Christianity • Protestantism Finis Alonzo Crutchfield Jr. ((1916-08-22)August 22, 1916[1] – (1987-05-21)May 21, 1987[2]) was a noted American clergyman and a bishop in the United Methodist Church.
Finis stayed in that position until he was assigned to the McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1950.
He even dared controversy by inviting the well-known televangelist, Oral Roberts to become a member of the Methodist church.
[citation needed] Oral Roberts, best known as a Pentecostal evangelist, shocked many when he formally joined Boston Avenue Methodist Church on March 17, 1968.
[6] Initially, the act appeared to be a hasty occurrence, but it was later revealed to have resulted from discussions over a period of time between Roberts and Crutchfield.
[c] Bishop Smith agreed that Roberts could continue his evangelistic mission unfettered by rules of the Methodist Church.
Roberts explained afterward that there would be "no change in my standard of the Full Gospel message or of my life, my ministry, or of ORU."
After serving the church in Oklahoma for 32 years, he was posted to lead the Louisiana Conference, headquartered in New Orleans.
[1] On June 24, 1973, the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans' French Quarter caught fire and burned.
[d] Thirty two people died in the fire, including Reverend Bill Larson, the local minister of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC).
Bishop Crutchfield authorized a small Methodist church in the French Quarter to provide its space.
One of his last official acts was to attend and speak at the Methodist General Conference in that year, where he made a speech supporting the church's opposition to homosexuality.
A case of influenza developed into pneumonia around Thanksgiving, and he was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital for treatment.
[h] After his death, claims were made by acquaintances and some fellow clergy that Bishop Crutchfield had lived for decades as a closeted homosexual, which, if true, might indicate the vector for contraction of the disease.
[1] Rumors that Finis Crutchfield had a secret life as a non-celibate gay man began to surface soon after he moved to Tulsa.
The Texas Monthly expose said that rumors were heard by some people in the Methodist ministry, who usually chose to ignore them because of lack of proof.
However, a group of members at Boston Avenue church were sufficiently alarmed about the rumors that they hired a private investigator to check them out.
When Crutchfield learned of this action, he responded through his own sources that he would sue the individuals involved for harassment, unless the surveillance ceased.
Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church."