Not-so-United Methodists

[HondurasKeiser]

A reminder to be in prayer for the upcoming United Methodist General Conference in February. My uncle is a pastor in the UMC in Southwestern PA; at Christmastime there were hushed and consternated conversations between some of the aunts and uncles about which way the Conference would go: One Church Plan or Traditional Plan. I know must of us have few if any ties to the UMC and so it may seem inconsequential to us. I suggest though that the UMC, as the last of the Mainline Churches to hold out on full-inclusion of LGBTQ+ congregants, still has real cultural clout in certain regions of the country. If yet another institution is knocked over by the steamroller of LGBTQ+ celebration, the ripple effects will definitely be felt. The Institute on Religion & Democracy has been tirelessly covering the lead-up to Conference. If you want some eye-opening insight into the stratagems of the LGBTQ+ lobby and how it has been so effortlessly deployed in institutions as disparate as the APA, New York Times, MCUSA, MCC, EMU & the New York City Penal Code; read the following article and be sure to click the attendant links.

[temporal1]

A reminder to be in prayer for the upcoming United Methodist General Conference in February. My uncle is a pastor in the UMC in Southwestern PA; at Christmastime there were hushed and consternated conversations between some of the aunts and uncles about which way the Conference would go: One Church Plan or Traditional Plan. I know must of us have few if any ties to the UMC and so it may seem inconsequential to us. I suggest though that the UMC, as the last of the Mainline Churches to hold out on full-inclusion of LGBTQ+ congregants, still has real cultural clout in certain regions of the country.

If yet another institution is knocked over by the steamroller of LGBTQ+ celebration, the ripple effects will definitely be felt. The Institute on Religion & Democracy has been tirelessly covering the lead-up to Conference.

If you want some eye-opening insight into the stratagems of the LGBTQ+ lobby and how it has been so effortlessly deployed in institutions as disparate as the APA, New York Times, MCUSA, MCC, EMU & the New York City Penal Code; read the following article and be sure to click the attendant links.

thank you.

[MaxPC]

A reminder to be in prayer for the upcoming United Methodist General Conference in February. My uncle is a pastor in the UMC in Southwestern PA; at Christmastime there were hushed and consternated conversations between some of the aunts and uncles about which way the Conference would go: One Church Plan or Traditional Plan. I know must of us have few if any ties to the UMC and so it may seem inconsequential to us. I suggest though that the UMC, as the last of the Mainline Churches to hold out on full-inclusion of LGBTQ+ congregants, still has real cultural clout in certain regions of the country. If yet another institution is knocked over by the steamroller of LGBTQ+ celebration, the ripple effects will definitely be felt. The Institute on Religion & Democracy has been tirelessly covering the lead-up to Conference. If you want some eye-opening insight into the stratagems of the LGBTQ+ lobby and how it has been so effortlessly deployed in institutions as disparate as the APA, New York Times, MCUSA, MCC, EMU & the New York City Penal Code; read the following article and be sure to click the attendant links.

Will pray, HK. It’s my understanding that a goodly number of Methodists have their escape pods warmed up and ready if the vote goes toward the homosexual lobby.

I think we should adopt the same strategic plans to promote Biblical fidelity too.

[HondurasKeiser]

I've been live streaming the UMC General Conference since yesterday and I have to say that there are some hopeful signs that the conference may hold the line on their stance on full-inclusion for LGBTQ+ persons. The man elected chair of the legislative committee is a well-respected, conservative pastor out of Oklahoma and the agenda as set for that committee placed the most conservative of the 3 plans at the top of the docket. That 'Traditional Plan' passed committee this morning and will now be debated, amended and voted upon at the plenary session on Tuesday. Do continue to pray for the United Methodists as it seems that whichever plan is chosen, there will be schism.

[Josh]

I've been live streaming the UMC General Conference since yesterday and I have to say that there are some hopeful signs that the conference may hold the line on their stance on full-inclusion for LGBTQ+ persons. The man elected chair of the legislative committee is a well-respected, conservative pastor out of Oklahoma and the agenda as set for that committee placed the most conservative of the 3 plans at the top of the docket. That 'Traditional Plan' passed committee this morning and will now be debated, amended and voted upon at the plenary session on Tuesday. Do continue to pray for the United Methodists as it seems that whichever plan is chosen, there will be schism.

And it’s about time there’s a schism. Light can’t fellowship with darkness.

[KingdomBuilder]

And every congregation will be affected. It's not like any congregation is 100% this or 100% that... my local FUMC is probably 50/50

[Dan Z]

From what I understand the approval of any approach is a 2-step process. First is a vote to bring a plan to the floor (Mon) and the second vote to vote up or down on a plan (Tues).

Mon. the Methodist world delegates voted ‘no’ on advancing the inclusive ‘one church’ plan 53% - 47% and ‘yes’ to advancing the ‘traditionalist’ plan 56% - 44%. This was a surprise to many more progressive Methodists in North America, and came about because of the more traditional understandings of the global church.

[appleman2006]

From what I understand the approval of any approach is a 2-step process. First is a vote to bring a plan to the floor (Mon) and the second vote to vote up or down on a plan (Tues).

Mon. the Methodist world delegates voted ‘no’ on advancing the inclusive ‘one church’ plan 53% - 47% and ‘yes’ to advancing the ‘traditionalist’ plan 56% - 44%. This was a surprise to many more progressive Methodists in North America, and came about because of the more traditional understandings of the global church.

I watched the live stream for a while yesterday. Partly out of my interest as to what is happening with the Methodist church and partly just because I get a kick out of watching how different organisations conduct meetings of this nature. You can learn a lot about proper and improper ways to conduct meetings by watching stuff like this.
The chairman of that meeting was really really good. Obviously he had a good support system around him but to keep a meeting of that size and nature under control is no small feat.
As to the issue being discussed there is a lot of passion on both sides. But it is very evident to me that you had a lot of people talking past each other. The American church was not listening to the church from the rest of the world. Despite the fact that it was that sad the irony amused me somewhat. If people on the right would operate with blinders on to that extent the terms racist and bigot would be flying all over the place.
I thought generally that most people were doing a pretty good job of keeping their emotions in check until one obvious gay activist got up and ramped the crowd up 500 percent. At that point I could no longer listen. If that is the way half the people felt then this organisation is in for a major split.
The only question that remains is how the split will happen. How will the wealth of the church be divided? Who gets which property? How are the pensions of the staff paid out? It will get really messy I expect.

Ultimately 30 years from now the liberal end of the church will be almost nothing or so I predict. The rest will have divided up and moved on to a lot of other groups. The only question will be as to whether the international conservative side of the church can hold together as an organisation and continue to grow.

[Josh]

The organisation should have excommunicated “out and proud” homosexuals a long time ago.

If you don’t do that, this is what you get.

[Dan Z]

Well - it happened.

The United Methodist world body voted for the ‘traditionalist’ plan 53% - 47% in a very emotional session.