The United
Methodists Just Dodged A Kill Shot, By Reaffirming God’s Design For Sex,
by Glenn T. Stanton, 3/5/19.
The United Methodist Church not only refused to
mutilate clear biblical teaching on same-sex couples and gay clergy, it voted
to strengthen its adherence to biblical sexual ethics.
At the end of February, the United
Methodist Church bravely dodged what would have been a self-inflicted kill
shot. Pushed to definitive action by gay activists within their ranks, they not
only refused to mutilate clear biblical teaching on same-sex couples and gay
clergy, the UMC voted to strengthen its adherence to biblical sexual
ethics.
We must appreciate just how
against-the-tide this move is for a mainline denomination, and they should be
roundly celebrated for their bold fidelity. But here’s the spin.
Many media stories are going with the
“United Methodist Church Positions Itself for a Massive Split” angle because of
the “hard-liners” inflexibility—as if all would have been hunky-dory if the
denomination acquiesced to LGBT demands. The media is getting this one all
wrong. (Why stop now, right?) The UMC did nothing short of averting its own
death.
They did so at this year’s General
Conference in St. Louis by choosing to adopt what was called the Traditional
Plan over the manipulatively named One Church Plan. (Oh, you’re not for one
church?) The latter was hawked as the best for everyone because it would not
compel anyone to go all-in for gay ideology. But those who wanted to could.
What could go wrong, right?
Thankfully, the majority of delegates
didn’t fall for this Kumbaya ploy. If anything has been made clear over the
last few years, it’s that gay politics do not “coexist.” Instead, the UMC
tightened things up to make sure this chicanery would no longer be an issue for
them.
Church Split or Church Reinvigoration? So what about a split? Yes, some of the theological and ecclesiological innovators will take their rainbow flags and go home crying bigotry. One person’s split is another’s purge. That’s the risk of mounting a revolution, which the gay lobby certainly has done. Just don’t blame the ones defending themselves against the revolutionaries as the instigators of a split. That’s rich.
Churches That Stand Firm Grow
Will the Real Colonialist Please Stand Up? For all the talk coming from the left about the evils of Western colonialism, they are zealots enforcing their sexual colonialism upon the developing world, with a dose of racism. At a meeting of liberal clergy in San Francisco some years ago, it was pointed out by one conferee that it was “those African bishops” who were the primary obstacle to accomplishing their agenda and that they needed to be dealt with.
Those of us in the traditional camp know
this is not mere happy talk to just make people feel better. It is basic
Christianity. But just as basic, the plan also affirms a traditional sexual and
marital ethic in line with what the Methodist church, and Christianity itself,
has always held without doubt or contest.
Better yet, it gives real teeth to the
matter, requiring every bishop to submit an official and public statement
declaring whether they can or cannot fully uphold and enforce the church’s biblical
standards around marriage and the ordination of clergy. This will halt the
shenanigans LGBT agitators have been playing within the church to move their
ball inch-by-inch down the field. If these leaders cannot affirm church
teaching, a protocol is established for them and their congregations to go
somewhere else so they can create some other faith from their own wishes.
It is clear that the leadership of the
United Methodist Church has been paying close attention to what happened to the
Episcopal/Anglican Church as they gave gay ideology a long, full-body hug. Ever
since, the Anglican faithful have been running for the doors as if the
buildings are on fire, which highlights a great irony. Put up a rainbow “We
Welcome All” banner across the doors of your church, and folks start going
elsewhere.
It’s not just the old blue-hairs who are
leaving in a huff. Research conducted jointly at Columbia University and the
University of California at Los Angeles examined the church choices of
same-sex-attracted men and women. The findings floored the pro-gay authors of
the study, as such individuals were 2.5 times more likely to
attend churches that took a more conservative view on homosexuality—churches
that these scholars derisively called “non-affirming”—over the rainbow
flag-waving ones.
The folks at Pew found largely
the same. Thus, the UMC under the Traditional Plan is more likely to actually
attract those needing to hear the clear teaching of God’s Word and see it
practiced. Research shows this is not by coincidence.
Some Canadian sociologists of religion
wanted to see which mainline churches have been declining and which are
growing. The strength and clarity in their findings wrote the study’s title: “Theology Matters.”
These scholars found that, while most
mainline congregations have long been hemorrhaging members by the millions, a
few have actually been growing. The primary difference? Theological
conservatism. People are voting with their feet, hoofing it to the mainline
churches that still teach, preach, and practice historic Christianity.
Another fact the UMC leadership clearly
learned from the Anglican debacle was that their faith is not just a white
phenomenon of the Northern Hemisphere. Both churches, along with most all other
Christian traditions, are exploding (not literally, but almost!) in the global
south, particularly on the African continent.
The wing of the Anglican Church led by
these brave, resolute African bishops now outnumbers those identified with
England. They have more churches, larger and more lively ones, and more
seminaries. The power base of the Anglican Church has undeniably shifted to
Nigeria, that tradition’s most dominant body.
These African bishops are having
tremendous success here in the United States, also, as more U.S. Anglicans
align themselves under their faithful oversight and care. The Guardian could
not help noting in 2016 that the African bishops who left the Church of England
were not so much “leaving the Anglican Communion, but walking out of its
funeral.” The UMC leadership noted it also.
At another gathering in New York City on
the topic of blessing gay sex in the Anglican Church, a deeply frustrated
white, gay Episcopalian announced in his session that the African
bishops must stop “monkeying around” with the rest of the church. He also said
these words: “All I have to say to these bishops is: Go back to the jungle
where you came from.”
This paternalism continues full-bore
today. Just before the UMC vote in St. Louis last week, Dr. Jerry P. Kulah,
dean of the Gbarnga School of Theology at the United Methodist University in
Liberia, spoke these powerful words to his fellow church leaders:
Friends,
please hear me, we Africans are not afraid of our sisters and brothers who
identify as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, questioning, or queer. …
But we know of no compelling arguments for forsaking our church’s understanding
of Scripture and the teachings of the church universal.
We
Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the
church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop
lecture us about our need to ‘grow up.’
No they do not, and neither does the
rest of the body of Christ throughout the world. As the gay lobby works
overtime to construct a whole other gospel, they should have the integrity to
admit their project is at great odds with mere Christianity and go join the
Unitarians. There’s all kinds of room over there.
Glenn T. Stanton is a Federalist senior contributor
who writes and speaks about family, gender, and art, is the director of family
formation studies at Focus on the Family, and is the author of eight books
including "The
Ring Makes All the Difference" (Moody, 2011)
and "Loving
My LGBT Neighbor" (Moody, 2014). He blogs at glenntstanton.com.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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