The NYTimes recently reported that the United Methodist Church – the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States, announced on Friday that the church would be splitting over “fundamental differences” about same-sex marriage.
Leaders from the United Methodist Church made a formal announcement this Friday that the church would be dividing into two groups; one – more welcoming of LGBTQ parishioners and marriage equality and the other – a “traditionalist Methodist” group that will continue to ban gay marriage.
With over 13 million global members, a majority of the denomination would remain more liberal, open, and welcoming to the LGBTQ community, as the new traditional group continues not only a trajectory of hate and rejection of gay marriage but also a denouncing of ordaining gay and lesbian clergy.
The turmoil in the Methodist church first made headlines last February during a general conference in St. Louis when a little more than half church leaders and congregants voted to intensify restrictions on the church’s gay marriage ban.
As usual, the hateful rhetoric used by the holy homophobes was that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Of course, nowhere in any bible does Christ mention homosexuality, right wrong or indifferent. But hey, you know, details-schmeetails.
Check out the full story at the NYTimes
Hate to break it to you but the Bible speaks PLENTY of God condemning homosexuals. Sodom and Gomorrah as just a single example?? Hello??
Bash on traditional Christianity all you want but let’s at least stay factual. You can’t change God’s Word just because you don’t like it.
Yes, he’s a loving and forgiving God, but He’s also to be fear by His wrath.
Sorry, but I never understood the concept of fearing a god. If you have to fear your god, then of all the others throughout mankind’s history, pick another that you can love.
Also, I am sorry to break it to you but the Bible was written by Humans, not by a god or several gods. They collected and attributed the stories to Gods word, they related as a means to teach certain qualities to the people. Unfortunately the lessons seem to have been lost over the centuries, or is it just the teachers that seem to have lost the understanding of the lessons that they are supposed to be teaching. Just the mere fact that certain wealthy individuals would endorse someone who does not exemplify or strive for the examples cherished in the American Saint James Bible, or any version I am aware of, shows just how much they are not actually followers of the surviving ten commandments that are attributed to being the Word of God, Written by God. There are certain prophecies that predict the second coming of Christ. The individual they support has chosen to try to make those prophecies come true. Again I do not understand why a human would want to see the end of the world come to pass, which is the result of the second coming of Christ.
No reason to wonder why the “church” is losing members. Hypocrisy. If you truly believe that your god sanctions discrimination of any groups of people, then you have a false god. Being gay is just part of who I am. Being a lifelong u. Methodist is a choice. The fracture is unholy and I may leave…..
The story is incomplete and misleading. A plan for splitting the United Methodist Church has been drafted and will be presented at the General Conference (a quadrennial gathering of United Methodists from around the world) in May 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The plan will be discussed and (hopefully) passed. Meanwhile, while not related to this story, the Bishops of the Western Jurisdiction (churches in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Guam, and other territories in the Pacific region) have pledged to NOT obey the new, stricter rules prohibiting LGBT+ pastors from serving in UMC churches that take effect in 2020.
Why no mention of the backstory here? American evangelical missionaries lit this fire in Africa ages ago & right-wing American politicians keep it going today. The now-larger African delegation brought about this schism, not the contemporary American Methodist Church.
It really would help if the names of the two groups were mentioned/released, so us poor ill informed individuals would be able to know which one was which, when we came across them in the future.