Where will conservatives go if they leave the UMC in a few years?

If the UMC reverses it's policy, but fails to split, where will conservatives go that leave?

  • (1) a Baptist Church

    Votes: 5 16.1%
  • (2) a conservative Presbyterian denomination

    Votes: 4 12.9%
  • (3) Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • (4) Church of the Nazarene

    Votes: 14 45.2%
  • (5) Disciples of Christ

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • (6) other Protestant bodies

    Votes: 12 38.7%
  • (7) Catholic or Eastern Orthodox

    Votes: 6 19.4%

  • Total voters
    31

actionsub

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I understand, but it's also the case that the word "schismatic" or "schism" is normally seen as a negative, as a criticism. They're the bad folks.

It's worth considering, therefore, that it isn't always clear cut as to which group is actually in rebellion.

Fair enough.
 
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Methodized

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The gay-normalizers are by far the minority in the worldwide church. Seems to me they are the schismatic groups.

Given when votes have happened around human sexuality and the number of votes have been within a 10% spread of each other, I think "by far the minority" is an overstatement.

The big mistake the UMC made was caused by our own colonialism in other countries and our desire for all Methodists to be in one denomination. Other denominations helped Christians in other countries form their own expressions of Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, etc. But we insisted on an international Church.

So when the PCUSA voted on human sexuality they are only voting for the USA and when the ELCA is voting on human sexuality they are largely only voting in the USA. Presbyterians or Lutherans in Europe, Africa and elsewhere have their own denominations and take their own votes and do their own thing.

We created a tent that was far too culturally and theologically broad to maintain. American Methodists merged again north and south in the US in 1939 and maintained a racially set aside Central Conference for all the black churches to make the south happy. The merger likely shouldn't have happened if it meant creating a segregated Conference. But it did and we didn't eliminate that conference until our merger with the EUB because the EUB insisted we fix it.

Now in the US much of the Northeast, Northwest, and North Central jurisdictions (the old MEC) have majority desire to recognize the gifts of LGBTQ+ persons.

If we'd never had the 1939 mergers this would have all been a different story as Northern and Southern Methodists wouldn't have been in the same Church to fight about this.

Our desire for Christian unity out weighed our desire to fight racism. It was a mistake and now we are paying for it with a merged denomination that is re-splitting over another justice issue.
 
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