Abstract
This essay compares and contrasts the use of two paradigms for clergy ethics in Methodist law and polity over the past century: clergy as moral exemplar and clergy as ethical professional. Focusing on the regulation of the sexual lives of clergy, in particular the proscriptions of divorce, homosexuality, and marriages involving divorced persons or same-sex partners, the possibilities and limits of each paradigm are explored. Advocating for judicious use of each approach, even as they are found together to be an insufficient depiction of the totality of clergy ethics, this essay calls the church to develop a substantive, theological account of singleness, marriage, and sexuality to nurture the moral lives of clergy and the Christian communities they lead.Authors who publish with Methodist Review agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright ownership and all intellectual property rights to their work, and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal but prohibits modification or commercial use of the work without the permission of the author.
- Authors are free to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), in whole or in part, on the condition that its initial publication in this journal is clearly acknowledged.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.