Ethics & Religion
Column #1,866
May 31, 2017
Will United Methodists Break Up?
By Mike McManus
Like all Mainline Protestant denominations, the United Methodist Church
is shrinking. In 1968 there were 12 million United Methodists, but today
membership is 7.2 million in the United States. On the other hand, there
were only a million United Methodists in Africa in 1968, but explosive
growth resulted in a remarkable 5.6 million UM Africans today.
"Within the next five years, if the trajectory rises in Africa and
declines in the U.S., there will be more Methodists in Africa than in
the United States," asserts Steve Beard, editor of the church's
evangelical magazine, Good News.
The magazine has been a "safe harbor for evangelicals and traditional
United Methodists who still have a stake in the denomination of their
childhood," he added. "We have tried to be an encouragement for people
to stay and perpetuate the belief in the orthodox faith that they grew
up in."
However, United Methodists of Colorado recently elected Bishop Karen
Oliveto, the denomination's first openly gay bishop, who is also in a
same-sex marriage. And there are now hundreds of gay UM pastors.
Tom Lambrecht, Vice President of Good News, says "United Methodists
teach that God created us male and female, and that heterosexuals should
have monogamous marriages. Others in the church dissent from that view,
and believe that God created people with same-sex attraction, bisexuals,
and even gender fluidity that allow people to experience sexuality
outside of heterosexual
marriage.
"We have two fundamentally different approaches, and have had this
debate for 50 years. But recL.1tly, within the last five years, those
who disagree (with the orthodox view) have disobeyed the church's
quarantine, and have performed same-sex marriages that were prohibited
by law, and have been ordaining openly practicing homosexuals as clergy,
which is against church law."
And as noted, liberals elected Karen Oliveto, as the first openly gay
bishop.
This trend has accelerated the abandonment of United Methodism by
traditionalists. The denomination shrank 3% in the last year. In just
the last week, two entire churches left the denomination - the Orchard
Church of Tupelo, MS and Get Well Road Church in northern Mississippi,
outside of Memphis.
In an attempt to resolve these differences, UM bishops have appointed a
Commission on the Way Forward that Tom Lambrecht is serving on. It is
supposed to make recommendations to the denomination in 2019, a year
before the next UM quadrennial convention in 2020.
It met three times this year for three and a half days in each session,
and will do the same in 2018.
I asked him if he thought the United Methodist Church will split in two,
or that enough conservatives will leave to create a new more orthodox
denomination. I noted that the Anglican Church of North America, was
created by evangelicals who left The Episcopal Church. Similarly, two
conservative Presbyterian denominations have emerged from the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Lambrecht agreed that this is a likely outcome.
The Anglican Church of North America has nearly 1,000 churches and
112,000 members. That is not large, but it is growing steadily. And
there are no debates about same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, The Episcopal Church, which had 3.4 million members in 1965,
has shrunk to 1.7 million. A lesbian is now the Episcopal Bishop of
Washington.
That is not a formula for growth, but for slow death.
____________________________________
Copyright (c) 2017 Michael J. McManus,
President of Marriage Savers and a syndicated columnist. For previous
columns go to
www.ethicsandreligion.org. Hit
Search for any topic.
|
|
Since 1981...
1900+ Columns |
|
LATEST ARTICLE |
|
April 18, 2018: Column 1913:
Netflix Is Killing Teenagers |
|
Recent Columns |
|
Texting While Driving Dangers |
|
7 Men - And The Secret of their Greatness (Part 3 of 3) |
|
7 Men
- And the Secret of Their Greatness (Part 1 of 3) |
|
7 Men - And the Secret of Their Greatness (Part 2 of 3) |
|
The Worst Valentine: Cohabitation |
|
Pornography: A Public Health Hazard |
|
Christianity Gives Women Equal Opportunity |
|
Sextortion Kills Teens |
|
Assisted Suicide Is Growing |
|
Students Protest for Gun Control |
|
Should Pro-Life Centers Promote Abortion? |
|
Billy Graham: The Greatest Evangelist |
|
Gun Legislation Finally Possible |
|
Enforcement of Porn Laws? None |
|
A Valentine's Day To Remember |
|
Trump Should Be Impeached |
|
The Secret to Living Longer |
|
Martin Luther King's Last Sermon |
|
Why Are Abortion Rates Falling? |
|
The Composition of Handel's Messiah |
|
Porn Harms Children & Marriage |
|
Sex Before First Date? |
|
A Marshall Plan For Marriage |
|
Don't
Divorce - Part II |
|
Don't Divorce Part 1 |
|
Can Euthanasia Be Justified? |
|
Cohabitation: A Growing Problem - Part I |
|
Cohabitation: A Growing Problem - Part II |
|
Recent Searches |
|
euthanasia,
cohabitation,
sexting,
sextortion,
alcoholism,
prayer,
guns,
same sex marriage,
abortion,
depression,
islam,
divorce,
polygamy,
religious liberty,
health care,
pornography,
teen sex,
abortion and infanticide,
Roe+v+Wade,
supreme court,
marriage,
movies,
violence,
celibacy,
living+together,
cohabitation,
ethics+and+religion,
pornography,
adultery,
divorce,
saving+marriages |
|