Schismatic Methodists Abandon Tradition

The New York Times today reported that dissolution and separation had been suggested by conservatives at the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church in answer to persistent disputes with liberals over questions of homosexuality and scriptural inerrancy. The Times report is worth mentioning only because it is so poorly written and so clearly demonstrates the Time’s willingness to play with words and logic to advance it’s post-Christian and politically correct agenda.

The Times wrote that, “Although a schism is far from imminent or sure, the proposal is an indication that Methodist conservatives intend to use the gay issue as a wedge to precipitate a fracture, just as they have in the Episcopal Church USA, in which some churches are now forming a rival network.” I am sure that the Times does not believe that conservative Methodists are responsible for problems in the Episcopal Church- one wonders what the writer was drinking when he wrote this sentence, and the editor when he overlooked it.

Setting aside questions of grammatical incompetence, the Times’ agenda shines forth in the next sentence, “In nearly every mainline Protestant denomination, from the Presbyterian Church USA to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, conservatives are mounting increasingly organized challenges to churches long associated with theological diversity and liberal causes.” If we are to believe the Times, theological liberals who suggest that scripture is not inerrant, and that homosexuality is compatible with scripture, are guardians of denominational tradition, while conservatives are on the attack against those same hallowed traditions.

This argument is nonsensical. Protestant tradition and doctrine has hundreds of years of history behind it, and save for the past thirty years, all of that tradition aligns with the conservative arguments on scripture and homosexuality. Late in the article the Times betrays its sophism in writing, “In multiple votes on gay issues at the conference here, the nearly 1,000 delegates have consistently opposed changing their church doctrine to include acceptance of gay sex or openly gay ministers.” Losers in a voting process represent the minority, not the majority. The doctrine of any religious body is held in the majority, not the minority. Liberals are challenging long standing church traditions, not conservatives.

The self-righteousness of the politically correct left is to be found in the logic of the Times, and in the behavior those responsible for driving the Methodist Church toward schism. The Times wrote, “After losing several critical votes this week, hundreds of gay clergy members and lay people and their supporters paraded through the convention hall today singing the Methodist hymn, "We are the church."” They are not the church, but the will be a church, separate and distinct from the Methodist Church, if they succeed in abandoning scripture and tradition.