Methodists: Out from Under the Gun

After three hours of tumultuous debate, delegates to the founding convention of the new United Methodist Church last week voted to drop a longstanding requirement that its ministers vow to refrain from drinking and smoking. Henceforth, the church will simply require clergymen to, pledge "to exercise responsible self-control by personal habits conducive to bodily health, mental and emotional maturity," in accordance with "the highest ideals of Christian life."

Dropping the explicit ban on alcohol and tobacco represents a significant change for Methodism. Since the rule did not apply to laymen, many ministers have long complained that the church was in effect imposing a double standard of personal morality. Interpreting the rule change, Methodist officials insisted that it did not really relax discipline, instead placed the burden of responsibility for living a moral life on the self-discipline of the minister himself rather than on a code of laws. "It is time we took seriously what we mean by a 'moral witness,' " said the Rev. Harold Bosley of Manhattan's Christ Church. "You do not make a moral witness under the gun; you make it because you choose to make it."