MegaSchism! 25% of United Methodist Churches Have Left Over Same-Sex Acceptance
The United Methodist Church in the United States has lost one-fourth of its churches in the last four years over their acceptance of same-sex marriage, in what has become the most significant denominational divide in the country in the last 150 years.
According to United Methodist News, 7660 congregations have disaffiliated from the demented denomination, including 5642 this year alone.
The UMC has over 30.000 churches in the United States and is the second biggest denomination behind the Southern Baptist Convention. In many cases, however, the UMC did not let them leave on peaceful terms but rather requested huge fees to keep their church buildings- sometimes up to half the cost of the property. Some state conventions have refused to offer buyout options, insisting that those choosing to leave must leave their church behind- real estate that is often worth millions- resulting in lawsuits and other legal action.
With the latest exodus, the faithful are by and large all gone, with the remaining churches populated by goatlings with Christian ideations that can’t agree on how badly they hate the bible or on the best way to molest it into affirming the doctrine of demons.
While the main reason for splitting is the long-fought war within the UMC over homosexuality and the UMC’s acceptance of it, it’s of note that the conservatives within the UMC aren’t particularly conservative either. For years the UMC has supported a woman’s right to choose abortion as an option to be considered. In fact, for over 40 years, their Book of Resolutions affirmed the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
They support strict gun control and even guns being banned altogether. They allow women leadership into the highest level of leadership, condemn capital punishment, and condemn creationism.
Out of the 7660 churches leaving, only a fraction would even be worth attending.
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Your speculation of what departing churches believe is an eye opener; I think you use political ideology more than theological beliefs to decide on the merit of these departing churches. More to the point, what did Jesus actually say about gun control? Shouldn’t a church community at least have a tolerance for different points of view when scripture does not directly discuss? I think what you will find with the new denomination arising from many of these departing churches is that they will try to stay out of secular politics as much as possible, unlike the UMC.
I’ve attended the First Methodist Church in Lawrence Kansas with family members living there. It was surreal: Large, classic old building with giant rainbow wall art behind the pulpit, woman pastrix adorned in rainbow frock, social justice classes, etc. I could not get out of there fast enough.
Only 25%
Unbelievably stupid article. Got the facts right, but the opinion so, so wrong. Our church has deferred making a decision to disaffiliate until after the Apr 24 General Conference. Why, because the current doctrine and Book of Discipline has not changed. It still prohibits clergy and lay leaders from openly practicing homosexuality, and still prohibits same sex marriage in churches. Until that changes, there is no need to disaffiliate. What happens in the 2024 General Conference decides to leave the doctrine and discipline in tact? All of those churches would have left for no reason. They acted out of fear, instead of waiting for a real reason to act. When the time comes, based on a real reason, we will act.