That hasn't been my experience at all and I have been around a number of what you would call liberal churches. No one is expelling conservatives. You just can't expect to get your way if you aren't in the majority.HondurasKeiser wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2023 12:19 am I should add that you’re right that they will not bat an eye if I wear plain coat or my wife wears a covering, indeed they may thrill to the idea that it connects them in some strange way to the past or their upbringing or the way that congregation used to be. They will however, brook no public dissent to things like full inclusion for gay and transgender members or women in leadership.
Same thing at the larger level with MCUSA. I don't think it is the case that MCUSA has ever expelled a single congregation much less whole conferences like LMC. Rather they very much pled for them to stay. It was the conservative churches who expelled themselves rather than the other way around.
And no, I obviously don't know how things went down in your particular congregation so I'm just extrapolating from what I have seen. Maybe your experience was different.
And yes, I agree that liberals can be intolerant. Frankly everyone can be intolerant. I just don't think liberal churches tend to be exclusionary in the same way that conservative churches are. Put another way, there are a whole lot of things that can get you kicked out of a conservative church. There is very little that can get you kicked out of a liberal church and especially disagreements on points of theology. You pretty much have to do something like child sexual abuse or sexual assault to actually get yourself kicked out.
Now conservatives may find that to be the very problem with liberal churches. That they are too accepting and don't adhere to conservative standards. But that reinforces my point.