People have left our UMC in droves. They are just deaf to what is happening because they disguise their politics as “Social Justice”.
The more they liberalize, the more people leave. Our conservative friends say “Stay and fight” and I always respond “You are not fighting”. Disagreeing with the liberals is deemed “divisiveness” and disagreeing with conservatives is seen as “standing up for justice”.
Reading and knowing the Bible simply weren't cultural traditions within American Methodism. Without understanding the Bible, people don't have the Whole Armor of God with which to fight. When I started studying the Bible on my own in my 40s, it gradually unraveled my cradle-Methodist "identity" until I finally had had enough of the heretical virtue-signalling and started seeking a Bible-believing church. So far, the LCMS is holding steady.