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Minister asked to judge

The Rev. Keith Boyette, senior pastor at Wilderness Community Church, serves on United Methodist Church's Judicial Council in midst of controversy

By JESSICA ALLEN

Date published: 5/14/2004

The Rev. Keith Boyette knows what it means to interpret the law.

Before he became senior pastor at Wilderness Community Church in Spotsylvania County, he was a trial lawyer in Richmond, arguing civil cases before judge and jury.

"As an attorney, I'm trained to see what's really the issue and understand what people are really saying," said Boyette, whose congregation is affiliated with the Methodist Church. "That's a skill that's really important in the midst of conflict."

Boyette relied on those skills to guide him last week during the United Methodist Church's General Conference in Pittsburgh.

While serving on the Judicial Council, which acts as the church's supreme court, he was asked to clarify the church's stand on homosexuality.

Instinctively, he hit the books. Specifically, the Book of Discipline, which contains the church's laws. It states--and the council reaffirmed--that homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching."

The United Methodist Church, which has about 9 million members worldwide, has addressed the issue of homosexuality and what the Bible states on the subject since the 1970s, Boyette said.

The question has come up every four years during the church's General Conference, and each time church leaders have referred to the Book of Discipline.

But this year was different. The conference had to comment on the church trial of a self-avowed lesbian, the Rev. Karen Dammann.

The 47-year-old pastor of First United Methodist Church in Ellensburg, Wash., was recently acquitted of charges of violating church law. Dammann, who married her partner of nine years in March, is currently on leave.

The trial was conducted by the Pacific Northwest Conference.

The 13-member jury ruled that church law did not make it a chargeable offense for gay clergy to be sexually active.

"That's what's caused all the problems because everyone is saying, 'How can they do that since the Book of Discipline is so clear?'" said Carole Vaughn, director of communications for the Virginia Conference in Richmond. She also attended last week's conference.

As a result, the nine-member Judicial Council was asked to review the Dammann case.

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Date published: 5/14/2004