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The United Methodist Church has fractured over the role of LGBT people in the denomination. At a special conference in St. Louis this week, convened specifically to address divisions over LGBT issues, members voted to toughen prohibitions on same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy. This was a surprise: The denomination’s bishops, its top clergy, pushed hard for a resolution that would have allowed local congregations, conferences, and clergy to make their own choices about conducting same-sex marriages and ordaining LGBT pastors. This proposal, called the One Church Plan, was designed to keep the denomination together. Methodist delegates rejected their recommendations, instead choosing the so-called Traditional Plan that affirmed the denomination’s teachings against homosexuality.
most Protestant denominations are stretching Biblical definitions to maintain membership
since the non-denominational mega-churches are gathering their dissatisfied defectors.
most Protestant denominations are stretching Biblical definitions to maintain membership
since the non-denominational mega-churches are gathering their dissatisfied defectors.
Putting butts in seats increases the religious tax base (donations). Leadership cares nothing about spiritual responsibility or growth. The only almighty thing they are concerned with is the dollar.
"The parsons will dig their own graves. They will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable jobs and incomes. Protestant clergy don't believe in anything except their well-being and office".
- Adolph Hitler
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
James 4:4
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
Ezek 34:1-2
People are leaving the church by the thousands because their leaders have betrayed the gospel. Today's news is somewhat heartening, but is like using a squirt gun to extinguish a forest fire. As long as church leaders are debauched there can be little hope for truth and decency in our houses of prayer.
This isn't the last word you know. The sons and daughters of the Kingdom of Sodom will return.
The subject is also covered in a thread on P&OC, and a person who belongs to the United Methodist Church had an informative post on the subject.
It does not sound as if this is the end of it. Too many people in that denomination are speaking up to let it lie. Perhaps there will be a split in the denomination, which is usually messy because it involves business matters, such as clergy pensions. I guess we'll see.
The subject is also covered in a thread on P&OC, and a person who belongs to the United Methodist Church had an informative post on the subject.
It does not sound as if this is the end of it. Too many people in that denomination are speaking up to let it lie. Perhaps there will be a split in the denomination, which is usually messy because it involves business matters, such as clergy pensions. I guess we'll see.
What exactly have you personally experienced while visiting a methodist congregation?
I have been watching this with interest, because while I am not and don't foresee ever becoming a member of the United Methodist Church, I am the music director for the local UMC and consider the congregation my church family and my dear friends. My pastor, with whom I've had several conversations on the topic, attended the conference along with two of our members. So I find myself in the unique position of being "on the inside" but also an impartial observer.
What baffles me is that there were people who expected any result from this conference other than a schism. When you bring together 800 or so delegates and ask them to make a controversial decision for over 12 million people, you are bound to end with disagreement and hurt feelings. Forcing the issue in this way guaranteed that there would be factions who would leave on either side if the vote didn't go their way.
One of the three proposals offered was called "Connectional Conferences," which would have created conferences delineated by theology rather than geography, allowing each church to align with the best fit while still remaining under the UMC umbrella. To my mind this was the only option that had any chance of preserving unity within the church (which so many professed to desire) but it received very little consideration because of the bureaucratic hurdles involved in implementing it. I'm afraid UMC leadership, like all those who get to control others through large and far-reaching organizations, are not very eager to give up their control.
I am glad for the schism, assuming it comes to fruition, because I always favor decentralization and more loci of power over large centralized organizations. There is no reason that a church in Congo or San Francisco or South Carolina should dictate to my congregation what we must believe and how we must act. But I do empathize with my friends and loved ones who are grieving the loss of the church as they have known it.
As for the actual issues which were at the center of the controversy, I find myself conflicted. On the one hand, scripture is very clear that Christians are called to refrain from sexual acts outside of a covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. I am annoyed and frustrated with the infantile "But God made me this way" argument, which completely ignores the fact that every single one of us has innate, inherent inclinations to sin and the Christian calling is to reject those worldly desires and live in accordance with God's plan despite them. It is not easy or painless, but I see no reason, scriptural or otherwise, why sexual sin should be treated any differently from an inclination toward envy or gluttony or untruthfulness as far as the doctrine of the church goes.
I'm also annoyed and frustrated with the people who demonize the traditional side with accusations of hate, pettiness, and exclusion. I have not met or heard from any person who supported the traditional plan that wanted to exclude LGBTQ members from the church. Their contention, rather, is that if scripture lays out a certain plan for marriage, it is not the church's place to deviate from that and sanction other relationships with the marriage covenant, and if a person is living openly and unapologetically in sin, that person should not be ordained to pastor a congregation. I truly and fully believe that supporters of the traditional plan were and are acting out of love, in that they want the church to be grounded in scripture so that it can best be a presence and example of God's kingdom in the world.
But... as the church, we are called to be in ministry to those around us. How the ministry of any given church can best function and best reach the people who need it will be entirely dependent on the community that church exists in. Strategically, the church must respond to the context of its community in order to be effective. In some places, like the growing churches in Africa, that means refraining from affirming homosexual behavior; in others, like San Francisco, the church will be unable to minister to anyone if it takes a hardline traditional stance.
So I come back to the idea of decentralization; there is just no way I can see for a global organization on this scale to exist with rigidly defined doctrinal positions. There are those, even within the Methodist church, who do not accept the divinity of Christ as fundamental to the Christian faith. If even that can't be agreed on, how can unity be achieved on much smaller and less essential issues?
I think they're rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. How many young people are in the pews on Sundays?
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