United Methodist Church

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#DUH -- Church of Rome is not the only global flock wrestling with same-sex blessings

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#DUH -- Church of Rome is not the only global flock wrestling with same-sex blessings

Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Malawi pulled no punches when passing judgement on the Vatican's stunning declaration that Catholic clergy could bless couples living in "irregular relationships," such as same-sex unions.

This "looks to us like a heresy, it reads like a heresy, and it affects heresy," he said. "We cannot allow such an offensive and apparently blasphemous declaration to be implemented in our dioceses" in southeast Africa.

The Fiducia Supplicans ("Supplicating Trust") document triggered debates around the world, but negative reactions have been especially strong in Africa, with strong protests from bishops' conferences in Malawi, Zambia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Angola and other nations.

"The Church of Africa is the voice of the poor, the simple and the small," wrote Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, the former head of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. "It has the task of announcing the Word of God in front of Western Christians who, because they are rich, equipped with multiple skills in philosophy, theological, biblical and canonical sciences, believe they are evolved, modern and wise in the wisdom of the world."

Cardinal Sarah endorsed the declarations from African bishops and added: "We must encourage other national or regional bishops' conferences and every bishop to do the same. By doing so, we are not opposing Pope Francis, but we are firmly and radically opposing a heresy that seriously undermines the Church, the Body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and Tradition."

These tensions resemble doctrinal fault lines seen during the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family, noted historian Philip Jenkins, the author of "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity" and "Fertility and Faith: The Demographic Revolution and the Transformation of World Religions" and many other books.

"Religious faith and fertility are linked and it's easy to see that around the world," said Jenkins, reached by Zoom.


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Pointers for journalists covering the neverending U.S. Protestant LGBTQ+ wars

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Pointers for journalists covering the neverending U.S. Protestant LGBTQ+ wars

Few expect to find religious substance on cable-news channels and websites.

But on New Year’s Eve, MSNBC posted a liberal overview of the same-sex dispute that is splitting the large United Methodist Church (UMC) and affects U.S. Protestantism over-all. The writer was Robert Allan Hill, dean of the chapel and New Testament professor at Boston University.

The Guy assumes that MSNBC has neither sought nor posted any theological article on this by a doctrinal traditionalist, any more than we’d expect Fox News to post a liberal’s religious commentary on this topic. Such are the “silos” that shape today’s cable “news” offerings and audiences.

As of December 31, the dispute over the Bible and sexual morality caused 7,660 congregations, roughly a quarter of the UMC, to depart, the largest U.S. schism since the Civil War. But Hill is upbeat because there’s now “a way forward” for “creative repositioning” in the UMC.

Sexual traditionalists have won every UMC showdown the past 52 years, but their voting power is seriously weakened by the big U.S. walkout, raising the odds that liberals can finally change official belief at the General Conference in Charlotte April 23 to May 3, or else at a special 2026 conference called by the bishops.

The media still have some difficulty explaining why this conflict has been so persistent and disruptive, so The Guy will sketch some pointers from the immense literature on this from scholars. Whatever the case with Catholic and Orthodox churches, for Protestants it’s all about the Bible, what it says and how that’s to be interpreted and applied.

Hill charged that current supporters of the Christian teaching across the centuries “have apparently not read all of the Bible, or at least have not read some parts of it carefully, faithfully and fully” so that the issue “is biblically misunderstood.”

For starters, he says there’s a “paucity of any biblical material” on homosexuality, with only six passages. Traditionalists cite a larger number but, leaving that question aside, they argue that both the Old and New Testaments clearly teach a moral aversion to same-sex activity and no verse tolerates it.


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

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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.


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

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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.


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

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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%.


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EV charging sites at churches: Which denominational brands will get government $$$?

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EV charging sites at churches: Which denominational brands will get government $$$?

Let me open this post with a confession: I am part of a growing flock of folks (some say “cult”) that attracts lots of nasty social-media commentary from a fascinating coalition of left-wingers and right-wingers.

In other words, I drive an electric car.

Wait. Anger from left-wingers? Remember these four words: Elon. Musk. Bought. Twitter.

Anyway, I have spent quite a bit of time reading about efforts to build EV-charging networks. Things were totally bonkers during the year or two that the Joe Biden White House was refusing to utter the word “Tesla” and seemed poised to pour billions of tax dollars exclusively into networks that are infamous for the stunningly high percentage of time their chargers are broken.

Now, what does this inside-baseball discussion have to do with religion-beat news?

Maybe you saw this Religion News Service headline that ran the other day: “Could churches be prime locations for EV charging stations? One company thinks so.”

You see, EV charging stations require (#DUH) empty parking spaces, and it helps if these slots are in convenient urban and suburban locations — frequently near a highway exit or two. This leads to the totally logical overture for this timely RNS piece:

As more drivers make the decision to switch from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, places to power them remain few and far between in large parts of the country. And with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 incentivizing clean energy and electric cars, as well as providing investments for green technology, the demand will only increase.

Churches, with their large parking lots that often sit empty during the week, could help provide a solution.

Now, imagine yourself driving through a typical American city. In your mind’s eye, where do you see empty church parking lots?

Basically, you will find two different kinds of lots and they tend to be located in rather different kinds of places. This is where I see a potential news hook or two.


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New religion census: That means more numbers, more maps and more hooks for news stories

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New religion census: That means more numbers, more maps and more hooks for news stories

It’s always a fun day when one of my trusted sources publishes some new raw data that I can use to better understand the religious and political world of the United States. That’s doubly true when it’s something other than survey data because it allows me to make data visualizations that are a bit different than the run of the mill bar and line graphs.

Earlier this month the Association of Statisticians of American Religion Bodies released the results of their 2020 Religion Census, which is a one of a kind dataset. Every 10 years, this very capable research team tracks religious organizations all the way down to the county level — which is a granularity that is astonishing.

For example, most surveys would be lucky to give you a sample that is large enough to understand religion at the state level. So, to have access to county level data unlocks thousands of possibilities.

This is the kind of detail that helps researchers — and journalists — look for news trends at the local and regional levels. There are news stories hidden in these numbers. The key is spotting them.

So, with that in mind, I took to map-making the last few weeks. I think that there’s a lot of surprising results in this new data.

Where is religion the most concentrated in the United States? Probably not where most people would guess.

According to data from the 2020 Religion Census, there’s obviously a strong pocket of believers in the Bible Belt — that isn’t surprising.


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AP soft-pedals big story: USA progressives winning (sort of) the United Methodist war

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AP soft-pedals big story: USA progressives winning (sort of) the United Methodist war

If you have followed the half century of United Methodist Church warfare over the Bible, marriage and sex — I started covering this story in the early 1980s — you know the debates have consistently contained activists in three different camps. Here’s that line-up, for newcomers:

(1) The doctrinal right fighting for enforcement of the doctrines and rules in the church’s Book of Discipline.

(2) The North American establishment that has insisted that it could find a way to tweak the status quo — doctrine would change from zip code to zip code — so that everyone could stay in the same big financial tent, including LGBTQ activists in UMC seminaries and agencies.

(3) The candid doctrinal left — think West and Northeast — that openly proclaims the need to change 2,000 years of Christian tradition to fit the doctrines of the Sexual Revolution.

These divisions only became more complex as the United Methodists evolved into a truly global denomination that included booming churches in Africa and Asia — a form of diversity that made the denomination’s shrinking North American establishment more and more nervous.

In global meetings, a small-o orthodox coalition — most of the Global South plus a conservative U.S. minority — kept winning vote after General Conference vote to defend current doctrines. However, COVID-19 prevented crucial global meetings, allowing the U.S. establishment (Camp 2) several years to steer the ship.

This brings me to a new Associated Press report that does a great job, if that was the goal, of soft-pedaling recent victories by the establishment and candid left. The headline: “LGBTQ-friendly votes signal progressive shift for Methodists.” The overture:

The United Methodist Church moved toward becoming more progressive and LGBTQ-affirming during U.S. regional meetings this month that included the election of its second openly gay bishop. Conservatives say the developments will only accelerate their exit from one of the nation’s largest Protestant denominations.

Each of the UMC’s five U.S. jurisdictions — meeting separately in early November — approved similarly worded measures aspiring to a future of church where “LGBTQIA+ people will be protected, affirmed, and empowered.”

How would these aspirations come to pass?


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What will American Protestantism look like after the wars inside the 'Seven Sisters' are done?

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What will American Protestantism look like after the wars inside the 'Seven Sisters' are done?

Over decades, the map of U.S. Protestantism has been redrawn by splits over the authority and interpretation of the Bible that eventually focused on the LGBT dispute. Now we have a major case study that journalists will need to cover at the local, regional, national and global levels.

A balanced coalition of leaders in the large United Methodist Church (UMC) developed a treaty for mutually respectful separation — the Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation protocol — for that’s currently degenerating into a wasteful fight like other groups have suffered.

Reporters and concerned readers will want to dive into these commentaries and news stories:

* Look at a United Methodist timeline: Why are conservatives going nuclear with lawsuits?

* What happened to United Methodists’ proposal to split the denomination?

* Time is Running Out for Traditionalist United Methodists!

* For United Methodists, the center is not holding

* Special sessions of United Methodist annual conferences 2022

* United Methodist Church bishops mount defense amid conservative attacks (paywall protected)

* Liberal Bishops Have Redefined United Methodist Polity

The current maneuvers by the North American UMC establishment may well limit the number of dropouts joining the Global Methodist Church. Its vision has been to unite a million or more U.S. Methodist evangelicals with the growing Methodist churches in Africa and Asia, creating an effective and innovative international denomination dedicated to defending current Methodist doctrines. This could help counteract some U.S. conservatives’ drift into Christian nationalism. Is that still feasible?


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