“Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” I encountered this welcoming slogan of the United Methodist Church — the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the country — on a weekly basis growing up as a young parishioner in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It is a phrase familiar to 12 million UMC members globally; the denomination even publishes a style guide to standardize how this “brand promise” should uniformly appear on billboards, advertisements, and newsletters around the world.

But today that ubiquitous slogan rings with cruel irony, and the unity sought by the church has been torn apart in the wake of a controversial binding resolution passed by the UMC’s top legislative body affirming a ban on non-celibate LGBT clergy and same-sex marriage. The vote effectively closes off any space for theological diversity on the topic of homosexuality within the denomination.

...As a queer man raised in the UMC since birth, I urge all its members to begin this Lenten period of reflection contending with the lasting damage that this condemnation of the LGBT community will inflict on congregants struggling with their sexuality. And to the UMC communities wrestling with leaving the church, I ask you to first reckon with the consequences of complicity and then take the bold step of starting an entirely new denomination of acceptance for the 21st century.

...These kinds of difficult conversations on ethics and morality should always come hand-in-hand with faith. But one thing is unambiguous: I will not be a part of an organization that does not respect my legal right to marry or create a family.