"In 2003 I left again, after my 6th gay pastor in a row was appointed. Since gays are only 3% of the U.S. population, I felt that this was greatly disproportionate; and the preaching and treatment of the children in the church became indoctrination away from the Bible and towards wholesale approval of homosexual behavior. "
My MIL, who died a year ago this Month, was a life long Methodist like her parents, and their English ancestors like yours were Methodist back in the UK.
Her church in a small midwest farming town had 2 Lesbians forced on them by their Bishops. That drove away so many people, the church had to yoke with the local Baptist church to stay open. Both churches use the old Methodist Church for services and events. For 3 years they have a Methodist preacher and the next 3 years a Baptist preacher.
The last Methodist Preacher, a man of undetermined sexual choices was the last straw for my MIL. One of the first things he did was to remove the American flag in the church and replace it with a UN Flag. He would fly to Cuba to help with the sugar cane harvest. He hated GW in the 2000 elections. She labeled him an outright communist, and he didn't deny it.
She stopped going to church. The Mehtodist preacher never visited he in her home or retirement home inspite of her being born into that church close to 90 years before her death. He left on the normal rotation. The new Baptist minister visited her often in her retirement home and later the nursing home her final year or so.
She told my wife and her brothers that when she died, she did not want the funeral held in the Methodist Church. If the Baptist preacher was still there, he would be good. She did not want any fake Methodist preacher presiding at her funeral. Her wishes were followed.
This could be my story line for line, with a few exceptions: it's in the midwest and I'm not; I'm not that old; and when I confronted my pastor about being gay he denied it; yet he was one of a group who so disrupted the 2000 Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference with their emotional declarations of gayness and lesbianity that police had to be called.
My executor looked at my recently-written instructions with bemusement: no pastor at my funeral, and hold it in the auditorium of the nearby school. I do hope to settle on another church before it's time, but until then, those are standing orders.