Posted on 04/03/2023 10:44:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
More than 180 congregations in Georgia have filed a lawsuit after their regional body of the United Methodist Church refused to allow them to disaffiliate amid a denominational schism over homosexuality.
Last week, 186 churches filed a lawsuit against the UMC North Georgia Conference in Superior Court in Cobb County over the conference's decision last December to prohibit any more congregations from leaving amid a denominational schism over homosexuality.
The Wesleyan Covenant Association of North Georgia, an unofficial conservative advocacy group that helped conservative churches form the Global Methodist Church breakaway denomination, released a statement explaining that the decision to sue comes "with a heavy heart."
"We recognize that taking legal action against the UMC is a drastic step," the WCA of North Georgia stated. "Be assured that every possible option has been explored to avoid this moment."
"We trust that this present course will restore the process so we all can continue on this journey toward disaffiliation. … God has got this, friends, and he will see us through."
North Georgia Conference Bishop Robin Dease said in a statement that her "heart aches" over the congregations' decision to file the legal action.
"While we review the lawsuit with the appropriate counsel, we will refrain from sharing details, however, we are familiar with the issues. Similarly, a lawsuit has been filed against the conference and its leadership by a church in Augusta," Dease stated.
"I affirm my commitment to honor and uphold the Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, to be the best United Methodist bishop I can be, and to faithfully co-labor with you as we fulfill the mission of the Church."
The North Georgia Conference announced in December that it was putting a "pause" on the disaffiliation process, claiming that "any local churches have been misled about the disaffiliation process and have been presented with information about the process."
"We have significant concerns about this misinformation and are well aware that it has the potential to do irreparable harm," stated the conference at the time. "We do not have confidence in the validity of upcoming church conference disaffiliation votes."
The conference further argued the pause in disaffiliations "will allow churches to gain more information about the real, rather than the false or hypothetical, future of our church."
In June 2022, before the disaffiliation pause, 70 congregations representing 9% of the conference's churches and 3% of its members disaffiliated from the UMC.
In 2022, over 1,800 churches had their disaffiliation votes approved by their respective conferences. The disaffiliations come in large part amid the denomination's ongoing debate on whether to allow the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of people in same-sex romantic relationships.
Although the UMC Book of Discipline currently bans both practices, many progressive clergy have refused to enforce the rules, and theological liberals within the UMC have engaged in a yearslong unsuccessful effort to change the denomination's stance. Some progressive denominational leaders have refused to follow or enforce the denominational rules on LGBT issues.
In announcing the disaffiliation pause, the UMC North Georgia Conference refuted "Church leaders communicating that North Georgia Conference leadership is not following the Book of Discipline."
"In fact, the North Georgia Annual Conference and its leaders have taken no actions in conflict with the Book of Discipline," the statement read.
The conservative alternative to the UMC known as the Global Methodist Church was launched last year, with several hundreds of UMC congregations voting to join the new denomination. The launch came as the UMC announced that it would delay its General Conference meeting to 2024, the third time the General Conference was postponed since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Delegates were expected to negotiate a denominational split.
While many congregations have been allowed to disaffiliate, others have faced financial roadblocks or have had their disaffiliation votes outright denied, which has led to several lawsuits impacting various conferences.
Sounds very much like the internecine warfare in the episcopal church, where millions have been wasted on legal bills trying to keep the faithful churches in the sinking ship of TEC. Hint: It’s all about money.
"The church also urges congregations to advocate for laws that prevent or reduce gun violence, such as:
Universal background checks on all gun purchases
Ensuring all guns are sold through licensed gun retailers
Prohibiting gun purchases for those under restraining order due to threat of violence and those with serious mental illness who pose a danger to themselves and their communities
Ensuring greater access to services for those with mental illness
Establishing a minimum age of 21 years for a gun purchase or possession
Banning large capacity ammunition magazines and weapons
Promoting new technologies to aid law-enforcement agencies to trace crime guns and promote public safety"
This is in part a lie:
“congregations from leaving amid a denominational schism over homosexuality”
No, it is not about “homosexuality”.
This, form the same report, is the more truthful statement:
“The disaffiliations come in large part amid the denomination’s ongoing debate on whether to allow the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of people in same-sex romantic relationships.”
From the Methodist traditionalist perspective, to say the issue was about “homosexuality” one would think the congregations were going to go into the lives of all congregants and chase “gays” as well as adulterers and other moral sinners out their doors. Which no one thinks is the case. It is not about whether the sinner sits in church (we are all sinners and fall short of God’s commandments). It is about what role(s) in the church do true believers give to those admitting to living in sin with no repentence or change to be expected for it.
The hate that is spread about traditionalist (biblical) Christians is that they most of all understand that God does not “hate” the sinner (and neither does the true Christian) but does hate the sin. What God “feels” towards the sinner is love, compassion and hope for the sinner’s redemption from sin. It is the anti-Christians that are full of hate.
Surely, you do not expect the opponents to do anything other than lie?
It is going to have to come down to those sitting in the church simply getting up and meeting somewhere else — no money to the overlords. either the overlords can continue to pay fees and such for an empty building or accept the transfer of the asset to the departing folk.
This is like a boycott, only much more impactful.
Even fag churches disguised as Christians can’t force their sodomy on me
They’re no better than corrupt libtards
They will find in court that the Methodist church owns the land and buildings. They have their walking shoes
This is a problem in other states too.
hmmm... so if you change a religion, change the rules to leave so that you can still call it THAT religion and not have to start your own stuff.
and call them bigots for leaving. and hate them for trying to leave.
One brother of mine and his wife disaffiliated in SE Texas last year.
My other brother / wife are voting to disaffiliate in a couple of weeks in north Louisiana.
They both clearly state it is lack of any interest in following the Book of Discipline by the leadership hierarchy.
Go woke, go broke.
If Satan were to arrive on the scene and promise to fund the pensions of liberal Methodist pastors, they would give him their fealty.
Maybe.
OTOH the courts might find that the Book of Discipline is a type of contract that the UMC is following selectively.
Question -did you find out from the judge what he/she will rule?
Yep.
Homosexuals and the champions fighting for them?
Rather tares demanding they get their way rather than leave to play church elsewhere.
It is about so much more than the ordination of queers. It is about the secularization of the episcopacy.
The episcopal have already been through this
Ever heard of Harry Emerson Fosdick? He and his fellow so-called “modernists” before, with and after him (though nothing is modern about their denial of sound doctrine) have been lurking wherever they can get for many years.
He already has.
Yep. I studied at Boston U Seminary and was trained in Philosophy by Dr. Steinkraus, a Phd at the same school. Know Fosdick well and you are correct. This was started as a serious intellectual study but it turned into an ideologically purist tyranny by the 70’s. The effect of Harvard Divinity school and Crane Theological school at Tufts U were instrumental in bringing about this change.
“The hate that is spread about traditionalist (biblical) Christians is that they most of all understand that God does not “hate” the sinner (and neither does the true Christian) but does hate the sin. What God “feels” towards the sinner is love, compassion and hope for the sinner’s redemption from sin. It is the anti-Christians that are full of hate.”
Well said.
It also does not stop with the push to ordain homosexuals or allow clergy to marry mam to man or woman to woman. The Grace of God is totally absent in this removal of Scripture as primacy within Wesley Quadrilateral as source of faith. Some ‘ordained’ UMC clergy question Jesus as Son of God, etc.
The United Methodist Church just crossed a serious line. Is it surprising? Unfortunately, no.
Earlier this month, the United Methodist Church’s Western Jurisdiction elected the first “openly partnered gay bishop” in the 13-million-member global church’s history.
Her name is Karen Oliveto of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco. Even though the denomination, unlike some other mainline churches, has not changed its official teaching on what a marriage is, Oliveto’s legal union to another woman in California was no barrier to her ascension in the church hierarchy. Anyone paying attention knows why.
“The fact is, no denomination, pastor, or church embraces so-called “same-sex marriage” without already having abandoned biblical orthodoxy. The great G.K. Chesterton once said, “Heresy always affects morality, if it’s heretical enough.” https://www.christianpost.com/cartoon/is-the-methodist-church-sailing-into-heresy.html
Our church voted today to disaffiliate from the UMC. It is all about money, power and control. Some clergy are not handling or sharing the information completely with the membership... loss of pension?
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