LISTEN TO THESE HONEST VOICES

J. Ron Byler

Readers of the DreamSeeker Magazine Winter 2006 special issue, "Toward a Genuine Conversation on Homosexuality," have had to wait patiently for the conversation to continue. Finally Cascadia Publishing House, publisher of DSM, has extended the conversation in a new 2007 book, Stumbling Toward a Genuine Conversation on Homosexuality—which reprints the DSM special issue as Part One and adds a new and much longer Part Two of 17 more chapters. To introduce the book, below are excerpts from Byler’s "Last Word," a response published in full at the end of the book. DSM readers are welcome to buy copies at 15% discount through 12-31-07. To order, simply e-mail contact@cascadiapublishinghouse.com and mention code DSM-Autumn07. For more on the book, see www.CascadiaPublishingHouse.com/stg/stg.htm. —Ed.

At San Jose 2007, the biannual convention for Mennonite Church USA last July, speaker after speaker told us how they were drawn into the Mennonite family. They reminded us of our calling within the larger Christian church to speak out for peace and justice for all people. One speaker said it this way, "Thanks for what you have given me, and please continue to be who you say you are."

Despite our best efforts to avoid the issue, homosexuality in the church will not go away, and we are not at peace with each other. One of the reasons may be that we have not been true to our word. As several writers in this book point out, our Purdue and Saskatoon statements not only state our belief about same-gender orientation but also promise that we will continue to talk to each other about it.

Stumbling Toward a Genuine Conversation on Homosexuality is aptly named. We would still stumble, but less often, if we could find a way to talk face-to-face about this topic, rather than through books like this one. And still, I found myself laughing and crying as I read through these pages. Many of the authors are people I know and love. People whose opinions I respect dearly. So often, I wanted to say "Yes, but . . ." or "But you’re forgetting that. . . ." But we are left with words on a page rather than real-time conversation.

Yet that’s the point, isn’t it? For whatever reason, we are only now beginning to provide space in the church to talk about this issue and others that have the potential to divide us.

So let me contribute to this conversation by telling you what I think and feel today. . . .

• I simply don’t think there is enough support one way or the other to be clear about what the Bible says (and means) about homosexual relationships. . . .

• The easy line we draw between homosexual orientation and practice feels fundamentally unfair, unjust, and impractical to me.

• Mennonite leaders have failed to live up to our agreement to say clearly what we believe about differing sexual orientation and provide safe space for the church to talk about it. We have a sincere desire to maintain the unity of the church, and we often are fearful of the things that threaten to divide us.

• Discernment happens at different levels of church—congregation, conference, and denomination—and we have not yet figured out how to reconcile them. . . .

• We should be much quicker to admit we can’t solve this issue by ourselves and more open about asking God’s spirit to guide us.

Listen to the honest voices of the followers of Jesus in this book. . . .

—J. Ron Byler, Goshen, Indiana, is associate executive director of the Mennonite Church USA. See Stumbling Toward a Genuine Conversation on Homosexuality (Cascadia 2007, pp. 309-311), for the complete text of his "Last Word" as it appears in the book.