United Methodist Church Delegates Defy Church Rules to Elect First Openly Gay Bishop
“A rift has emerged in the United Methodist Church after delegates in the Western Jurisdictional Conference defied the Church’s prohibition of homosexuality on Friday to elect the Rev. Karen Oliveto as its first openly gay bishop.”
“Instead, these conferences have moved ahead with legislative enactments pledging non-conformity with the Book of Discipline, culminating in the election of a practicing homosexual as bishop. If the Western Jurisdiction wanted to push the church to the brink of schism, they could not have found a more certain way of doing so.” -Rev. Rob Renfroe, president of Good News, in response to the Western Jurisdiction election.
http://goodnewsmag.org/2016/07/western-jurisdiction-elects-karen-olivet…
David R. Brumbelow
…it appears that the United Methodists have successfully excised any latent pietism in their ranks. Or, probably more accurately, replaced the old pietism that rejected adultery, fornication, and drunkenness with a new pietism that endorses the majority view on climatology and the like.
Seriously, I grew up Methodist, and this just saddens me. Granted, it’s been coming for about 150 years in the UMC and its predecessor denominations, but this is just sad. The circuit riders didn’t wear themselves and their horses out for this.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion