Free Republic

A United Methodist Church congregation in Texas with approximately 2,800 members has voted to leave the mainline denomination because of its debate over homosexuality. Grace Fellowship UMC of Katy voted Dec. 15 to leave the UMC due to the divisive debate on whether to amend the Book of Discipline to remove language calling homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Jim Leggett, the founding pastor of Grace Fellowship, told The Christian Post in an interview Monday that his congregation wanted “to remove ourselves from the dysfunctional fighting going on in the United Methodist Church so that we can fully devote our energies...

Thomas Callaway, a 43-year-old youth minister (Pittman Park United Methodist Church) from Statesboro, GA was charged Friday with sexual battery, a misdemeanor, in Chatham County, records show. “The conduct displayed toward Alex Bozarjian during her live coverage of Saturday’s Savannah Bridge Run was reprehensible and completely unacceptable,” the Savannah television station the employs Bozarjian said after the arrest. Bozarjian told police the man had slapped and then grabbed her buttocks, the Associated Press reported.

A Progressive United Methodist congregation in Southern California is marking the Advent season with an outdoor nativity display featuring the holy family in cages. According to the Los Angeles Times, the depiction of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees in cages likens one of the most well-known images of the Christmas season to photos that have become synonymous with criticism of the Trump administration’s border separation policies. “We don’t see it as political; we see it as theological,” Claremont United Methodist Church lead pastor the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine told the Times. “Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border...

Talk about overkill! The ultra-liberal UMC Next caucus has released its “Next Generation UMC” proposal for the 2020 General Conference, consisting of 23 petitions across 33 pages. UMC Next’s Convening Team includes celebrity pastor Adam Hamilton, Tom Berlin (lead submitter of the misleadingly named “One Church Plan” to the 2019 General Conference), Jasmine Smothers (another Commission on a Way Forward member and “One Church Plan” sponsor), Jan Lawrence (CEO of the LGBTQ liberationist Reconciling Ministries Network), Randall Miller (former head of RMN), Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson of North Georgia, Bishop Mike McKee of North Texas, Junius Dotson (CEO of our denomination’s...

In a letter dated July 2, 1756, Benjamin Franklin presented a proposal to George Whitefield, the most famous preacher of the Great Awakening, that they partner together to establish a Christian colony "in the Ohio," which was frontier at the time. In the letter, Franklin expressed confidence that God would give them success in such a project, "If we undertook it with a sincere regard to his honor." For the next 30 years, they carried on a lively and open correspondence. Whitefield often spoke about faith in Christ and admonished Franklin to make sure he was prepared for the next...

There is no debate that Joe Biden does not follow the Catholic Church’s teachings about the sanctity of human life. A pro-abortion Democrat, Biden has embraced an increasingly radical pro-abortion position that supports abortions up to birth and taxpayer-funded abortions. Though Biden claims to be a faithful Catholic, his actions openly defy his faith when it comes to protecting babies in the womb. That is why, about two weeks ago, a South Carolina priest refused to serve communion to Biden during Mass. The decision sparked national media attention and renewed a debate among Christians about whether it is right to...

Recently at least eleven liberal United Methodist congregations in five different states, from the Deep South to the far North, have publicly announced that they are taking at least initial steps towards leaving the United Methodist Church. These moves are all being made directly in protest over our denomination’s continued official traditionalist policies on marriage and sexual morality. Eight of these eleven congregations are formally affiliated with the LGBTQ-liberationist Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN). On September 8, members of Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church in Savannah, Georgia, voted by a whopping 309-7 to disaffiliate from the UMC. Then on September 17,...

Contested United Methodist Church (UMC) Bishop Karen Oliveto recently spoke on transformational leadership at Yale Divinity School. The primary thrust of this talk was the need for a community focus in the UMC. She also took questions about the current state of the denomination. Oliveto attempted to avoid controversy in her comments, though her personal views were visible. When asked about the decline of the UMC in recent years, she obliquely blamed, “All the infighting we’ve been doing” as well as, “an erosion of the grace that’s foundational to who we are.” This idea of an “erosion” of what Methodism...

In an open letter to the faculty, administrators, students, and alumni at Asbury Theological Seminary, a group of 70 current and former students attacked the seminary for its support of the United Methodist Church’s Traditional Plan at General Conference 2019. Asbury is an independent evangelical seminary outside Lexington, Kentucky with 1800 current students that teaches Wesleyan beliefs. It graduates more United Methodist clergy than does any official United Methodist seminary and is one of America’s largest seminaries. Among the letter signers, and possibly its organizer, is Bill Mefford, who left the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society after...

300,000 miles on horseback -Francis Asbury, Circuit Riding Preacher "one of the builders of our nation" The King of England was the head of the Anglican Church from the time of Henry VIII. Beginning in 1535, all English subjects, including those in English colonies, were required to the Oath of Supremacy: "I (state your name) do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience, that the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm ... in all Spiritual or Eclesiastical things ... So help me God." For most of England's history from 1535 to 1829, not to take the...

Dr. Dorothee Benz, a prominent LGBTQ activist in the United Methodist Church (UMC), is leaving the denomination after many years of leading resistance efforts. Dr. Benz publicly announced her decision to resign her membership from the UMC by publishing a letter she handed to Bishop Bickerton of the New York Annual Conference. In the letter, Benz, who is lesbian, describes her identity as a lifelong United Methodist and her years of both personal and public struggle with a church that does not support the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” She currently works as Chief Communications Officer for Lambda Legal, a...

Left-leaning congregations and LGBT activists within the United Methodist Church are looking to next year’s General Conference in the hopes they can change the denomination’s stance on homosexuality. Despite failing to change the denomination’s official position against homosexuality and same-sex marriage at a special session of General Conference in February or through its highest court last month, there appears to be little movement away from the UMC by progressive congregations and activists. Bishop Peggy A. Johnson, head of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Peninsula-Delaware Conferences, told The Christian Post that many remain in a “wait and see” mode. “I have not...

The confirmation class at First United Methodist Church in Omaha wanted to take a stand against the denomination’s longtime ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy. So when it came time to join the church on Sunday — the traditional end to a yearlong exploration of their faith — the class, made up of eight middle-schoolers, said no. Their decision was in response to a vote at February’s United Methodist General Conference in St. Louis affirming the denomination’s rules against ordination of gay clergy and performing same-sex weddings on church property. U.S. delegates to the conference, for the most part,...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Tennessee faith leaders are urging Gov. Bill Lee to oppose a bill that would restrict access to abortions. More than 150 pastors and leaders signed the letter to Lee in support of keeping abortion safe and legal. Leaders are urging Lee against HB77, the "Fetal Heartbeat Bill." “Because we trust pregnant people, we know that these decisions are informed by tremendous reflection and not taken lightly,” the letter states. “When a person decides that abortion is their best option, they need community support not obstacles preventing safe access to medical care.”

Readers of this blog are already familiar with Glide Memorial, a radical progressive congregation in San Francisco that recently severed ties with the United Methodist Church (UMC). Legal fights between Glide and the UMC’s California-Nevada Annual Conference continue, but occasionally there is something or someone that we suspect regular readers will find noteworthy, such as an Islamic Drag Queen. Enter “Drag & Spirituality: Claiming Our Sanctuary” – “This talk show-style conversation will explore the intersections of drag, gender, sexuality and spirituality. Our host & event curator, B0NNi33 Vi0L3T, aka Duane Quintana, a queer chaplain, will interview ground-breaking local drag queens,...

The late Richard Neuhaus once recalled that in the 1970s it was widely expected among religious cognoscenti that United Methodism would be the first of America’s historically liberal Mainline Protestant denominations to abandon traditional Christian sexual ethics. After all, it was the largest and most Americanized of mainline churches, and it wasn’t protected by strong traditions of liturgy or ecclesiology. Its experiential theology often seemed muddled. When Neuhaus shared that recollection in 2005, the Episcopal Church and United Church of Christ had already surrendered. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)...

After hours of delaying tactics by opponents, the United Methodist General Conference 2019 delegates passed The Traditional Plan 438 to 384. A last-ditch effort to bring the One Church Plan back was defeated in the morning and was followed by efforts to amend the Traditional Plan to address constitutionality issues raised by the Judicial Council, the church’s top court. The Rev. Tim McClendon, South Carolina, called for a vote on the Traditional Plan as amended, which affirms the church’s current bans on ordaining LGBTQ clergy and officiating at or hosting same-sex marriage.

Delegates at United Methodism’s General Conference in St. Louis, meeting as legislative committee, endorsed the Traditional Plan by 56% to 44%. The plan, which would strengthen the church’s policies defining marriage as male/female, will be voted on again by the delegates in plenary tomorrow. The One Church Plan to liberalize the church’s policy on sexuality was rejected 53% to 47%. It is now defeated unless there’s an attempt to bring it tomorrow’s plenary as minority report. Also approved were two petitions allowing congregations who can’t abide the church’s marriage teaching to leave the denomination with their property. Potentially some liberal...

In a key United Methodist General Conference vote setting voting priorities for the next three days, delegates preferred the Traditional Plan backed by global evangelicals over the liberalizing One Church Plan backed by most bishops. The Traditional Plan, which got nearly 56%, reaffirms current United Methodist teaching on marriage as male and female. One Church Plan, which got nearly 49%, would overturn that teaching and compel local congregations to choose their own definition of marriage. In one swoop, delegates were asked to vote their preference on dozens of legislative proposals and could vote yes to each one. The vote sets...

The United Methodist Church is a big tent theologically, and people with conservative or traditional religious beliefs make up the largest group under that spreading canvas. Those are two key findings from a new United Methodist Communications survey of United Methodists in the United States. The survey dug into views on various theology-related subjects, including the Bible, Jesus, salvation, the Resurrection and the afterlife. The goal was to shed light on the beliefs of people in the pews of United Methodist churches. Of those contacted, 44 percent identified themselves as conservative/traditional in religious beliefs, 28 percent as moderate/centrist and 20...