
Through the years we “People called Methodists” have been somewhat successful in raising up ministries of justice as well as mercy. But admittedly we have sometimes succumbed to cultural norms of a capitalist society that continues to oppress and neglect our primary mission field: the margins.
We make slow progress where we can, as the arc of justice continues to bend favorably. The 2020/2024 General Conference was a historic moment in which we became officially open to people of all sexual orientations. We removed punitive, demeaning and damning paragraphs in our Book of Discipline after a decades-long and painful ordeal.
However, a group of marginalized people, who were so marginalized that they never made it into past Book of Discipline publications, are those on the spectrum of gender identity. These include a wide array of transgender, nonbinary, gender expansive and intersex people (to name a few).
Last year’s General Conference did add to the Social Principles in the Discipline that the denomination supports “the equal rights, liberties, and protections of all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Gender identity is largely misunderstood and often confused with sexual orientation. Sadly, in our current political environment trans and other gender-expansive people have become the subject of unprecedented rejection, demonization, restriction, punitive governmental laws and now the withholding of life-giving medical care.
Trans people are reduced to being called “an ideology” and erased from governmental documents and monuments. For some, gender-expansive people are the symbol of something that needs to be controlled and eliminated from American society. Hundreds of laws have been written to this effect this year on a variety of topics.
The proposed 2026 federal budget for the United States aims to inflict concrete harm on this community unless changes are made this week.
The budget:
- bars the federal employees’ health benefits program from covering gender-affirming care for federal employees and their families;
- cuts Medicaid and CHIP;
- adds a definition of “essential health benefits,” which allows insurers to drop coverage for trans individuals, elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and LGBTQ+ programs;
- bans funding for gender-affirming care for military service members.
Our Social Principles state that people of diverse gender identities are “disproportionally impacted by social stigmas, discrimination, coercion and violence.” It calls on churches, the government, businesses, and civic organizations to “do all in their power to combat unjust treatment and to promote equal rights and protections.” (Paragraph 163, page 145, 2020/2024 Book of Discipline).
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Remember who you are, United Methodists! Our founding father is John Wesley — who, as “Wesleyan Vile-tality” notes, had the courage to minister to a gay man on death row and provide legal and financial support that not only saved his life but also enabled his release from prison.
With the fiscal year ending on Oct. 1, the U.S now faces a federal government shutdown amid disputes between Republicans and Democrats about the federal budget, particularly on health care.
What can you do?
- Speak out against this continuing effort to scapegoat and devastatingly harm people on the gender identity spectrum.
- Contact your members of Congress this week about the budget and encourage them to protect transgender health as well as health care for all people living in poverty.
- Come alongside families with children who are trying desperately to get help for a child, whose survival depends on the health care that is being torn away by governmental threats of monetary withholding.
- Affirm and welcome people in your community and churches who are gender diverse.
- Learn all you can by checking out resources on the Reconciling Ministry Network website. A helpful tutorial titled “Made in God’s Image: A Fresh Perspective on Gender Difference” can be found there.
- For any further information, contact the Rev. Joelle Henneman, the Director of UM Alliance for Transgender Inclusion, which is a part of the Reconciling Ministries Network, at TransPreacher.com and [email protected].
Bishop Peggy Johnson, retired, served as bishop of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Peninsula-Delaware conferences from 2008 to until her retirement in 2021. She was then interim bishop of the New England Conference in 2023-24.
News media contact: Julie Dwyer, news editor, [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
