United Methodist Church lifts bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings [May 1, 2024]

[Einbroch]

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/01/1248468256/united-methodist-church-lifts-bans-on-lgbtq-clergy-and-same-sex-weddings

The United Methodist Church, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., has voted to repeal its ban on LGBTQ clergy as well as prohibitions on its' ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings.

Delegates overwhelmingly approved the changes, 692 to 51, during the United Methodist Church's General Conference.

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Shortly after the vote today in Charlotte, spontaneous celebrations erupted on the conference center floor. Hundreds of people began cheering and singing. One of the hymn lyrics distinguishable in the crowd was, "You are a child, you are a child of God."

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Great news. I know religion gets a bad rep, and deservedly so, but really glad to see my hometown church in small-town USA joining the present day.

Some context: The Methodist Church "split" last year, with conservative chuds mad that the church was going too woke or some shit. About a quarter left. Who cares, good riddance, fuck 'em.

A personal story: My mom, who used to be very staunchly anti-LGBTQ+, texted me this story with a "YES!!!". People can change, and so can organizations.

 

[ratcliffja]

I grew up United Methodist, though I'd consider myself more nondenominational now. That's outstanding news.

 

[kamineko]

That's great. A bunch of people left the Episcopal church when they made this change, but some awesome people joined up, too. At least that's how it was in my town.

 

[Allard]

My Aunt used to be a Methodist minister and basically hated this ban with a passion. While I don't know if she is happy for the change taking so long, she would definitely say it was about damn time.

 

[TaySan]

Awesome news and a step forward

 

[Volimar]

Seems to have been pretty overwhelming which is in line with the few Methodists I know, who skew pretty socially liberal.

 

[echoshifting]

I have noticed the Methodist church booths at pride festivals for awhile now, and spoken to some of them. They've clearly been eager for this change. I'm happy for them, and this will make me likelier to approach them in the future. At my local festival last year, there was one that had a big "FREE APOLOGIES" sign, but I wasn't about to fuck with that when they didn't support equal rights

 

[TissueBox]

Very nice.

 

[fragamemnon]

Some context: The Methodist Church "split" last year, with conservative chuds mad that the church was going too woke or some shit. About a quarter left. Who cares, good riddance, fuck 'em.

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The reason for the split is that you had theological (not political) conservatives put preaching the Gospel, evangelism and Christ's divinity (and all that entails!) - literally the basic ecumenical creeds - as a baseline key mark of the church. You had theological liberals in opposition, who challenge the truthfulness of the traditional interpretations of the Bible, often in indirect or direct opposition to those creeds.

My point is that the cultural and political differences cited here are the product of that theological disagreement, and the theological differences are at the root of the split. Wokeness didn't really play a big factor, unless you extend wokeness to include theological liberals applying critical deconstruction to the Bible, which definitely did contribute to the split.

 

[Melody Shreds]

Seems to have been pretty overwhelming which is in line with the few Methodists I know, who skew pretty socially liberal.

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I think its partly to do with most of the conservatives having already left the church.

 

[ryan13ts]

Awesome news.