United Methodism’s General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) in its membership counts will start including a category for “non-binary” church members and clergy who don’t identify as male or female. At least one clergy, who is biologically female, identifies as non-binary.
The denomination’s governing Book of Discipline does not acknowledge the status of non-binary. But because there’s no specific prohibition, GCFA is moving forward, effectively aligning with transgender ideology, which claims gender is self-selected instead of biological.
This latest move illustrates why United Methodism is moving toward schism, which likely will be ratified at the next governing General Conference on August 29-September 6, 2022, in Minneapolis.
But does United Methodism really need to wait another year for what is inevitable? And does our church need an over $10 million 9-day gathering that disenfranchises dozens of Africans delegates who typically can’t get visas?
The Council of Bishops could schedule an online General Conference specifically to vote on the widely supported Protocol for Separation. Technical difficulties may preclude full participation in the conversation by some. But a mail ballot will enable fuller participation in voting than does a physical General Conference.
Millions of church dollars and many thousands of human hours would be saved. Needless potential acrimony would be avoided. Everybody would be empowered to move forward into their preferred new church communities.
Why wait? The bishops should act now. Let’s encourage them to do so.
Comment by Jeff on June 29, 2021 at 2:53 am
>> The bishops should act now. Let’s encourage them to do so.
To hell with the heretic UMC bishops. Literally.
The lay people should act now. Leave the open-sore pus factory that is the UMC! I encourage you to do so.
Or, stay behind in a tribe of malignant losers like Tooley who can’t even figure out who is the God-anointed and God-fearing candidate for US president, and who is the poseur put forward by satan. Tooley and his ilk gave us Josef Stolen. How’s that working out for the Kingdom? Inquiring minds should want to know.
Comment by Pat on June 29, 2021 at 8:53 am
Mark, is the delay intentional? A concern of mine is the longer the delay, the more difficult it will be for withdrawal from the UMC if that is the local churches decision and traditional Methodists, hanging on, will give up and move to other traditional churches not part of the UMC and make it much more difficult for the new Global Methodist Church take root. Your thoughts please.
Comment by Please no on June 29, 2021 at 9:00 am
Jeff,
Please take a day off work and go somewhere to relax and consider how good the day is.
This is just another intolerable act by the woke bureaucrats, one among many. It’s disgusting. But your solution makes everything worse. Sure, tear apart local UM churches with active ministry and doing what God wants them to do by a scorched-earth campaign, that will fix everything.
Look, Christians have always had divisions, sometimes very serious ones that included bloodshed. If we have to wait for the General Conference we have to wait. Rushing the process will give opponents a reason to back out and defeat the agreement, and then it’s a legal mess instead of a peaceful resolution. For many churches that want to join the Global Methodist Church the vote after the General conference will be a very hard one. Leaving now just makes everything worse.
Comment by Dan on June 29, 2021 at 9:26 am
So check out this piece from the Babylon Bee. It is meant to be satire, but when I read it I felt it accurately describes the UMC. So sad.
https://babylonbee.com/news/progressive-church-bravely-adopts-all-the-positions-popular-in-modern-society
Comment by Tom on June 29, 2021 at 3:49 pm
Mark knows that the bishops do not have the authority to bring this legislation to the General Conference. And there are no provisions within the Book of Discipline that allows for people to be disenfranchised in the discussion and perfecting of a particular piece of legislation.
I know that we are all frustrated by the delay that we are suffering because of the pandemic. Perhaps this is God’s way of telling us to be still.
Comment by Tracy on June 29, 2021 at 6:56 pm
Delay no longer. This is just another nail in the coffin of what used to be Methodist. Each day I grow more embarrassed to be associated with this bunch. We are to be concerned about pleasing God, not the so called “woke” people. Sodom & Gomorrah had nothing on what is happening in the world today, specifically the US.
Comment by Michael on June 30, 2021 at 12:16 am
You will have a denomination, if you can keep it. My worry is that with such a huge revenue loss, the same hyper left professors who corrupt the existing UMC seminaries will flood to any traditional seminaries. Using the same infiltration methods as last time until they once again wield power, they will force history to repeat itself.
What seminaries will you have in place, and what guards will they have to prevent Deja Vu.
Comment by Wayne on June 30, 2021 at 5:15 pm
The GREAT Bible teacher David Pawson said it best…….”The church follows society downhill 15 years behind”
Although now it seems more like only 5-10 years behind.
Comment by Joan Wesley on July 2, 2021 at 10:04 am
And just maybe this clear indicator of where the UMC is headed will be the eye opener some local congregations need.
Comment by Mike on July 2, 2021 at 5:52 pm
I agree with Mark that it would be best for EVERYONE (except Institutionalists, Bishops and conference and national/denominational staff) to vote on the Protocol sooner rather than later. I suspect there is little we can do to force the Bishops’ hand into calling a special, “virtual” General Conference to get this done. It would take great pressure from leaders on all sides of our church to make the Bishops act.
Our bureaucracy, at this point, is our enemy.
Comment by Anon on May 7, 2022 at 4:19 pm
Didn’t you guys already vote– and didn’t the insane wokie fanatics and drag queens already lose..?? But never forget— They DO NOT and WILL NOT ever accept losing. They accept nothing short of total world domination at all costs. They do not play well with others, and will never accept a compromise of any kind.
Can’t you all see what’s happening..?? They are just filibustering the vote until the older generation dies off. They don’t want to create anything.. they just want to take over someone else’s thing.. and get the money, the assets, the buildings. Then they will squander everything, destroy everything, run it all into the ground. Because– that is what they do. They are PARASITES in the true meaning of the word.
This is part of an overall plot in the West to replace any idea of a higher being, liberty, free thought, national or cultural pride, etc.. with shame and a worship of gender-confusion and woke mind rot.
You could play by the rules and vote a million times and it will not stop the self-obsessed, gender-confused bullies from trying to infiltrate you and crush you. Once they have targeted you– that’s it. It’s over!
In fact– I am quite sure they will bully their way into the Globalist church and spend all their time continuing to attack you all there. So that’s the point…? Don’t you see..??
It’s NOT having their own church that they want– if it was, they would have started their own a long time ago! They want to TAKE OVER and DOMINATE and ELIMINATE you!
Might as well jump ship and go start a whole new church…. your so-called ‘leaders’ and corrupt now anyway. Maybe it’s for the best that a top-heavy church with so much bureaucracy is now crumbling..? Is it about the huge, beautiful castles that people can no longer afford to maintain, or is it about your relationship with God..? Seems to me the ‘leaders’ have long been out of touch with what they people want anyway. They have turned into a Democratic-run socio-political activist network. Diversity of opinions is NOT allowed! (So much for ‘celebrating diversity’!)
Or better yet.. just get back to the focus on your actual personal spirituality and let go of the idea of using the church as a social club. At least then the psychos can’t get inside your mind. Not yet, anyway…