United Methodist Church Officially Splits Over Gay Marriage and Homosexual Clergy
Jose Nino
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Last Friday, the United Methodist Church (UMC) announced that it will be formally splitting over ongoing schisms regarding the question of homosexuality.
This split will form a new denomination for Methodists who adhere to a Biblical understanding of sex and marriage.
The church has been split over the issues of same-sex “marriage” and homosexual clergy recently.
Back in February, its General Conference voted against compromising its opposition. However, the tensions have not gone away. Last Friday, the church revealed the formation of a new “traditional Methodist” denomination for more conservative Methodists, according to a New York Times report.
The Washington Post also noted that the agreement kept the church’s leftist faction from receiving sanctions that were supposed to go into effect, which included suspension and/or expulsion for clergy who conducted same-sex “weddings.” Local churches will be members of the UMC by default and would have to carry out votes in order to identify as “traditional Methodist.”
In May, the conference will approve this plan. A 16-person committee of bishops and other officials devised this plan and believed that the separation would be the “best means to resolve our differences, allowing each part of the Church to remain true to its theological understanding.”
“The solution that we received is a welcome relief to the conflict we have been experiencing,” said pro-LGBT Rev. Thomas Berlin about this latest news. “I am very encouraged that the United Methodist Church found a way to offer a resolution to a long conflict.”
Individuals who hold Biblical stances on LGBT issues were not enthusiastic about this latest move by the United Methodist Church.
“My initial reaction is that [it] should be the other way around: Let the heretics split off since they are the ones denying Jesus and the historic witness not only of the church in general but of Wesley and the denomination in particular,” theologian Robert Gagnon stated. “It is their view that is a cancer on the church. Let the faithful occupy the default position.”
“This appears to be a win for the heretics; not a rout but a win nonetheless,” Gagnon added. “It seems like the faithful had the heretics on the rope with greater sanctions on unfaithful pastors performing a faux ‘gay marriage’ and then they compromised with the heretics to give the latter a better deal. On the other hand, it may be the best deal that the faithful can get.”
Churches are some of the last bastions of sanity in today’s world of growing political correctness. For that reason, the Left has targeted them in their social justice crusades.
Although the UMC is within their rights to split in a way that it sees fit, it is concerning that traditional values are starting to be disrespected in churches throughout America.
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