n recent a development related to the split of the United Methodist Church denomination, that rapscallion Christ-hating denomination who we recently wrote about in Woke Church Invites Congregants To Help Pay for Abortions and Abortion Pills and United Methodist University Declares God is a ‘Drag Queen’ and the ‘Transman’, 106 Florida conference churches have sued the Florida Annual Conference in response to the demand that each congregation pony up a large exit payment, arguing it is necessary to maintain possession of their church buildings after their departure from the denomination.
The churches leaving the conference cite the denomination’s insistence on the ordination of sodomite clergy in defiance of a ban on the blessing of sodomite unions and clergy in the denomination’s book of discipline. These churches are suing because they have a right to secede from the denomination and not forfeit their buildings, as the denomination has failed to apply established discipline procedures in the administration of the denomination. While the UMC is one of the most progressive denominations in the United States today, less progressive churches within the denomination reject sodomy, especially those in rural areas, even though they have acquiesced to worldly pressures on the issues of the ordination of women and the adoption of woke church theology.
In response to the impending break-up within the Florida Conference, UMC Pastor Michael Adam Beck published a piece entitled “The Weaponization of ‘Orthodoxy’”, in which he claims that the concept of orthodoxy is being weaponized against the United Methodist Denomination.
So, when groups break off of Methodism in the name of preserving “orthodox theology”, I always find this intriguing. There has never been a single “orthodox theology” in history…
In reality, the term “orthodoxy” has been weaponized by various extremist camps to discredit groups that don’t agree with them. This is not dissimilar to the conflict Jesus experienced with some of the religious leaders.
To be clear, Beck, a far-left figure in the Florida United Methodist Conference, defends religious pluralism and homosexuality because “orthodox theology” doesn’t exist, because he believes that there has never been a uniformly accepted Christian Theology. Therefore, according to Beck, all Christian theologies must be accepted as equally valid choices. Beck’s interfaith views on evangelism mirror his views on “orthodox theology”.
Beck’s position seems to be in line with the limp-wristed UMC mantra “Open hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors”, a position that has led to the acceptance of nearly every form of sexual perversion and an eagerness for interfaith dialogue that eclipsed and subverted the denomination’s missions and evangelism efforts. What point is there to evangelism if cultural relativism is true and every religion and culture has its own holy ground? The downgrade turned the once powerful denomination into one that is in perpetual decline in the United States.
Ironically, Beck appeals to the theology of Irenaeus in his defense of what is Biblically indefensible.
Irenaeus gave us a grace-centred, holistic, and inclusive vision of human flourishing that has been core to the people called Methodists. The seeds of these ideas were taken up by liberation theologians who recognized how the physical embodiment of God’s justice could free the marginalized and the oppressed while simultaneously threatening the powerful and the comfortable.
Irenaeus’ most prominent work was entitled “Against Heresies” and most certainly doesn’t support the heresies of religious pluralism and liberation theology, as one might surmise from a short glance at the title.
