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United Methodist Church bishops are calling for unity as its General Conference kicks off Tuesday after thousands of churches left the mainline Protestant denomination amid efforts to alter its official stance against homosexuality and the ordination of LGBT individuals. The UMC General Conference is a multiday churchwide legislative gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, which begins on Tuesday and runs until May 3. A group of current and former UMC bishops based in Europe released a statement in advance of the gathering, acknowledging the decades-long internal debate over sexual ethics and calling for unity in the denomination. G "For almost five...

“but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” —Matthew 18:6 There isn’t much that can be said about such demonic filth except that those who force their children into rebellion against their Creator are going to face the harshest punishment. And to do so by taking the Lord’s name in vain is, well, let’s just say they should be praying for the millstone. This Methodist “pastor” dresses his children...

Lee Dong-hwan, the pastor who was recently expelled by the Methodist Church of Korea for blessing same-sex couples, is now turning to the secular court in his continued battle for reinstatement. The 43-year-old is planning to file legal charges against the Methodist Church's decision after its tribunal confirmed his disfellowship last week. "I did not launch the fight for reinstatement so that I can regain my title as a Methodist pastor. I'm (going to the court) because I did not want to leave a bad precedent among the protestants," he said during a public event in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Tuesday....

A retired California pastor has been caught on camera drawing a Swastika on his Jewish neighbor's groceries. Leah Grossman confronted her neighbor, Mark Nakagawa, at 10.15pm on December 5, seconds after her doorbell camera caught him scrawling on a box of seltzer. The single mother of two told CBS she was 'shattered' when she saw it was a Swastika, and asked him 'Is that a Nazi symbol?' Nakagawa initially denied drawing the Swastika, but when confronted with the video evidence, claimed he was trying to teach her about the history of the symbol. Grossman said it wasn't her first run-in...

The number of congregations that have left the United Methodist Church amid the schism over the denomination's stance on homosexuality has passed the 7,000 mark.Over the weekend, the number of churches that have disaffiliated from the UMC since 2019 reached 7,286, according to UM News, with over 5,200 leaving this year alone.This total includes 366 churches leaving the Kentucky Conference, 349 churches leaving the North Alabama Conference, 334 churches leaving the North Georgia Conference, 326 churches leaving the North Carolina Conference and 317 churches leaving the Indiana Annual Conference.Of the 334 congregations that have disaffiliated from the North Georgia Conference...

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, wrote, " What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace." Wesley could have never imagined how much the church he founded would not just be tolerating but embracing in 2023. Thankfully, some members of the Methodist church have decided to take a stand. According to the Christian Post, Christ United Methodist Church of Jackson, one of the largest United Methodist Church bodies in Mississippi, voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to disaffiliate from the UMC Mississippi Conference. The congregation plans to change its name to "Christ United - Jackson" on Jan. 1, 2024....

Bishop Karen Oliveto sees her consecration in 2016 as a breaking point for some of the thousands of people who have made the once unthinkable decision to leave the United Methodist Church. Oliveto is the church's first openly gay bishop and oversees congregations in Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and one church in Idaho. Her service defies long-standing rules in the denomination. Disregard for those church laws is fueling divisions that have already led to the exodus of about 20% of the United Methodist Church's congregations across the U.S. since disaffiliations began in 2019. The number of members who have left...

In the latest wave of departures from the United Methodist Church, the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church voted last week to approve the disaffiliation of another 46 churches. It was the conference’s second such vote this year. The last vote, held in April, resulted in the disaffiliation of 55 churches, with a total of 30,000 congregants — 15% of the conference’s total membership. The conference estimates the value of assets held by the departing churches to be in the ballpark of $36 million. These two votes bring the total number of disaffiliations from the Florida Conference to 120...

Earlier this year, the seven United Methodist churches in Amarillo, Texas, voted to leave the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination over issues of homosexuality and gender identity. Since 2019, in a process dragged out by the COVID-19 pandemic and denominational infighting, hundreds of churches across Texas — and thousands across the U.S. — have opted to disaffiliate from the half-century-old denomination through a protocol that allows them to keep their real estate and pay off their clergy pension obligations. But the departure of all seven UMC churches in this city of 200,000 made it the largest city in the nation known...

In the last couple of months, thousands more houses of worship have left the United Methodist Church, having their disaffiliation votes approved by their UMC conferences. Updated totals show that as many as 6,000 churches have fled the UMC in the last couple of years — and the issue shows no signs of slowing down. "For the last several ... decades, the United Methodist Church has been in a big debate about whether to change its official stance on LGBT issues," Christian Post reporter Michael Gryboski explained on “The Inside Story” podcast. "At present, the UMC prohibits the blessing of...

Three suspects have been charged with vandalism of multiple houses of worship in southeast Maryland, including one historic Black church that suffered approximately $100,000 in damages. On Wednesday, Anne Arundel County Police Department officers arrested Jarren Alexander, 22, on charges of vandalism against two area churches. His alleged crimes included extensive damage to Fowler United Methodist Church (UMC), a historic Black church in Annapolis, on June 9. Alexander also is being charged in connection with two additional incidents of vandalism at nearby St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on subsequent nights. Fowler UMC Reverend Jerome Jones briefly recounted the vandalism he saw...

Nearly 5,000 churches have left the United Methodist Church denomination this year for deviating from the Bible on abortion, homosexuality and other issues. Pro-life pastors and members of the UMC have been increasingly concerned with the denomination’s actions on abortion. For years, the UMC was affiliated with the pro-abortion group Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and some of its pastors promote killing unborn babies in abortions by “blessing” abortion facilities and praying for “abortion rights.” According to the Catholic News Agency, 4,876 churches officially disaffiliated from the denomination this year, many of them joining the biblically-based Global Methodist Church. Nearly...

A Cobb County judge recently ruled in favor of 186 Georgia churches suing to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. In a crowded courtroom filled with more than 200 people, Superior Court Judge Steven Schuster ruled Tuesday that 186 United Methodist churches should be able to vote to disaffiliate from the UMC, according to a news release from the Wesleyan Covenant Association, an organization helping north Georgia churches disaffiliate. The Georgia churches listed in the lawsuit, filed on March 30, requested the North Georgia Annual Conference restore the processes that were already in place allowing churches to disaffiliate.

A Nebraska Methodist pastor slammed pro-life advocates in a recent interview, claiming their “pro-birth” mission has “corrupted” Christians into thinking aborting unborn babies should be illegal. Nebraska News Connection reports the Rev. Debra McKnight, founding pastor of Urban Abbey Methodist Church in Omaha, made the comment as state lawmakers prepare to debate a heartbeat bill Thursday. The pro-life bill would protect unborn babies by banning most elective abortions once their heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy. McKnight claimed pro-life lawmakers do not really care about children or families. She argued that if they did care, they would pass...

Attendees participate in a special called session of The United Methodist Church North Texas Conference on Saturday, March 4, 2023. | Courtesy of the North Texas Conference Another 41 congregations in Texas have officially left The United Methodist Church in response to the mainline Protestant denomination's ongoing debate over its stance on homosexuality. The UMC North Texas Annual Conference held a special called session on Saturday in which clergy and lay members voted to approve the disaffiliation votes of 41 congregations that formerly belonged to the regional body. According to a statement emailed to The Christian Post by a...

More than 400 congregations in Texas have voted to leave The United Methodist Church amid the mainline Protestant denomination's ongoing schism over LGBT issues. Over the weekend, UMC regional bodies in Texas voted to approve the disaffiliation votes of hundreds of churches, with most planning to join the recently created Global Methodist Church. The total number of departing congregations includes 294 of the 598 churches belonging to the Houston-based Central Texas Conference and 145 of the 201 churches belonging to the Lubbock-based Northwest Texas Conference, reported The Dallas Morning News. The departing congregations constitute nearly half of all UMC congregations...

The theological fracture within the country's largest mainline Methodist denomination has grown more contentious as a church conference in Georgia has temporarily blocked churches from disaffiliating. The United Methodist Church North Georgia Conference last week cited "misinformation" for its decision to "pause" any further disaffiliation efforts from congregations attempting to leave the denomination, according to a Dec. 28 email sent to member churches. The email claimed "many local churches have been misled about the disaffiliation process and have been presented with information about the process" and about denominational leadership "that is factually incorrect and defamatory."

Fifty-eight congregations in Louisiana have officially disaffiliated from The United Methodist Church, as the second-largest mainline Protestant denomination in the United States continues to experience schism due to its ongoing debate over homosexuality. The UMC Louisiana Conference held a special session on Saturday, approving the votes of 58 congregations who decided by at least two-thirds vote to leave the UMC. The Rev. Todd Rossnagel, the director of communication strategies at the Louisiana Conference, told The Christian Post on Monday that the 58 churches came after nine other congregations had disaffiliation votes approved at the annual conference in June. Earlier this...

-snip- According to TDJC, Hernandez was released on parole for aggravated robbery on October 21, 2021, with a special condition of electronic monitoring. TDCJ also confirmed that Hernandez was "granted permission to be at the hospital with his significant other during delivery [of her child]." According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA, Hernandez went to the hospital to visit his girlfriend, who had given birth to their child. The warrant stated that Hernandez then began "acting strangely" and accused his girlfriend of cheating on him. The suspect started searching the room to see if anyone else was in...

More than 30 congregations based in North Carolina have threatened legal action so they can leave the United Methodist Church, claiming that the disaffiliation process is unfair to them. The Wesleyan Covenant Association, a theologically conservative network, announced earlier this month that over 40 churches in the Western North Carolina Conference are overseeing "pre-suit negotiation requests." The announcement comes as scores of theologically conservative congregations nationwide have left the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States amid ongoing debate over the UMC's longstanding opposition to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. According to WCA, the Western North Carolina Conference "sent a legal...