Photo: Members of the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA during their March 30-April 1 meeting in Kansas City. Photo by Hannah Heinzekehr. 

During a June 19 video conference, Mennonite Church USA’s Executive Board voted to suspend the appointment of Doug Basinger, a man in a same-sex marriage, to the denomination’s Leadership Discernment Committee (LDC). Basinger’s appointment was originally approved by the EB as part of its consent agenda during its March 30-April 1 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.

According to a June 23 statement from the EB, most board members learned of Basinger’s sexual orientation after his approval. “Board members determined that they need more time to discuss and clarify policies on appointments that the EB makes of LGBTQ persons to denominational boards and committees,” said the statement.

The EB vote was 8-6 in favor of suspension, with one abstention. One board member was absent and did not vote. Basinger’s appointment will remain suspended until the EB’s Sept. 28-30 meeting in Kansas City.

“This decision doesn’t mean the appointment is rescinded or revoked,” said Patricia Shelly, MC USA moderator and EB chair, in a June 23 phone interview. “At this point, he’s not on the LDC, and that will be revisited in the fall.”

The LDC is the committee responsible for preparing slates of nominees for EB and MC USA agency board appointments. The committee has eight members: four appointed by the EB and four nominated by the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) and affirmed by MC USA delegates. Basinger was initially approved as one of the EB’s appointees.

Earlier this year, Basinger was nominated by Katherine Jameson Pitts, conference minister for Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference. Basinger attends Seattle Mennonite Church and is a member of that conference.

“Doug is an extremely gifted, wonderful person who definitely has gifts for discerning and calling out the gifts of other people,” says Pitts. “I suggested him because when I worked with him on the search committee for Seattle Mennonite’s pastor, I saw that he had the gifts for this role.”

During the search process, both Basinger and Pitts asked EB member Larry Hauder, the board subcommittee member who initially contacted them, about whether there were criteria that would preclude Basinger from participating in this role because of his sexual identity.

Pitts notes that it is important for the denomination to have clear policies about how people can participate. “Our system is very unclear about these policies, and we hurt people because of it,” said Pitts. “I’m heartbroken that Doug got hurt in this process.”

There is no official policy that speaks to the ability of LGBTQ individuals to serve on the LDC. The EB’s statement referenced several other denomination-wide documents that have guided the board’s work. “The EB understands that its role is to articulate broad vision, mission and policy for the denomination,” said the EB statement. “It has done so by providing the church with the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995), the Mennonite Church USA by-laws, A Shared Understanding of Ministerial Leadership, the Membership Guidelines, board policies and the interpretation of the board’s role in light of recently adopted resolutions (Forbearance and the Status of the Membership Guidelines).” The board’s policy for consent agenda states that matters presented as part of this agenda are “matters where it is anticipated there is broad consent without discussion.”

Bishop Leslie Francisco III also served on the EB subcommittee that vetted the board’s appointments. In processing applicants, Francisco notes that he was not made aware that Basinger was in a same-sex relationship.

“I thought that that was a vital piece of information that should have been shared in advance and to my chagrin it wasn’t,” said Francisco in a June 26 phone interview. “I’m sorry that Doug was put in this position. I don’t have any ill will toward Doug or the relationship he was in. My position has always been that we are trying to uphold the covenants of the church as they are currently prescribed, and if, in fact, the church is moving into a different position, we need to have that dialogue and go through the proper process to change the current directives.”

Hauder laments that divisiveness in the church has sometimes left the EB in an untenable position trying to bridge disagreements within the church. “The EB is mandated to lead by policy and vision, but the policy is not always clear, and the denomination is not of one mind about its vision.” he wrote. “Members, like Doug, get caught in our denomination’s divisiveness, and for this I am deeply saddened, as are all members of the board.”

When he was initially approached about serving on the LDC by Hauder, Basinger was excited about the role for a number of reasons.

“I feel that it’s really important to have good people on the LDC that can work really hard to find the best possible people for all of these boards and committees,” said Basinger. “I’ve always been interested in church administration. I feel really strongly about organizations being effective and trying to get more diversity if we can.”

Basinger has attended Mennonite congregations in a variety of locations, including Bluffton, Ohio, Goshen, Indiana, and San Francisco, and felt that his wide network of connections would serve him well in this role.

When he first learned that his appointment had been approved in April, Basinger kept the news quiet and planned to wait to make a public announcement about the appointment until after the slate of appointments was presented to MC USA delegates at the upcoming assembly in Orlando this July.

“I’ve been down this road lots of time before. It would have been astonishing to me if somebody had not objected and it would be revisited,” he said.

When Basinger learned in mid-May that the EB was revisiting his appointment, he still kept this news quiet, waiting to hear the results of the EB’s June 19 call. After he heard the news of the LDC suspension, he was ready to comment publicly and have his name included in the EB’s statement.

“I’m willing to go through this, just so there’s a conversation,” said Basinger. “I was appointed, and there has to be a process for unappointing me if that’s going to happen. I feel like my name needs to be out there. This is a call for clarification of what the board and its policies want to do, so that we can all determine our level of participation.”

Basinger is also choosing not to attend the MC USA convention in Orlando.

“I want to feel safe when I go to a Mennonite gathering and I don’t,” he said. “I don’t want people in their 20s and 30s to have to put up with that. This has happened for decades. I will call out things as being bullying and abusive in the church.”

Basinger says he can’t answer at this time whether he would accept an invitation to participate on the LDC if the EB approves his appointment again in September.

Megan Ramer, pastor at Seattle Mennonite, where Basinger attends, emphasizes that Basinger would be uniquely gifted to fill this role.

“I don’t know many people who love the Mennonite church more than Doug does,” she writes. “He’s sincere in his desire to serve the church. He’s willing. And he just needs a church to love him half as much as he loves it.”

Members of the Seattle congregation wrote a letter that will be sent to the EB later this week, calling on the board to clarify its policies and addressing the harm caused by this decision.

The June 23 EB statement says: “The EB is deeply sorry for the ways it has fallen short in caring adequately for the interests and felt needs of the whole church during this challenging time of controversy regarding same-sex relationships. Board members differ among themselves about whether the sexual orientation and relationship status of nominees are important factors for the EB’s appointments. Yet all of them grieve for the unwanted exposure and harm the EB’s process is causing Doug.”