More than 4,000 congregations have left the United Methodist Church (UMC) this year over its support for LGBTQ+ ideology.
“According to UM News, the official news-gathering agency of the UMC, 4,645 churches officially split from the UMC so far this year. That is more than double the number of churches that left in the previous year (2,003) and almost 10 times the number in 2021 (486),” according to a report by Catholic News Agency.
Just last weekend, 60 congregations left the UMC in Michigan, 250 in Kentucky and this week 4,876 Methodist churches completed the process to break away from the UMC.
“We absolutely believe that the United Methodist Church is drifting day by day ever more progressive,” Jay Therrell, president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association said. “We have bishops all across the globe who are completely violating the Book of Discipline. They are allowing all sorts of things to happen that violate various paragraphs, much of it to do with human sexuality.”
From Breitbart:
The infighting over LGBTQ+ issues “erupted in full force in 2019” after the General Conference of the UMC debated whether to promote homosexuality in the church. While the idea was scrapped 53 percent to 46 percent in favor of promoting traditional marriage and heterosexuality, the UMC still “steered the church toward the left on key social issues such as LGBTQ+ ideology,” the report states. The UMC’s website reportedly states that “Everyone is welcome to worship and actively participate in the life of our churches” and that “laypersons may become members and live out their faith through their local church without respect to sexual orientation or practice.” The website also reportedly states that the denomination may shift its teaching on LGBTQ+ issues in the future.
