Methodists

, , , , , , , ,

Plug-In: Many churches are vanishing, while others are growing. Trends worth covering?

, , , , , , , ,
Plug-In: Many churches are vanishing, while others are growing. Trends worth covering?

This newsletter marks the return of Weekend Plug-in after two weeks of vacation. Did you miss me?

I’m still catching up on the headlines I missed while watching a whole lot of Texas Rangers games.

But I know the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on two important religious freedom cases — one on religious accommodation at work and the other involving free speech and free exercise protections for people of faith who are creative professionals.

Click the preceding links, by the way, to read excellent coverage of the decisions by the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner.

In more recent news, the gunman who killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue is eligible for the death penalty, a federal jury announced. The decision clears the way, as The Associated Press’ Peter Smith reports, “for further evidence and testimony on whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison.”

In case you need a reminder, this is our weekly roundup of the top headlines and best reads in the world of faith. We start with the giant religion trend that should be bigger news.

What To Know: The Big Story

Houses of worship closing: “Everybody is caught up with fighting over sexuality or politics on Twitter — and almost no one is paying attention (to) the collapse of congregational life in America.”

Religion News Service national writer Bob Smietana made that prescient observation on social media this week. Smietana, of course, wrote a book on the subject called “Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why It Matters.”

Many churches are shrinking. Then again, some churches are growing. Trends worth covering? What are the patterns here?


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SBC and United Methodist news: Where are America's two largest Protestant flocks heading?

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
SBC and United Methodist news: Where are America's two largest Protestant flocks heading?

To recap: Last week’s heavily-covered Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) gathering was without doubt a watershed (pun intended) for America’s largest Protestant denomination. 

The local church “messengers” gathered in New Orleans not only expelled congregations that ordain female clergy but passed a constitutional amendment (that needs second approval next year) restricting SBC affiliation to congregations that allow “only men as any kind of pastor or elder.” That blocks any suggestion that females could perform pastoral roles apart from being head pastor of a congregation.

Amid all the gender excitement — and the SBC’s struggle to cope with sexual abuse scandals — the media should not neglect decisive rejection of the long Baptist tradition to uphold shared classical Christian doctrines, such as those in the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith (.pdf), but leave most matters up to decisions by autonomous congregations.

Journalists might consider that current SBC teaching on women in the church and the home is in lockstep with the fundamentalist Baptist Bible Fellowship International of Springfield, Missouri. Yet that denomination also proclaims the old-fashioned belief that “the local church has the absolute right of self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations.” Then again, the emerging SBC stance is similar to those of Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy and large numbers of Anglicans and Lutherans in the Global South.

Will the media now find any sizable breakaway from the SBC, as opposed to a predictable loss of some disgruntled individuals and scattered congregations? Doesn’t appear so in the early aftermath. The “moderates” have been leaving — slowly — for decades.

That contrasts with the ongoing split in the second-largest U.S. denomination, the United Methodist Church (UMC), over various issues of biblical authority and especially sexual morality.

Local and state news media have been covering the action, but The Guy thinks there’s ample room for comprehensive analysis of the over-all national and international situation. Mainstream journalists have consistently avoided covering important non-LGBTQ+ doctrinal issues linked to this war.

The establishment’s semi-official running tally posted here shows that what some called a “trickle” has become a flood, with (as this is written) 5,864 congregations quitting since 2019, of which 3,861 departed this year.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , , ,

United Methodist news in the Kansas high plains raises, again, some old questions

, , , , , , , , , , ,
United Methodist news in the Kansas high plains raises, again, some old questions

You know the old saying that “diamonds are forever”? In my personal experience, western Kansas is forever.

That isn’t a complaint. I’ve been driving across the Kansas high plains since the early 1980s — with more cause now that I have family in Kansas — and I have grown to love the wide open horizons. This long drive also leads to our family’s old stomping grounds in Colorado, where I’m on vacation this week.

Kansas is a real place. There’s a there, there. I have lots of friends with ties to Kansas and they love its combination of Midwestern values and access to the Wild West.

I bring this up because of a story I read last week in the Topeka Capital-Journal, with this headline: “96 United Methodist churches in Kansas, including one in Topeka, are leaving denomination.” This is another example of newspapers at the local and regional level having to handle developments in a complex, global conflict that has been raging since the early 1980s. That’s when I started covering this story in Colorado — a flashpoint from the start. Here’s the Topeka lede:

The United Methodist Church is seeing the exodus of 96 conservative Kansas congregations over theological matters, including same-sex marriages and ordaining openly LGBTQ clergy.

The words “theological matters” are, of course, disputes about 2,000 years of Christian doctrines on a host of important, even creedal, subjects. But, as always, the only specific given is LGBTQ+ matters.

Later on, the story notes that a key vote in Kansas:


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , ,

Plug-In: What's happening with tense Southern Baptists and disunited Methodists?

, , , , , ,
Plug-In: What's happening with tense Southern Baptists and disunited Methodists?

It’s time for another roundup of religion news from the mainstream press and beyond. Please click lots of links and pass this along to others.

Among last week’s late-developing headlines: Influential pastor Tim Keller, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020, was placed on hospice care, as Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana reported. Keller then passed away a short time later. Click here for the obituary that ran deep inside The New York Times: “The Rev. Timothy Keller, Pioneering Manhattan Evangelist, Dies at 72.” Click here to follow the #TimKeller threads on Twitter.

On a happier note, “The Chosen” — the popular TV show about Jesus and his disciples — seems to be influencing baby names, as the Deseret News’ Mya Jaradat explains.

The major story this week — the material for this post was collected before Keller’s death — concerns doctrinal battles by the Southern Baptists, not all of them in the South, and the United Methodists, who are not so united these days.

What To Know: The Big Story

Back in the saddle?: Last year, the Southern Baptist Convention kicked out Saddleback Church, founded by Rick Warren, for appointing women as pastors.

Now Saddleback is appealing that decision, asking messengers to the SBC’s annual meeting in New Orleans next month to reverse it.

“The appeal extends the standoff between the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and one of its largest, most successful churches,” the Associated Press’ Peter Smith writes.

Read related coverage by Christianity Today’s Kate Shellnutt, Religion News Service’s Adelle M. Banks, The Tennessean’s Liam Adams and the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner.

Affiliation and disaffiliation: Don’t be surprised if those terms end up as the Methodists’ words of the year.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , ,

The past is dead? Time for news analysis of America's scrambled Protestant marketplace

, , , , , , , , , ,
The past is dead? Time for news analysis of America's scrambled Protestant marketplace

Starting with a band of Anglicans landing at Jamestown in 1607 and then Pilgrim dissenters at Plymouth in 1620, various forms of Protestantism collectively dominated what became the United States. That broad cultural hegemony persisted through Revolution, Civil War, Catholic immigration, industrialization, globalization, and Protestants’ countless internal squabbles, splits and reunions.

But the Religious Landscape Study from the Pew Research Center tells us the U.S. population is now only 46.6% Protestant. Add to that these newsworthy numbers on Protestantism’s Big Three and we find a scrambled scenario of historic proportions that invites thorough journalistic analysis.

* Last week the Southern Baptist Convention reported its worst-ever decline of 457,371 members from 2021 to 2022 – and of 1.5 million just since 2018 – to the current 13.2 million. The denomination had posted steady gains over a century until recent years. 

Oh, here’s a newsroom calendar alert: That slide should roil the Baptists’ important June 13-14 annual meeting in New Orleans, alongside disputes over female pastors and sexual abuse response, and a competitive presidential election.

* The news service of the United Methodist Church, #3 in size among U.S. Protestant groups, last week posted tabulation of departures since 2019 of 2,996 conservative congregations, roughly one-tenth of the denomination, with more in process. Most are joining the newborn Global Methodist Church. (Update: This week, Methodist conservatives put dropouts at 3,356 congregations, with another 1,000 or more likely.)

* Meanwhile, other Protestants are gaining. In particular, The Religion Guy has proclaimed the following as 2022’s “Story of the Year.” In November, the latest U.S. Religion Census revealed that independent, non-denominational congregations are now decisively the nation’s largest grouping of Protestants, with 21 million adherents in 44,319 congregations. Most are Evangelicals. This relegates the Southern Baptists down to #2 in size.

Pew Research defined three categories, “Evangelical Protestants” at 25.4% of Americans, “Mainline Protestants” at 14.7%, and members of “Historically Black” church groups at 6.5%.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Black Americans are as likely to be 'nones' as other racial groups (but with a difference)

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Black Americans are as likely to be 'nones' as other racial groups (but with a difference)

One of the most difficult things to describe to the average person about religious classification is Black Protestants.

In 2000, a group of scholars created the RELTRAD classification scheme which divided Protestants up into three categories — evangelical, mainline and Black Protestant. Why are Hispanic and white evangelicals grouped together, but Black Protestants get their own separate category? What about Black evangelicals, Black Pentecostals and Black mainline Protestants?

It’s not an easy question answer, really. 

Paul Djupe and I tried to answer that a few years ago in a post at Religion in Public. The answer will not shock GetReligion readers.

In short: politics. But, it’s a bit more than just how they vote on election day. Anyone who has ever worshipped with a predominantly Black congregation knows that it tends to be a bit different than how the United Methodists and lots of other folks do things on a Sunday morning.

I’ve always been fascinated by the role that the church plays in Black culture and was wondering if the rising tide of secularization had been blunted in a bit among African Americans — or if they were seeing the same trend lines as other racial groups.

In 2008, Black Americans were noticeably less likely to report no religious affiliation compared to their White counterparts. About one in five Black Americans were nones in 2008. That’s no different than Hispanics and three points less than White respondents.

But over the last few years, that gap has essentially disappeared.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , ,

Has Donald Trump won nomination already? Careful. And keep a hawkeye on Iowa ...

, , , , , , , , , ,
Has Donald Trump won nomination already? Careful. And keep a hawkeye on Iowa ...

In nationwide polls, Donald Trump has defied multiple legal snarls to pad his already healthy margin over potential challenger Ron DeSantis for the Republican nomination. So far, those two swamp all other possible names, such as Nikki Haley.

As for state polling, South Carolina numbers last week from Winthrop University have Trump at 41% and DeSantis 20%, while the two locals got only 18% (Haley), and 7% (Tim Scott). Likewise in New Hampshire with its first primary, where a St. Anselm College poll in late March reported Trump 42%, DeSantis 29%, popular Governor Chris Sununu a mere 14% and Haley 4%.

Reporters on the politics, religion, and religion-and-politics beats should especially keep a hawkeye (so to speak) on Iowa, with its crucial first-in-the-nation caucus next January — turf already well-trod by GOP hopefuls. An April 4 poll of likely G.O.P. caucus-goers by J.L. Partners shows Trump 41%, DeSantis 26%, and Haley a 5% also-ran.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Amazing! Brief mention of doctrine in LGBTQIA+ war at Point Loma Nazarene University

, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Amazing! Brief mention of doctrine in LGBTQIA+ war at Point Loma Nazarene University

Oh my! It appears that we have an actual reference to a doctrinal “covenant” in a Religion News Service report about a First Amendment battle between the leaders of a private Christian university and the pro-LGBTQ members of their faculty, student body and alumni.

Journalists almost always ignore the role of "lifestyle” or “doctrinal” covenants in defining the boundaries of the life and work of private schools, which are voluntary associations. It’s always important to ask if faculty, staff and students are asked to sign these covenants, in which they (the details vary) agree to support the doctrinal foundations of the school or, at the very least, not to attack them.

This is an issue your GetReligionistas have written about 100+ times or more during the past 20 years.

The fact that this latest fight is happening at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego will not surprise anyone familiar with the recent history of denominational life in the Church of the Nazarene. But that’s another story for another day. The reality is that there are hidden schisms in the faculties of many Christian colleges and universities, when it comes to issues of centuries of Christian moral theology.

Thus, back to the RNS report: “LGBTQ group condemns Point Loma Nazarene University for theology dean’s dismissal.” The subhead is also important: “The university denies charges by Lauren Cazares, founder of Loma LGBTQIA+ Alumni & Allies Coalition, that the dean of the school of theology was terminated for 'anything related to the LGBTQIA+ community.' “

There is next to nothing surprising in this report. RNS editors included zero comments from insiders or experts who disagree with the viewpoints voiced over and over by the LGBTQIA+ activists who provided material for this “news” report. There is one quote from a university spokesperson who notes that the administration, due to privacy laws, cannot discuss the dismissal of a faculty member.

But, hey, there is one reference to “doctrine” in this story! Let’s start with the overture:

A coalition of LGBTQ alumni of Point Loma Nazarene University — a private Christian liberal arts college in San Diego — is protesting the firing of the dean of the university’s school of theology, who they say was dismissed for siding with an adjunct professor who was let go due to her own public support for the LGBTQ community.

Mark Maddix, the dean for the school of theology and Christian ministry, was fired on March 15 by the university’s chief academic officer, Kerry Fulcher, according to an April 5 statement released by alumna Lauren Cazares, who founded Loma LGBTQIA+ Alumni & Allies Coalition earlier this year.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , ,

Religion in politics, again: What is Sikhism, candidate Nikki Haley’s one-time faith?

, , , , , , ,
Religion in politics, again: What is Sikhism, candidate Nikki Haley’s one-time faith?

QUESTION:

What is Sikhism, candidate Nikki Haley’s one-time religion?

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:

Nikki Haley, who is challenging Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, was raised in the religion of Sikhism  (“SEEK-ism”) by immigrant parents from India. But soon after both Sikh and Methodist weddings she converted to husband Michael’s Christianity.

During Haley’s first run for South Carolina governor in 2010, National Public Radio posted a notably nasty piece by a fellow Indian-American who said “I’m not buying” Haley’s “Christian bit,” noting that “serious churchgoers” and political opponents suspected a “conversion of convenience” in a heavily Protestant state. However, Haley adopted Christianity at age 24 and only entered politics eight years later.

Partners in mixed marriages do have to make religious choices. Haley has repeatedly professed that she is a Christian believer but respects her family and does not criticize its religious heritage. Though a Methodist churchgoer, she occasionally attends Sikh services and has visited the faith’s holiest sanctuary, the Temple of God in Amritsar, India (known as the Golden Temple because it’s covered in gold leaf).

As a journalist, The Guy has no business examining Haley’s soul, but sees her candidacy as a good opportunity for Americans to learn more about her former faith. Sikhism claims to be the fifth-largest world religion after Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, though it does not evangelize and counts only a modest 30 million adherents. Still, that’s double the global number for Judaism.

Sikhism is by far the youngest of the major world religions. Its homeland is the Punjab region of northern India and adjacent Pakistan. The founder, Guru Nanak (1469-1539), was a married accountant with two sons who had a dramatic encounter with God, whence he proclaimed “there is no Hindu; there is no Muslim” and gathered a following as a spiritual teacher.

Western scholars often depict Sikhism as a classic example of syncretism (blending of different religions) or a reforming “offshoot” of Hinduism.


Please respect our Commenting Policy