Earlier this year the Methodist Church voted not to go down the road of gay marriages and reaffirmed the Biblical view of marriage between a man and a woman.
That hasn’t gone over very well in some Methodist circles and now hundreds of clergy in the church are vowing to resist the reaffirmed church teachings in an effort to try and force the church to accept both homosexuality and gay marriage:
CBN NEWS – Hundreds of left-leaning United Methodist leaders and activists gathered in Kansas this week for the “UMC Next” conference to voice their opposition to the denomination’s official rejection of homosexuality and gay marriage.
Denomination leaders voted earlier this year to strengthen their embrace of marriage between one man and one woman, laid out in the church’s “Traditional Plan.” The UMC Book of Discipline affirms that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” It prohibits same-sex marriages and the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals.
United Methodist clergy who disagree vowed this week to employ a “wide variety of resistance tactics” to fight back.
I don’t know how many of my readers are Methodist, but even as a Catholic I find this very disturbing.
After all these so-called ‘leaders’ in the church are actual pastors with their own churches who seek to use resistance tactics to pervert the doctrine of the church with homosexuality and gay marriage when the Bible couldn’t be more clear about this issue:
“For some of us, resisting the Traditional Plan means violating the Book of Discipline. For some persons in their context, it might not,” said Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli, senior pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church of Washington, during a press conference on the last day of the UMC Next.
“There will need to be a wide variety of resistance tactics all leaning into and seeking to help accomplish the commitments that we have made together here.”
Adam Hamilton, head pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, also voiced his opposition to the denomination’s commitment to biblical marriage.
He encouraged those in attendance to find ways to oppose the Traditional Plan.
“For some, resistance is putting up a banner saying all are welcome; and for others, it may mean participating in a same-gender wedding. The hundreds of participants are all thinking about what does resistance look like in their particular context,” he said in a statement.
“Every movement has a tipping point, a game changer, a watershed moment, this is one of them,” said convening team member Rev. Junius Dotson. “In a moment none of us have experienced before and could never have fully anticipated, we have come together and held many important things in tension. We have managed ambiguity, and cared for the waves of our own emotions and reactions. It has been intense, challenging, powerful, beautiful work we have engaged together.”
Here’s two of their four commitments that came out of this heretical meeting:
3. We reject the Traditional Plan approved at General Conference 2019 as inconsistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ and will resist its implementation.
4. We will work to eliminate discriminatory language and the restrictions and penalties in the Discipline regarding LGBTQ persons. We affirm the sacred worth of LGBTQ persons, celebrate their gifts, and commit to being in ministry together.
CBN News points out that some in the Methodist church are now predicting a split in the church at some point in the future while others are calling for a united message in the church so that parishioners aren’t confused by the church’s teaching on sexuality and marriage.
I honestly don’t see how the Methodist church survives this while remaining in tact. These pastors and leaders in the church are rejecting what the Holy Scriptures actually say about marriage and once you go down that road, the irreparable harm has already occurred. Unless these individual churches cast these pastors out, a split in the church would seem inevitable.