United Methodist Church accused Washington of "racism"

Reuters
Greg Frost
April 27, 2004

Leaders of the United Methodist Church accused Washington of "racism" on Tuesday after dozens of African and Asian church members were barred from attending a special conference of the third-largest Christian denomination in the United States.

At least eight delegates from the Philippines and at least 17 from various African countries were unable to attend the church's general conference, a rule-making session held once every four years, after the U.S. government rejected their visa applications.

Both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are United Methodists, and the general conferences have been taking place every four years for several decades.

Speaking to reporters outside a federal office building in downtown Pittsburgh, where this year's conference began on Tuesday, bishops expressed outrage that duly elected delegates could not attend the church's highest decision-making body.

"Racism is no small part of this matter," said Bishop Felton May. "We must emphasize that it is our brown-skinned and black-skinned brothers and sisters who are facing this undue scrutiny, suspicion and rejection. Our light-skinned brothers and sisters from Europe are not being denied visas."

A State Department official who declined to be identified said the department reviews each visa application based on its individual merits.

"The person's skin color, race, religion or nationality have absolutely no bearing on the ability of the applicant to demonstrate his or her eligibility for a visa under the law," the official said.

The official also noted there are 27 so-called "visa waiver" countries whose citizens generally do not need visas for short visits. Most of these 27 countries are European.

Church leaders said they understood the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington had led to tighter border security, and they acknowledged the State Department's Office of Religious Liberty had helped some delegates secure visas.

But they also noted the government had ample time to prepare for the foreign delegates for this year's conference.

Retired Bishop Marshall Meadors urged Washington to act to prevent the same problem from recurring at the 2008 general conference in Fort Worth, Texas. Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney are United Methodists (and we) call upon them to use the full influence of their office to correct this injustice," Meadors said. The United Methodist Church has been shrinking in the United States but expanding overseas. The church counted about 10.2 million members in a 2001 census, nearly 2 million of them from Africa, Asia and Europe.

At the Pittsburgh conference, delegates will discuss whether homosexuality is compatible with church teachings. The church faces a possible schism over a decision to allow the Rev. Karen Dammann to remain a minister despite a church ban on gay clergy.