Of Markets and Missions: The Early History of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches

Abstract

“It seems to me, now,” reflected Troy Perry, four years after founding a successful new Protestant denomination, “that it must have been a matter of timing, and I think that it was fate, too! God chose me for my mission at a time when He knew the world would respond, once the need was made clear.” While the question of divine ordination is a bit outside the scholar's jurisdiction, the question of timing is a crucial one for historical inquiry, and Perry's remarks show an insightful awareness that the success of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) was due in large part to timing. As with any successful religious group, however, the seeds of the UFMCC germinated, sprouted, and grew as a result of a multitude of interconnected factors, including both external back-ground factors in American society at large and internal factors within the UFMCC itself. This article relates the history and early growth of the UFMCC to this constellation of factors in order to gain a clearer understanding of both the denomination itself and the social changes of which it was an integral part.

“Oh My God, I Sound Like a Horrible Person”: Generic Processes in the Conditional Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity

“…Echoing homonormative assertions originally promoted by LG churches in the 1960s (Wilcox ), respondents suggested that people who could not help being different might be okay, which also suggested anyone who could would (and perhaps should) choose to be heterosexual (Warner ). In so doing, they tolerated LGB existence by framing it as an uncontrollable defect from heterosexual nature or supremacy (Schrock, Sumerau, and Ueno ).…”

“…Studying the ways that people construct religion, gender, and sexuality, then, has the potential to yield insight into the processes that uphold large-scale patterns of inequality (McQueeney 2009). At the same time, we can learn about social change by attending to the ways people challenge and/or reproduce inequalities (Wilcox 2001).…”

From Sodomy to Sympathy: LDS Elites’ Discursive Construction of Homosexuality Over Time

“…In 1943, Quakers issued the first official denominational statement concerning the “problem” of homosexuality in American society (Wilcox ). Since then, homosexuality has become a prominent issue in American Christianity.…”

“Why Would Our Heavenly Father Do that to Anyone”: Oppressive Othering through Sexual Classification Schemes in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐Day Saints

“…In fact, our analysis reveals that LDS elites utilized these same narrative devices before the emergence of these other groups in the mid‐to‐late 1970s. While we are not able to explicate what, if any, influence LDS elites had on the emergence of these other—more well‐known—movements, the historical record suggests that they could have done so, that they also could have later been influenced by the emergence of these groups, and that the most likely source of inspiration for LDS elites would have been the statements on homosexuality in the 1940s and 1950s by the Quaker and Catholic traditions, which initially conceptualized it as a problem or disorder that afflicted otherwise moral people (see Wilcox for a concise review of these statements). Regardless of the direction of influence, we thus utilize the LDS historical record to illustrate generic patterns of inequality reproduction that continue to influence social, political, religious, and sexual debates today.…”

“…Over the past 70 years, religious leaders have wrestled with the emergence of homosexuality in the public sphere (see Wilcox ). While some religious organizations have begun to open their doors to nonheterosexuals (McQueeney ; Moon ) and some groups of sexual minorities have founded their own religious institutions (Sumerau ; Thumma ), other religious groups have responded with fierce opposition (see e.g., Erzen ; Pitt ; Robinson and Spivey ).…”