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An open letter to the bishops of the five annual conferences of the state of Texas:

A crisis of conscience has been ongoing and may soon escalate for many United Methodist clergy in the state of Texas. United States Supreme Court rulings are anticipated this summer which would establish marriage equality as a constitutionally protected right for all United States citizens. If marriage equality is guaranteed in all 50 states, bans on same-sex weddings like those codified in United Methodist policy will compel United Methodist clergy to discriminate between the civil rights of some and the civil rights of others as a matter of institutional policy. This is a posture that is historically inconceivable for our United Methodist Church. It is also theologically unsustainable as a practice of faith and ministry in a time of sweeping cultural change.

Already 36 states and the District of Columbia have established marriage equality as a matter of state law. Texas and 12 other southern states persist in their refusal to acknowledge the civil right of gay and lesbian couples to marry. Even a passing familiarity with the history of southern states regarding civil rights is sufficient to know that this is no historical anomaly. The time has come for The United Methodist Church to recognize that the remaining resistance to equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons does not derive from a theological mandate that we must enforce but from a cultural bias that we must redeem.

We, the undersigned clergy, call on the bishops of the five annual conferences in the state of Texas to participate in the ongoing redemption of the systemic prejudice against LGBT persons. We call upon you to engage in the historic moment and to acknowledge the crisis of conscience for United Methodist clergy in Texas who can no longer withhold the ministry and blessing of the Church from LGBT persons either in the name of the Christ of our faith or in the name of The United Methodist Church. In this historic moment, we call upon you as bishops of The United Methodist Church to forego prosecutions of clergy who extend the counsel, blessing, and ministry of the Church to same sex couples who desire to be married or to celebrate their marriages in the Church. In cases in which complaints resulting from such actions arise, we implore you to lead all parties toward just resolutions as outlined by The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church.

In all things, may God be honored through our work together, as we seek to love as Christ loves.

Respectfully,