Posted on 03/31/2018 4:56:10 AM PDT by Morgana
A Mississippi United Methodist Church recently voted to leave its denomination, in part, because of the denomination’s position on abortion.
In the past, the United Methodist Church has been affiliated with the pro-abortion group Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and some of its pastors continue to support pro-abortion causes.
The denomination does not describe abortion as a sin, either. Its position statement describes abortion as a “complex” issue. It says: “Our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us reluctant to approve abortion. But we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother and the unborn child.”
Concerns about abortion and other issues prompted the First United Methodist Church of Louisville to vote to leave the denomination Sunday in a 175-6 vote, The Clarion Ledger reports.
According to the report:
“While our church will no longer be a member of the United Methodist denomination, it will continue to be a Christ-centered church that is faithful to the Scriptures and the theology of (Methodism founder) John Wesley,” [the Rev. Mike] Childs said. “It will forever be a Methodist church but not a United Methodist church.” …
Several factors played into the Louisville church’s decision to leave, Childs said, but congregants largely felt the denomination had strayed from the teachings of the Bible and the United Methodist Book of Discipline.
Childs said their vote was a matter of conscience. He assured people that the church will remain a welcoming place, saying he serves a “very loving and welcoming congregation.” He also told the newspaper that the church must accept “the authority of the Scripture.”
The United Methodist Church has not condemned the violence of abortion. However, in 2016, its national conference did make an encouraging move by voting to end its relationship with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a pro-abortion group.
Doesn’t this local church have to pay a great deal of money to the United Methodist body of MS?
>>Doesn’t this local church have to pay a great deal of money to the United Methodist body of MS?
Only if they want to keep the property. All church property belongs to the Conference in the UMC. You can vote to leave, but legally, all you can take with you is the people.
Even the pastor belongs to the Conference and is not a church member.
The Muzzies have no closer ally than liberal Christian churches.
What took them so long?
..............................................
7. For United Methodist congregations to display signs that prohibit carrying guns onto church property.
8. For United Methodist congregations to advocate at the local and national level for laws that prevent or reduce gun violence. Some of those measures include:
• Universal background checks on all gun purchases
• Ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty
• Ensuring all guns are sold through licensed gun retailers
• Prohibiting all individuals convicted of violent crimes from purchasing a gun for a fixed time period
• Prohibiting all individuals under restraining order due to threat of violence from purchasing a gun
• Prohibiting persons with serious mental illness, who pose a danger to themselves and their communities, from purchasing a gun
• Ensuring greater access to services for those suffering from mental illness
• Establishing a minimum age of 21 years for a gun purchase or possession
• Banning large-capacity ammunition magazines and weapons designed to fire multiple rounds each time the trigger is pulled
• Promoting new technologies to aid law-enforcement agencies to trace crime guns and promote public safety.
ADOPTED 2016
The signals to leave the old mainline (really, now quite fringey, leftist, aging, anti-Bible and dying off) denominations began nearly a century ago.
The tragedy is that the vast majority of Methodists don’t agree with ANY of these positions. The. general Conference is still able to stack the deck.
Several years ago a small country Methodist Church decided to do the same thing. They had pooled their resources to upgrade the church since it was a landmark in the area. . .over 100 years old. Using their own money, they did this. However, when they did informed the council or whoever that they were withdrawing because of where their money was going nationally (as in anti-God social issues), they couldn’t financially buy it back. . .a church that they themselves built and basically rebuilt. A person from the Methodist headquarters laughed and told them they would rather see it turn into a Racoon Hunters’ hangout than let them have it. They folded.
Just asking........
Good.
Ping!
Not only abortion (as a form of controlling family size or birth out of wedlock), but also all forms of contraception toward the same goal, IIRC.
When I finally switched over from what the UMC has become to a Bible-believing church and heard the pastor speak openly against abortion, cohabitation, extramarital sex, birth control and homosexual behavior, I about fell out of my pew. Only sorry I waited so long to pull the ripcord.
May God bless this congregation who wants to profess as the Wesleys and as Jesus Christ intended.
I don’t say anything against thise who leave. The denomination will probably split in 2019 and carry it out in 2020. The talks are ongoing now. It would help to have those conservative votes for 2 more years.
Some of us are the plants and some are the seeds that are carried elsewhere by water, wind and birds.
I hope the split works out this time, as in the past the renegade gay-promoters were asked to leave and start their own, but their choice is always to corrupt the host, not to follow their own beliefs. May God bless this endeavor and help it to succeed. And I very much hope the apostates are not allowed to call themselves "Methodists."
you are under severe trials of faith. How is your journey, FRiend?
I think the denomination is going to change. I have no idea which group will keep the name UMC. I’m not sure it’s a good name to start with.
The current situation appears to suggest 3 groups: (1) Those who want full LGBTQxyz, (2) those who want each church to decided pastor by pastor whether they are LGBTQxyz (actually the same as (1) if you think about it, and (3) those that want a traditional, historic Christian Methodist Church.
Personally, I’m now fully retired and in no pulpit anyplace. I attend a UMC with one son, a Catholic with a different son, and an SBC with a daughter.
I shouldn’t be in a search mode at my age, but I am. That is a cause of sadness to me, but God will bring us through.
Any advice?
The lefties are able to wrangle themselves into the top tiers of any organization and destroy it from within.
If I were in your shoes and got the option of a UMC-C ("Conservative") which was really the church I great up in, I would stick to that (I'm not particularly adventurous)
As a person who's debated with you for years (must be nigh on 11 years now), I would also suggest perhaps a pilgramage to the Holy land, perhaps also praying with the Orthodox, the Orientals, the Copts
Let's pray that #3 does happen
My problem with staying in methodism is the likelihood that there is something systemically wrong with it, that any new body will succumb to the same flaw in the next generation or so.
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