No; my experience in the Philadelphia and Baltimore UMC conferences mirrors Louis Foxwell’s testimony completely. Eight out of my ten pastors and several bishops from the ‘90s and ‘00s were gay, bi or lesbian, and the others were very sympathetic. One of the women pastors had been tried within the UMC for apostacy for writing a book claiming that God is a woman. Two of the gay pastors were in “beard” marriages with lesbians. The so-called Methodist Home of Washington, DC (it has recently been sold) where generations of elderly in my original congregation had lived was, by the ‘00s, being run by cross-dressing lesbians, who discontinued the saying of grace from the communal mealtimes and removed the large painting of Christ from the dining room. We had to leave, even after generations of family going back to the time of Francis Asbury, as it was no longer safe to raise a family in the UMC as we found it.
The UMC is not “99” per cent of Protestantism was my original issue!
I was forced out of my eldership by lesbian domination. I was told about my congregants, “They are sheep who will follow you anywhere.” The sheer ignorance of Christ’s commission was obvious and completely abused. I knew then that the UMC was no longer my spiritual home.