>>Wonder if there will be a conservative Methodist church started soon?
Probably. Most of the clergy is Leftist and most of the members are Conservative, or at least truly moderate. These two recent gay marriages (Talbert in Alabama and the 50 pastors in PA) will fracture the church. I’ve already scoped out a Nazarene Church and a Wesleyan Church, and I’m corresponding with an LCMS pastor to discuss the possibility of becoming Lutheran if the Nazarenes and Wesleyans turn out to be like the UMC: having one position on paper and the exact opposite in practice.
My current UMC pastor is one of the few good ones. He was as fired up about the bishops’ cowardice this past week and was even preaching against gay marriage on Sunday.
I attended UMC during my first marriage, as that was her denomination. I was raised in the LCA and ALC (depending on which was closest, we moved a lot) and spent 8th grade in a LCMS school. I’d never heard left-wing pastors before, so it was quite a cultural shock to me. We once had a female pastor (for exactly one year) who somehow always steered the sermon to LGBTQ issues, no matter what it was supposed to be about. Another pastor received Christmas cards from Daniel Ortega, the Castro brothers and every major union leader you can think of.