These 'conservatives' believe they have won a great victory
in that the UMC just voted down full sodomite inclusion... and yet the margin was
fairly narrow. And the story is hardly over. The conservatives do not control
the judicial apparatus within the denomination. If they can't enforce the
traditional position and start punishing and excommunicating the sodomite
factions, then things will go on as they are.
In reality it's clear the UMC is headed for a split, both
globally and within the United States. The real debate will be over the
mechanics of the split and the all the ugly (and sinful) court battles over
properties and trust funds along with all the other rubbish that reveals
denominationalism as a harmful anti-Scriptural distraction.
And yet who are these conservatives? One will find that the
vast majority of them accept homosexuality but may be reticent to see it fully
and liturgically endorsed. Do they stand for traditional values? Hardly. The
many 'conservative' Methodists I know embrace women's ordination, feminism in
general and very few seem to have any problem or even comprehension of
fornication. In other words they're happy for their daughters to live with
their boyfriends.
One man I know argued vigorously against this move to
normalise homosexuality. Please note I did not say 'include'. The debate over
inclusion ended long ago. The sodomites are welcome. The debate is over
normalisation, weddings and ordination. He considers himself a conservative
within the UMC and he's a good FOX news man and one who operates in the
financial sector. He's not some kind of Left-wing guy.
And yet his daughter is an ordained 'pastor' in the UMC and he's
quite proud of it. He may conservative in terms of the UMC but as far as I'm
concerned he's a theological liberal.
Maybe this is more of a rural phenomenon? I don't know but
the idea (prevalent among many Evangelicals) that the mainline churches are all
filled with political Leftists is inaccurate.*
As far as these UMC conservatives are concerned, their
failure to fully endorse sodomy does not give me any comfort. The fact that the
lay leader of the UMC in my village has anti-Obama stickers on his truck does
not make him a Christian... and he's certainly not. I view such people as
doubly lost. Not only are they America idolaters like most Evangelicals,
they're not even clear in terms of basic gospel theology.
Most Evangelicals are theologically in a bad place too but at
least they pay lip service to the Bible. These people, including the UMC man
with the ordained daughter aren't even familiar with what the Bible teaches.
I've had some pretty startling discussions with him and his wife over the years
and their ignorance of the Bible can be fairly staggering at times. They are
absolutely unclear as to what the Bible says about fornication, homosexuality
and seem to lack a grasp of even basic Bible narratives and structure.
But wait, doesn't he stand against the normalisation of
sodomy within the denomination? Yes, he knows that homosexuals shouldn't be
ministers but as far as homosexuality itself, they're not sure how wrong it actually
is. I recall a few years ago they were considering attending a gay wedding because
'Christian love' was probably more important than any consideration of the
morality of the event. As far as their kids committing fornication, 'love' once
again seemed to be the criteria. An absolute prohibition was not only
unfamiliar to them but shocking and somewhat offensive. As long as the act was
committed in the spirit of 'love' then they couldn't see that there was a
problem.
One day the wife was telling me about how their Sunday school
got into a discussion about remarried people and how that plays out in heaven.
Who are you with? Your first spouse or your last? No one seemed to know but
there were lots of opinions.
I was kind of stunned that among a group of long-time
churchgoers, not one of them knew their Bible enough to know that Jesus
addressed the very question in Matthew 22. I pulled out my pocket New Testament
and showed her the passage. It was news to her. She was kind of shocked. She
had never encountered it before.
She grew up in the United Methodist Church and is pushing 60.
Her husband does some lay preaching and again, their daughter is ordained.
My point is this... these are the 'conservatives' everyone is
excited about. And I can think of several more people of similar stamp I know
who would be considered 'conservatives' within the UMC or the PCUSA.
I'm not excited about the 'conservative' victory.
Faithful Christians should have departed the UMC decades ago.
Methodism was once viable and there are still some tiny Methodist groups that
remain more or less conservative but for the most part the movement is Ichabod
as far as the United States is concerned. I think there might be more hints of
conservatism in the UK and certainly within Africa. But this idea that you're
going to rebuild the UMC by uniting with African ecclesiastical authorities is
not only delusion it's flawed by resting on a false ecclesiological premise.
The Church of Jesus Christ isn't built through bureaucratic sleight-of-hand or
institutional reform of bureaucracy.
Let the UMC collapse and good riddance. Let the very few
Christians who remain come out and bear witness against it. Mainstream
Methodism is effectively dead. This is not to say that there aren't things to
appreciate about the movement or things that we can learn from its past. As
much as the Wesleys can be appreciated I think there is greater value in the
legacy of Whitfield and certainly among the Welsh variants.
In the United States some of the smaller holiness groups like
the Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists remain viable and there is
(perhaps) still some potential in the mainstream Wesleyan Church but I think
it's slipping away influenced by the double corruption of rank theological
liberalism and the liberalising effect of Evangelicalism and its acculturating
impulses.
*I was talking to a New Calvinist gentleman awhile back and I
mentioned the theological liberalism of the Reformed Church in America (RCA)
and he responded by nodding and affirming that they're all 'Left wing'. In his
mind the two impulses, theological liberalism and left wing or modern social
liberalism are the same.
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