FOX: ST. LOUIS – The Latest on The United Methodist Church’s deliberations on LGBT inclusion (all times local):
5:30 p.m.
Delegates to a crucial conference of The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, have rejected a move to ease the faith’s ban on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy.
Some supporters of greater LGBT inclusion were in tears, while others vented their anger after delegates, on a 449-374 vote, defeated a proposal that would have let regional and local church bodies decide for themselves on gay-friendly policies.
Methodist pastor Rebecca Wilson of Detroit, who is gay, says she is devastated by the vote. more
449-374 vote?
Why was it not 823-0?
And they wonder why they are losing parishioners so rapidly…
Well, Hallelujah! At last, a protestant church willing to abide by the good book. Perhaps there’s hope for traditional marriage after all.
So, there’s a method for the madness?
The Evangelical United Brethren Church + The Methodist Church = total disaster. We were Methodists but tentatively stayed during the transition to United Methodist Chruch. We almost left when one pastor came out as bi (1976) and told us they never read the Bible in seminary but stayed due to friends, family and devotion to the congregation. But we all skedaddled when the replacement pastor (1 year later) never had his wife attend church. We were at their house and my mom asked if she didn’t come to service because worked on Sundays but she replied no, I am a different religion, I am an offshoot of Wiccan and practice black magic. See ya!!
It was totes gonna’ go the other way except the Black Methodists from the south put their collective feet down and scared all the white church authorities because they were gonna’ form their own Church.
Truth.
WWJD?
It’s right there in the 6th book of he NT:
Romans:
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Insist that your church obey the Bible. It’s not enough to just walk away. You must tell them why you’re doing so.
I’m so surprised. It probably won’t last, though. They will eventually endorse same sex marriage. I didn’t know anything about the United Methodist church when I started to attend back in the 80s.
Church I grew up in was Wesleyan-Methodist (later dropped the Methodist and became just Wesleyan) and went to a Free Methodist University.
So, it took only 6 months at the United Methodist to realize they were only a SJW-type message church long before we knew what SJW was. They only cared about having fun and were very weak on Bible teaching. Even the Bible study I went to rarely delved into the Bible. Never again!
Edit: AA, I did that the last church I attended in MN. They started pushing this new ministry, Theophostic Prayer Ministry, that did regression therapy. I told them they were delving into heresy and I couldn’t be involved with it. I found out after I moved to MI that they fired the pastor and no longer do that.
The Methodists are probably less than 5 years away from a split, Just like the Presbyterians in the early 1980s. Whenever someone tells me they are Presbyterian, I ask them PSA or PCUSA? The correct answer is PSA. I was raised Roman Catholic but eventually happily landed in a non-denominational Protestant church.
I’m also a former Methodist and my brother is a Methodist pastor. I find it slightly surprising they haven’t already split and almost willing to bet it happens in much less than five years, Meerkat.
Put down the Wesley bios and pick up an NIV every now and then.
BTW, my church is Biblically based. I.e. no female pastors,no gay marriage/leaders, and three pastors with an Executive Committee to provide checks and balances.
“… and Methodists!”
Claudia — Good for you! It takes courage to stand up to church leadership on issues of doctrine.
We had to leave our church over a fundamental problem with their doctrine. Geoff and I cried for three days, and we still miss everyone! But they’re doing it wrong!! Any “church” that doesn’t teach the Bible and embrace the Bible is just a cult. It’s that simple.
Who wants to go to a church where the pastor is an absolute buzz-kill? Rules, rules rules, come on man, I just can’t abide by this narrow limited thinking.
I’m sure that if a church condoned adultery or promiscuity they would be a lot more popular and might just fill those empty seats.
It’s unseemly and sad to see so called Christians eating their own and waring in this fashion but if a purge is required in order for them to get back to basics and relinquish sin, so be it.
Our eternal lives were paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, a debt he did not owe, for our sinful nature. We are thus born anew. But with that salvation comes certain obligations and one of them to accept the Bible as the word of God. And this Bible is pretty clear about homosexuality, zero equivocations. Jesus is also clear about how he defines marriage. He teaches that marriage is when a “man” and “his wife” come together and “become one flesh.” That is settled doctrine, right from the Son of Man Himself. It is just truth. A Christian must accept that it is truth because it came from the One who Himself is Truth.
Every church for almost 2,000 years affirmed these teachings and no Christian theologian or thinker of any note found, or claimed to find, any “liberal” interpretation of the verses mentioned above. That is because no such interpretation can be found. We either affirm the Biblical view on this topic, or we throw the Bible out and Christianity with it. There is no option in between.
The Left has been gnawing away the anchors of Christian faith from the beginning — and for the most obvious reason. Like everything else, they infiltrate and then through membership they change the rules, the culture, the reason for the church’s very existence. The Left has turned Jesus Christ into a therapist and a social justice warrior. Grace on the cheap through works.
Liberals love to eat away like a cancer at great institutions. Why can’t they just go start their own church you say? Very simple: expensive real estate. Every Methodist church you see is owned by the denomination and the liberals want it all.
As one who is affiliated with the UMC, this news is encouraging.
It was the Wesleyan Revival of the 18th century that is credited with saving Great Britain from the same bloody revolution(s) that France ultimately experienced. The people known as “Methodists” were very much involved in the social problems of their time – rampant child abuse, prostitution, drunkenness, disease, poverty etc.
However, these social ills were addressed specifically within the context of Christian Evangelism and a clear call to “flee the wrath of God to come,” embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, be converted/born again, and live a life of personal holiness. The Holy Clubs that the Wesley’s formed were all about personal accountability. Biblical/Christian “charity” is wholly different than State/sponsored “welfare” in this way; It carries with it the Gospel message which offers real hope, changes hearts, families, and whole nations.
Genuine Christian conversion and a return to the Lord is the antidote to the onslaught of Marxist insanity we are seeing now in America. Apart from this, America’s future will see us subjugated at the hands of the brutal, “strange god” of Islam, or the indifferent, all-powerful Secular State.
after reading all these posts i feel like i just attended a revival meeting
not that theres anything wrong with that.
United Methodist Church member here, surprised but I stand with their choice.
My UMC ancestors are rolling in their graves, John and Charles too, the real church of Christ does not exist in these “whitened sepulchers full of dead men’s bones” old denominations lose their way because of complacency, they get tired of fighting against the culture. It is a sign of weakness and failure, they should be ashamed of their sin and repent. Caving in to sin never works. Just look at the fransis lead “ catholic” church!
I’m confused, it says the woman pastor who is gay cried, how is she a pastor?
I have a question for Christian men and fathers, really men and fathers in general. I was reading comments on a post on FB, a Republican politician was being criticized that he raised a son who was arrested for DUI and had a wife who filed a restraining order against him. That according to the argument being made by some that he was not a good father. Some were making the argument that his family should not be brought into it and that sometimes parents can do everything right but it doesn’t mean their kids don’t make mistakes. One particular person who was calling him a bad father said he raised two men who were responsible adults because as a father he was there for them and taught them respect, morals in a Christian home, yet went on to say one of his sons is gay and living with a man.
Now as a mother, I wouldn’t be patting myself on the back that I raised a gay son, but I’m curious what men think about raising a gay son? Would you rather raise a son who was arrested for a DUI or a gay son? If you had a gay son would you be judging another man because his son was arrested for a DUI and was in a bad marriage? BTW, according to court documents, he never hit his wife, he just threatened if she tried to take his kids away he would make her pay. A judge denied the restraining order and after a bitter divorce and custody battle they ended up with joint custody of the kids. So he wasn’t a wife abuser.
I was a Methodist till the day they came into my Sunday School class taking school supplies donations for Cuba…then I was out.
That was in the eighties and they were full SJW even then. I am surprised at the vote that conservatives still conference in enough numbers to win, but the Church as a whole was lost decades ago.
ORWW, if you think about your question for a bit, you would know the answer.
I assume you are a parent and understand the responsibilities as a parent of raising/rearing children in general, to maximize their success later in life to be happy, successful and to be a productive positive influence in our society.
Now as a Christian those responsibilities are magnified because now their souls are factored in to the picture. If you believe what Jesus said, that he goes to prepare a place in heaven for us and that this temporal earthly existence is temporary, then nurturing/cultivating their relationship with God is paramount.
We raise them up to understand right from wrong and to understand what God wants for them as a Christian and as a disciple of his word, but sometimes they stray, we are all sinners by nature and do not always take the righteous road. You still love them and direct them, even as adults, you still pray for them and ask God to reveal his plan for them. Sometimes this takes longer than we would like but the Bible is filled with stories of great sinners that were horrible people initially (Specifically Saul of Taurus and the thief who was crucified next to Jesus) but were saved by their repentance and understanding of the gift of salvation through faith. It is never tool late to turn your life around.
Rich Taylor, what I’m saying is it’s neither father is necessarily responsible for choices their adult kids made. However, to criticize another father and call him a bad father while patting yourself on the back that you raised perfect adults when one is gay is about the biggest plank there is to pluck out of your eye.
I have a major problem with judging any parent for choices or mistakes made by their adult children because as parents all we can do is give them a road map, they choose the road to take. I also have a problem with ignoring especially as a Christian that being gay is not something to be proud of and people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
I also don’t think most fathers would be okay with raising a son who turned out to be gay. As Christian parents we taught our children homosexuality is a sin along with fornication, adultery, drunkard, etc.
A rabbi, a pastor and a transgender priest go to a bar………