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United Methodists repeal longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy
AP News ^ | May 1st 2024 | PETER SMITH

Posted on 05/01/2024 12:34:47 PM PDT by Ennis85

United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.

Delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference — the first such legislative gathering in five years. That overwhelming margin contrasts sharply with the decades of controversy around the issue. Past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests, but many of the conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years, and this General Conference has moved in a solidly progressive direction.

Applause broke out in parts of the convention hall Wednesday after the vote. A group of observers from LGBTQ advocacy groups embraced, some in tears. “Thanks be to God,” said one.

The change doesn’t mandate or even explicitly affirm LGBTQ clergy, but it means the church no longer forbids them. It’s possible that the change will mainly apply to U.S. churches, since United Methodist bodies in other countries, such as in Africa, have the right to impose the rules for their own regions. The measure takes effect immediately upon the conclusion of General Conference, scheduled for Friday.

The consensus was so overwhelmingly that it was rolled into a “consent calendar,” a package of normally non-controversial measures.

“It seemed like such a simple vote, but it carried so much weight and power, as 50 years of restricting the Holy Spirit’s call on people’s lives has been lifted,” said Bishop Karen Oliveto, the first openly lesbian bishop in the United Methodist Church.

“People can live fully into their call without fear,” said Oliveto, of the Mountain Sky Episcopal Area, which includes Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. “The church we’ve loved has found a home

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: gaymarriage; homosexuality; lgbtq; unitedmethodists
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To: Dilbert San Diego
But, assuming the theology teaches that homosexuality is sinful Behavior, how can they be intellectually honest and allow homosexual clergy?

Leftism is a cult that infiltrates anywhere it can get its tentacles in. You can't reason with the cult. If you show them in the New Testament Bible the many places showing that their cult is wrong, they just argue back louder with their trite clichés.

Believe me. I know. Over a decade ago I learned that part of the donation money to the United Methodist church I was in went to lobbying arms to advocate for Moloch and hedonism (abortion and sexual immorality, including homosexuality). I asked our local church leaders what we could do to stop the general conference leaders to stop putting money to those causes from using the general budget money we sent the conference leaders. Every one of them, literally every one of them, fell into one of two camps: either ignored it, or argued heavily to me that everything the Dim party preaches takes precedence over God's Word.

21 posted on 05/01/2024 1:12:53 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Ennis85

UMC - breakaway fag church avoid like the plague any church with United Methodist Fags in the title


22 posted on 05/01/2024 1:13:29 PM PDT by NWFree (Sigma male 🤪)
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To: Ennis85

Is the UMC approving of active adulterers in such positions, as well?

How about animal screwers?


23 posted on 05/01/2024 1:15:23 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Ennis85

2 Thessalonians 1-6 KJV

1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

Another sign of the times, imo.


24 posted on 05/01/2024 1:17:03 PM PDT by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: Ennis85

next they will endorse “self-avowed practicing satanics” being ordained or appointed as ministers.


25 posted on 05/01/2024 1:17:42 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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To: MeganC

I dated a Methodist preachers daughter...he flat out said he did not believe in God. His role,he said, was more as a social director.


26 posted on 05/01/2024 1:21:24 PM PDT by Leep (Leftardism strikes 1 in 5.)
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To: Ennis85

Is the first openly lesbian bishop “married” and is this marriage recognized by the UMC? If so, I assume the UMC has determined through votes of bishops and delegates that Jesus was just wrong when he said a male and a female will be united in marriage. Matt 19:4-6. What next will the UMC determine that Jesus said was just wrong?


27 posted on 05/01/2024 1:28:10 PM PDT by ActresponsiblyinVA
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To: MeganC; UMCRevMom@aol.com

“The UMC is not a Christian faith. It is a pagan cult.” Meg post 3

Oh that is just so precious.


28 posted on 05/01/2024 1:33:55 PM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same. )
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To: Ennis85

They have succeeded in destroying the Protestant denominations as they were. It will now be interesting to see how long it takes them to bleed the “old” churches dry, and then start on the break-aways.


29 posted on 05/01/2024 1:40:42 PM PDT by Rlsau1
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To: ConservativeMind

>> Is the UMC approving of active adulterers in such positions, as well?

As a matter of fact... my understanding is that adulterers & fornicators in the pulpit IS on the agenda to approve this general conference.

>> How about animal screwers?

And polygamy? And pederasty? Not yet, not formally anyway. Won’t be long though.


30 posted on 05/01/2024 1:41:59 PM PDT by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: Ennis85

The United Methodists lost about 2,000 congregations last year. This will finish them off.


31 posted on 05/01/2024 1:43:28 PM PDT by odawg
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To: Darksheare; UMCRevMom@aol.com

“Oh that is just so precious.”

No, it is really quite tragic.


32 posted on 05/01/2024 1:47:38 PM PDT by MeganC ("Russians are subhuman" - posted by Kazan 8 March 2024)
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To: ActresponsiblyinVA

>> What next will the UMC determine that Jesus said was just wrong?

“I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by Me.”

I’m serious! The UMC accepts challenge to the very DIVINITY of the Christ! As well as denying His virgin birth and His bodily resurrection. They have tolerated such heresy in some locales even while “officially” declaring the truth.

But now, with the exit of 20% to 30% of their conservative congregations, they are poised to turn the UMC into a cesspool of official sin and death.


33 posted on 05/01/2024 1:53:55 PM PDT by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: Archie Bunker on steroids

Amen brother Archie!

Romans 1:27-29

27 and likewise the men, too, abandoned natural relations with women and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing shameful acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper, 29 people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are gossips,


34 posted on 05/01/2024 2:08:17 PM PDT by sevinufnine
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Decades? Likely for centuries. My father was a minister. Went to seminary in the late 50’s/early 60’s. He told me it was common knowledge then the Catholic church was a “hiding place for sodomites”. His exact words which he never minced.


35 posted on 05/01/2024 2:10:47 PM PDT by sevinufnine
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
Not true - at least not in most places. Indeed there have been some very publicized homo priests (usually in liberal dioceses where there is a liberal bishop). But most dioceses weed them out. Ours had one offender (an order priest not under the bishop's jurisdiction) and a priest who helped him evade arrest. That priest was sent to a remote monastery to live out his days in prayer and fasting - they caught the order priest and he was extradited back to the US, prosecuted and sent to prison.

What's more, our archbishop sent his vicar-general (essentially the bishop's knee-breaker) around to *every* priest in the diocese to warn them that any offender would be turned over to the police . . . at least what was left of him after the vicar-general got through with him (the VG was a bullet-headed Irishman with hands like concrete blocks and a grouchy temper.)

They get into the priesthood for the same reason Willie Horton robbed banks -

36 posted on 05/01/2024 2:12:08 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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To: odawg

Well, it will for those who believe the gospel message. BUT, the trend today is woke to accept all. It will thrive with those who are involved in that arena.


37 posted on 05/01/2024 2:13:26 PM PDT by sevinufnine
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To: Ennis85

While they were at it, did they include adulterers in their “clergy” are also fine? And those with “open” marriages, is that now fine for their “clergy”? What about those that are register sex offenders, those okay too in the “clergy”?

I understand everyone is a sinner, but those that are not repentant and not actively resisting sin, don’t see how they are valid candidates for “clergy”.

But, as others have pointed out, this really is not a Christian Church, it is more of a club or a cult or maybe just a regular social gathering.


38 posted on 05/01/2024 2:15:35 PM PDT by rigelkentaurus
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To: Ennis85

oh boy

grooming bible camp

cant be far off

and the drag queen sermons will be to die for


39 posted on 05/01/2024 2:20:36 PM PDT by joshua c
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To: 11th_VA

One small church near me that left the UMC has already doubled the size of its parking lot.


40 posted on 05/01/2024 2:23:25 PM PDT by bigbob
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