And yet the laity of the Methodist Church is still fairly conservative at it's base
http://www.ird-renew.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=fvKVLfMVIsG&b=391221&ct=3661225
At UMAction's request, Ellison Research extracted the United Methodist responses. Over two-fifths (42.1 percent) of United Methodist laity in the survey self-identify as politically conservative to some degree, nearly another half (47.9 percent) place themselves in the center of the political spectrum, while only the remaining one-tenth self-identify as politically liberal to any degree.
The United Methodist clergy were close to being evenly divided between one-third conservative, one-third moderate, and one-third liberal.
Tragically, the laity's conservatism is meaningless. As long as they financially support the church they are supporting worldwide liberalism. This is one of those situations where they really need to follow where their money (donations) is going.
Liberal churches' heirarchies care not a fig about their congregations. All they care about is keeping the cash cow placid enough to continue giving milk.