At the grassroots, schism is unpopular. A June poll, commissioned by a UMC agency, indicates that rank and file UMC members are opposed to a church schism over homosexuality. “We found that regardless of a person’s position on homosexuality, members felt strongly that the church could offer a positive and different voice to the broader conversation occurring in society today,” said John Deuterman, president of Corporate Research, which conducted the survey for the UMC Communications agency.
“They overwhelmingly reject the idea that the disagreements over this issue were justification for splitting the church.”
Nothing definitive is likely to occur before 2016. That’s the year the UMC will convene in Portland, Oregon, its next General Convention””the legislative body of the global church with authority to speak for the entire denomination.
It would be nice to see a link to the poll itself and the who, what, and where of the people polled and the actual questions responded to. Reading into the UM Communication’s-written article on the poll that is linked in this article on CT’s site, one could have easily concluded that 90% think that homosexuality and same-gender (sic) marraige is a non-issue because the question was answered long ago rather than because no one cares. But I’m not a UMC-paid spin doctor.
Given the TEc Playbook and time, YES.
Well, one objective, reliable observer would be IRD’s Mark Tooley. As a Methodist, Tooley knows the situation from the inside, and his vast network of contacts across the UMC gives him a credible voice.
Of course, in the end, Maxie Dunham of Asbury Seminary is right. The real schism has already taken place, because where there is widespread heresy and rebellion against the Church’s Tradition, there is already schism. Not just latent schism, but actual schism, even if that tragic break is hidden under a thin veneer of institutional unity.
#2 is right, as usual. It’s the same old same old ploy by the “progressive” side. We Anglicans are all too familiar with it. For too long, we have acted as if a superficial and ultimately meaningless institutional unity mattered more than real unity, which is grounded in a common commitment to the truth.
Like the global Anglican Communion, the UMC, an international body, is unfortunately “a house divided against itself.” It can’t, and won’t, stand.
But it’s not the specific issue of same sex marriage that is “destroying” the UMC. That’s only the symptom of a much deeper problem. The real problem is that large numbers of UMC leaders, both ordained and lay, have predictably taken the course of least resistance and caved in to the powerful antinomian and relativistic social currents of our time.
For Methodists as well as Anglicans, Lutherans, and Presbyerians, etc., Matthew 7:13-14 remains valid and urgently needs to be heeded. The call to all faithful would-be followers of Christ is the same today as it has always been. “[I]Enter by the narrow gate…[/I]”
Davbid Handy+