That was quick. Within the first Common Convention for the reason that most conservative congregations disaffiliated, the United Methodist Church liberalized its teachings on marriage, sexuality, and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.
In different mainline denominations, just like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA), the conservative exodus has tended to come back after the progressive victory. However within the UMC, the conservative American contingent is already gone, so the vote wasn’t shut.
With that settled, the subsequent and maybe ultimate battle between American Methodists who’ve been on reverse sides of theological and social points for greater than half a century will concern who can win over the Africans, who’ve been the “principal group opposing the modifications in coverage” on sexuality and are additionally the biggest UMC contingent outdoors the US. The breakaway conservative denomination known as itself the World Methodist Church in no small half as a result of members hoped to stay in fellowship with church buildings within the World South, the place Methodism is extra orthodox—and rising as Methodism within the US hasn’t in years.
However the United Methodist Church has additionally set in movement a plan to permit regional autonomy on the very points that broke up the denomination domestically. This could allow African church buildings to stay conventional in how they outline marriage and—so the pitch goes—in any other case insulate themselves from the Individuals’ liberal course.
African Methodists have beforehand rejected comparable proposals, possible understanding how such guidelines would dilute African church buildings’ affect over the denomination and exempt leaders of the shrinking US church from accountability to their African counterparts. They might be smart to reject the plan once more.
I give that recommendation as a conservative Methodist myself—and one dealing with an identical quandary over denominational affiliation. For now, I stay a United Methodist. My church is theologically conventional however fell in need of the congregational vote threshold to disaffiliate, and there’s no World Methodist presence in my space.
But, long run, I see no future for conservatives of any nationality on this denomination. With so many evangelical congregations and far of the organized resistance to theological liberalism gone, the trajectory displayed on this week’s convention votes will solely speed up.
A greater path, as we close to the tip of the mainline, could be continued connection between the African and American Methodists who collectively prevented the UMC from taking place this highway for greater than 50 years. World Methodists have a possibility to inherit essentially the most vibrant components of United Methodism whereas disentangling from its outdated paperwork. Extra importantly, they’ve an opportunity to supply an orthodox Wesleyan witness that’s compromised neither by liberalism nor by fundamentalism.
The UMC held collectively so long as it did as a result of it was orthodox on paper however progressive in follow, besides in jurisdictions the place traditionalists had been numerically prevalent. However ultimately, liberals who noticed prohibitions on same-sex marriage as morally equal to racial discrimination may not dwell with even nominal orthodoxy. And conservatives may not watch these prohibitions being routinely flouted with out consequence.
But our divides had been by no means solely about same-sex relationships. When Methodists started debating homosexuality in 1972, it was a dependable proxy for beliefs about biblical authority and the Christian understanding of affection. Immediately, I nonetheless imagine liberalizing on sexual morality displays an errant, culture-conforming view of Scripture and custom, however I additionally suppose Methodists produce other urgent questions to deal with—questions that generally minimize throughout traces of debate over homosexual marriage and associated matters.
Immediately there are extra Methodists who passionately disagree with one another on LGBTQ questions whereas having the ability to recite the creeds collectively with out crossing their fingers. And there are Methodists who’re slipping away from very primary doctrines about Christ and Scripture. If we will full the denominational break up and welcome the African church buildings into World Methodism, maybe conservative Methodists can put aside decades-long sexuality debates and focus as a substitute on core theological issues—and the broader work of the church—with out compromising on marriage or abortion.
That imaginative and prescient is especially interesting as a result of many people on the conservative aspect have come to imagine we weren’t bold sufficient. Over a protracted time period and with appreciable effort, even with out actual government authority to expedite the method, perhaps we may have steadily remodeled the UMC from a center-left denomination with a robust evangelical subculture to a (mildly) center-right one with a robust liberal subculture.
That chance, if it existed, has handed. However now, maybe, we will do even higher by going our separate methods. I used to be not too long ago at a dinner outdoors Washington, DC, with longtime combatants within the battle for Methodist renewal. Many expressed their wonderment and reduction now that the battle was “misplaced”—that they may now comply with conscience and conviction with out energetic resistance from progressive church leaders.
Just some years in the past, they might have been hunkering all the way down to do battle on the Common Convention, an expertise a pastor buddy as soon as described to me as being like attending the Republican and Democratic Nationwide Conventions on the identical time. Now, conservative Methodists are free to follow an orthodox religion marked by the distinctive components of our Wesleyan heritage.
There’s no assure that conservative Methodists will flourish, after all. However the brand new starting provides actual promise, and our prospects will likely be higher if our African brothers and sisters be a part of us. World Methodism is constant a practice that shares their values and biblical perspective, and membership from the World South is important to the church we’ve sought to construct collectively for therefore lengthy.
W. James Antle III is government editor of the Washington Examiner journal.
