The turning tide of United Methodism
By Bill Bouknight, Good News Magazine (Hat Tip: Barbara Gauthier)
Unlike the Lutherans (ELCA) and Presbyterians (PC-USA), the United Methodist Church is pulling back from following TEC into the future. The Methodist Church was at one point was accounted even more liberal than the Episcopal Church, but that liberal tide now appears to have crested and is beginning to recede. The turnaround has taken place through educating the laity in the Biblical faith, evangelizing, renewal, and learning much from Global South Methodism:
Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed the cresting and subsequent decline of the liberal tide in American Methodism. Simultaneously, the influence of evangelicalism and orthodoxy has been steadily increasing within the last decade.
As measured by membership and influence, the United Methodist Church has been in decline for the last 40 years. A definite low point for the denomination was November 1993, when United Methodists participated in the infamous “Re-Imagining Conference” in Minneapolis. Sophia, the goddess of wisdom, was worshipped, the doctrine of Atonement was ridiculed, and lesbianism was glorified. At least one United Methodist helped plan that conference, and it was an approved continuing education event for many staff members of United Methodist general boards and agencies.
Most UM bishops made no public response to this heretical display. Only a handful of UM leaders such as Bishops William Cannon, Earl Hunt, and Tom Stockton denounced certain teachings of that conference as being contrary to United Methodist doctrines and ethical standards. Despite the silence of most UM leaders, the Re-Imagining Conference had a sobering impact on the denomination—serving as a wake-up call within United Methodism.
The liberal tide in the UM Church, promoted by some bishops, general boards and agencies, and seminaries, began to ebb. Liberalism’s high point may have come in 1996—the year when 15 UM bishops took a public stand at General Conference in favor of liberalizing the denomination’s position on homosexuality. Since then, liberalism has been in decline and the evangelical influence has increased. This trend was clearly evident at the General Conferences of 2000, 2004, and 2008. The apparent rejection in 2009 of most of the 32 constitutional amendments by the Annual Conferences of the church just confirms the theory that a gradual course correction has been occurring within the grassroots of a misdirected Methodism in North America.
The most contentious issue in the struggle between the liberal and evangelical elements of the UM Church is the practice of homosexuality among members and clergy. On this issue and a range of others, United Methodism was considered to be one of America’s most liberal denominations 25 years ago. That perception has changed. A 2009 survey of Protestant clergy on the issue of same-sex marriage illustrates how UM clergy differ from others. Whereas 67 percent of United Church of Christ clergy and 49 percent of Episcopal clergy favor same-sex marriage, only 25 percent of UM clergy do. Though human sexuality dominates the national debate in the UM Church, underneath that issue is a more fundamental one—the authority of Scripture.
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