Sigh. It's not really about LGBTQ issues as much as whether the Bible is the word of God and if Jesus is the Savior. The Liberals of the Church are pushing the LGBTQ side of it in the news as that puts them in the best light and the Conservatives in a bad light. The liberals managed to get a bunch of their believers voted in as Bishops of the church and took over the Judicial council, which is supposed to enforce the rules of the Discipline (The "constitution" of the church). They are ignoring the Discipline when it suits them.
It's further complicated by the Methodist structure that the Conference (in our case the North GA conference) legally owns all of the property of the local churches. It was designed as a method to allow the conference/Bishop to have leverage if a local church went off the rails in it's beliefs. However, it's backfired when it's the Conference and Bishop and Judicial Council that has gone off the rails.
A protocol for a split was proposed and accepted by all sides but needed a final vote by the World Wide General Conference in 2020. However it's been postponed for 2 years (and now another 2 years) because of Covid and the need for representatives from around the world to travel to the one location. At least that is the excuse given this year when it was sent to 2024.
There is another method to leave with your property, but it puts a lot of power into the hands of the Bishops and District Superintendents to say how much a church as to pay to leave with their property. Some churches are being told they have to pay up to half the cost of the buildings they want to take with them, buildings they usually paid for themselves already.
Our church is headed up to a vote on leaving in the next annual conference in the next few months. Don't know which way it will go, many don't realize that it's only been the conservative churches that have been a brake on the conference liberal policies so far and with so many churches leaving, the United Methodist Church will be unrecognizable in few years. They may vote to stay because "we've always been UMC".
It's a mess that is getting in the way of evangelism in a big way.
www.foxnews.com
