While a college student, I was a member of a choir. Ready to sing for a chapel service, the choral director motioned to another choir member to play a specific note on a pitch pipe. The choir member, nervous and unsure of himself, attempted to play the one note, but out came so many notes you'd have thought he was playing Rocky Top on a harmonica.

Much like the unsure choir member, the United Methodist Church (UMC) has given an uncertain sound on the issue of homosexuality, which has resulted in a cacophony of sounds resembling a harmonica-player.

The UMC has clear-cut written beliefs on homosexuality and marriage, but that's where the clear-cut ends. The UMC declares in part, "We support laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman." And ".sexual relations are only clearly affirmed in the marriage bond." And "The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching."

Clear-cut? Well maybe not!

The UMC not only fails to discipline transgressions of their written beliefs, they reward it.

Rev. William Willimon, for years the Dean of the Chapel at Duke Chapel (Duke University), invited openly gay Rev. Michael Piazza to "preach" in the chapel several years ago. Piazza was at that time pastor of the largest Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in the world-Dallas, Texas.

MCC is a predominately gay "church". My wife and I were in attendance the Sunday Piazza spoke.

Interestingly, I recall that when Piazza ascended the pulpit, he jokingly remarked that Willimon must not have any aspirations for the title Bishop-referring to the fact that Willimon would invite a homosexual "minister" into the pulpit.

How wrong Piazza was! In 2004, Willimon was made the Resident Bishop of the Birmingham, Alabama area.

The UMC's story does not end here! While persons like Willimon are rewarded for disobeying church law, some ministers are punished for obeying it!

Recently the Rev. Edward Johnson was "put on forced unpaid leave because he refused a gay man who wanted to join his congregation in South Hill, Va." Johnson was obeying his denomination's teaching against homosexuality.

Yes, you heard it right! Johnson was disciplined for "defying directives to accept (the homosexual into membership) that came from the bishop and district superintendent."

This incongruence of belief and action makes for an interesting story line. It makes one wonder if the UMC is taking its cues from the U.S. Supreme Court's contradictory decisions on religious symbols on government property.