It started with a bumper sticker.
It ended with nothing less than a tumultuous ruling that has caused religious Americans of all faiths to see how and if they can reconcile the long-lasting conflicts between many of their own feelings about homosexuality, and their Christian beliefs on social justice.
Christians of many denominations have long struggled with the 'traditional' view that homosexuality is somehow a sin, or 'incompatible' with their faith, vs. the modern understanding of sexual orientation, and the need to treat gay and lesbian worshippers with dignity and inclusion.
The remarkable outcome of this particular case is not only that the pro-gay side emerged overwhelmingly victorious, but that it was able to put in question the very teaching that homosexuality is 'incompatible' with Christianity.
A couple of years ago, Rev. Karen Dammann, an ordained Methodist minister, insisted that her long-time partner, Meredith Savage, scrape a gay-rights bumper sticker off her car. A church supervisor was about to visit their home, and Rev. Dammann didn't want to take the chance that the bumper sticker would give them away.
But Rev. Dammann was forced to re-think her actions, not only in light of the love of her partner, but for the sake of their son. The boy, now five years old, is Ms. Savage's biological son, and the two women are raising him together. Dammann was forced to question the kinds of lessons she was teaching her son about truth, courage, dignity and love, by stooping to such measures as rubbing bumper stickers off a car in order to deceive people about her true nature.
She decided she could hide no longer, and in 2001, Rev. Dammann wrote a letter to her bishop, openly stating that she is a lesbian who is in a committed, long-term relationship with another woman. Rev. Dammann and Ms. Savage have now been together nine years. The two recently got married in Portland, Ore., which is located in the only county in America that currently is issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
Rev. Dammann's revelation was enough to get her charged by the church with 'practices declared by the United Methodist church to be incompatible to Christian teachings.' If she had been found guilty, she would have been defrocked. That's exactly what happened to Rose Mary Denman, the last homosexual Methodist minister who was similarly charged in 1987.
Opponents of gay and lesbian ministers within the Methodist church tried to paint this as an open-and-shut case. They pointed to the church's Book of Discipline, which declares homosexuality 'incompatible with Christian teaching.' They also pointed to church law that prohibits the ordination of 'self-avowed, practicing homosexuals.'
On the face of it, they should have had a strong case.
But remarkably, the defenders of Rev. Dammann were able to turn this trial into one that questions those very rules. This trial was as much about the conflict within the church as it was about Rev. Dammann herself.
Her defenders adroitly asked the 13-member panel of religious jurors to be faithful to larger beliefs in the church and teachings of Christianity, rather than the narrow rule that openly gay Methodists shouldn't be ministers.
'You are faced with a choice to make love practical, to make love plain, and to do what is right,' said Rev. Robert Ward, in his closing arguments defending Rev. Dammann. Throughout his defense, he also reiterated that the church's social policy toward gay and lesbian congregants is one of social inclusion. And he brought top Methodist scholars to testify that the principles in the Book of Discipline are not set-in-stone rules, but merely guidance.
To convict her, nine of the 13 jurors would have had to find Rev. Dammann guilty. In the end, not a single juror was willing to vote that way. Eleven of the 13 voted not guilty; the remaining two were undecided.
'Although we, the trial court, found passages [in Methodist teaching] that contain the phrasing 'incompatible with Christian teaching,' we did not find that any of them constitute a declaration,' Rev. Karla Frederickson, one of the jurors, told The New York Times, in explaining the group's decision.
This is remarkable given that the Methodists, with 8.5 million members, are the third largest denomination in America.
The caveat to the case is that the trial took place in the Pacific Northwest, a region where the Methodist church is exceedingly more liberal than the rest of the country.
Ever since 1972, the Methodists have struggled with their position toward gay and lesbian members. Every four years, at the General Conference, the liberal wing of the church has asked its members to strike the language that calls homosexuality and Methodist church teaching 'incompatible.'
So far, they have had no luck. At the last conference, delegates voted by more than 2-to-1 to keep the anti-gay language.
The trial verdict comes on the heels of another General Conference, to be held this April in Pittsburgh. Once again, the liberal wing of the church is likely to ask that unfriendly language to gays and lesbians be struck down. The recent trial verdict not withstanding, most observers doubt the general Methodist membership is willing to go as far as the 13 judges in Rev. Dammann's case.
Still, the verdict was reached by a group of Methodists. However liberal that particular bunch of Methodists may be, this verdict didn't come from some of the more radical or progressive denominations, like the Unitarians or the Quakers. It came from a very mainstream, staid American church institution.
That can't be ignored.
It will force Christians of all faiths to once again question if the Bible thumpings of the anti-gay clergy aren't just an echo of the past.
