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UMC Losing Their Religion
“God is nothing,” the self-described “dragavangelist” repeats throughout the poem, adding, “the Bible is nothing” and “religion is nothing.” In the end, he concludes God and the Bible are nothing “unless we wield it into something.”
“God must be f***ing nothing,” he says, “if her boundaryless, transubstantiated bodies of color are run down, beaten, and strewn in the streets of America instead of ruling the runways of life.”
He speaks of God not as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but rather as the source of queerness, describing him as “nothing but a drag queen with a microphone of biblical f***ing proportions,” “nothing, but if she were, she would be ‘yes, queen’-ing her way down the runways of Paris and Montreal,” and “nothing, but if she were, she would be a seamstress of divide couture, weaving together string theory and self portraits to form the fiercest gowns of queer existence.”
What this poem actually means is “God is Me, and the Things That I Like.” It’s edgy and transgressive, and something I am sure AWFLs would applaud were it read to children in a public library story hour. Shocking the normals is the height of modern artistic expression, but it’s not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I was raised in the United Methodist Church. I left when I went to college, experienced other denominations, and realized the UMC had taught me really nothing of the gospel except “be nice to each other.” That’s certainly a message of the gospel, but Saturday morning cartoons basically had the same message. (Except for the good ones, like the old Warner Bros stuff.) And this thing isn’t even “be nice to each other.” It’s “look at me, then look at me some more” and “celebrate deviance.”
The UMC, like a lot of mainline protestant denominations, have decided they want to be worldly, not eternal. They rationalize it by saying, “a strong gospel message would alienate the young people; we need to get them into the pews. And then we will teach them to be nice to each other.” The thing is, when a church isn’t offering anything other than the same social justice message as the mainstream media, what’s even the point? The church should be a refuge from this worldly nonsense.
“My faith and my understanding of God calls me to be a part of that; to be a part of change-making and to be a part of creating spaces where everyone, regardless of their identities [or] orientations, can be and exist without even an inkling of ‘Am I welcomed here?’”
Pretty much what every radical queer teacher says to justify teaching six year olds about all the flavors of sexual identity, but invoking God instead of ‘teaching.’
And if we’re going to be really harsh and honest, the lifestyle this individual is celebrating is spiritually and often physically destructive. The mainstream media goes out of their way to sanitize it, but the promiscuous “queer” sexual fringe is fraught with psychological dysfunction, drug abuse, venereal diseases, violence (most from other practitioners of the culture, not bigots), and self-destructive behavioral pathologies. Because if one’s religion is centered on being as transgressive and deviant from mainstream cultures as possible, and mainstream culture is making every effort to embrace your deviance, you have to push ever further to stay on the edge.
In reality, the most transgressive thing a person can do is be religiously observant and live the gospel. That’s been true for about 2,000 years now.
Update: I found this video through the Daily Wire. “Queer holiness” seems to be his schtick because he’s actually not very good at speaking.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
I agree with your comments.
“Acceptance is good” is an oversimplification. I wrote that line as a lead-in to my larger point – that all should be welcome, but don’t sacrifice your beliefs to keep them in the pews. If they are not sincere about repenting for their sins (especially as outlined by whatever faith/congregation that they are in), they should go, or as you say, be shown the door.
But that is what is happening in the UMC. Again, as I understand it, the progressives, who manifestly do NOT believe what the UMC has taught for many, many years, are forcing out the conservatives and will keep the UMC name. The conservatives will have to come up with another name.
And again, I fear that this will happen to the Roman Catholic Church. At some point, I will still be Catholic, but I may have to call myself something else.
And again, I fear that this will happen to the Roman Catholic Church. At some point, I will still be Catholic, but I may have to call myself something else.
@Tim
Hold up there Tim. Doesn’t G-d prevent the Church from teaching wrong doctrine?
Here I was hoping that the “United Methodist Church” was a minor sect, but Wikipedia tells me that’s not the case.
I know some of it. The UMC is governed by a thing called the Book of Discipline; in that book are prohibitions on homosexual ministry candidates and same sex weddings. Both of those have been openly violated, mostly in districts where the Bishop is inclined to ignore them (like a DA that chooses not to prosecute).
At the 2019 General Conference, the ‘rainbow crowd’ hoped they had enough votes to formally remove these parts and make it official. But they lost that vote with help on the conservative side from delegates from outside the US.
This dichotomy has existed since the 1970s. In the last decade, a group of conservatives got together and held meetings to decide how to proceed if they lost the critical vote on sexual behavior. As each year passed, it became clearer that the conservatives would leave if they could work it out. Finally they formed the shell of what they call the Global Methodist Church which will receive churches that disaffiliate from the UMC. A few individual churches have already disaffiliated.
Two General Conference dates got cancelled due to Covid. I don’t recall if there is going to be one this year, or 2023.
Part of what might be voted on there is a provision for a ‘graceful exit’. Like other denominations, the UMC wants your property if you leave. But there was negotiation of a less painful exit, which has an expiration date. All this was supposed to have been figured out in the cancelled meetings, so it’s up in the air because votes have not been taken.
The next couple years will be eventful in the UMC.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) split isn’t to happen until 2024, although some congregations and individuals are already aligning with one or the other of what is supposed to be the two resulting denominations. The recently retired Bishop for our district (the regional governing body; I’m in north central Texas) resigned his UMC credentials so that he can become active in the new Global Methodist Church (which will be the “conservative” branch). As seems to happen most of the time, the “liberals” get to claim the shell of the institution (the UMC), but then gut the content. Most obvious in churches and universities (see Harvard, Yale, etc.). The Spectator article linked in the main post has some more information on the planned split. A lot of details have yet to be worked out.
Practical issues end up having large importance in a denominational split, notably pastor pension obligations and church property (real estate). Our congregation will not be taking up the matter for a few more months, as our pastor is on sabbatical right now. He is very Biblically sound, and not particularly interested in following cultural winds (he spent many years in college ministry explaining to college students why they should wait until marriage to have sex, so he’s not afraid to go against the cultural winds of the day), so I have confidence he will guide us well. I am not looking forward to the split, as we were heavily involved in a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation when that denomination largely blew apart in 2012-16. I still see information from the PC(USA) denomination, and its interests and pronouncements look more like a political organization than an organization interested in glorifying God and saving souls. In the Methodist church, the “liberals” seem determined to let culture and not Christ dominate the church, and won’t rest until they succeed, so a split becomes inevitable.
I am hopeful that a Methodist split may avoid disaster because there seems to be a dominant destination for the “conservative” congregations. In the Presbyterian split, the “conservative” congregations scattered to multiple new denominations, and many congregations lost their facilities, and so did not have resources to present a strong message to the world. In the falling apart of the Episcopal Church, the denomination was already so small that post split it was hard for anybody to have enough resources to survive. Almost every Episcopal church in the area in which I live closed after the “conservatives” left, and very few of the new “conservative” congregations could pull together enough resources to survive. Our Methodist congregation did rescue a pipe organ from one of the Episcopal church buildings literally days before the building was to be demolished (with the organ still in it).
I think Ricochetti @philo has inside connections in the UMC denomination.
I have found it amusingly ironic that the chief opposition to, as you call it, the “rainbow crowd,” comes from Africa. The same people who populate the “rainbow crowd” normally are all for anything “Africa,” but then it turns out that African Christians are pretty conservative on social issues.
Just about anybody can call themselves a church. But if you depart from Christian doctrine, then you aren’t a church at all, not in God’s eyes, and God is the one who counts.
I’m a little surprised (but just a little) by this, because my understanding is that the national body of the UMC has taken a conservative turn. I do know that the reactions of various UMC congregations have varied greatly.
Missouri Synod Lutherans have stood firm. We have gained several members from the RCC, and a few from the local UMC, for doctrinal reasons.
Maybe a decade ago a RCC friend remarked, “there’s a reason we have never had a Jesuit pope.” Mmm hmm.
It’s perfectly analogous to Matt Walsh’s movie. The African people can tell the difference between men and women.
The
sagaslow demise continues:Not much of a post but some interesting conversation from among wiser Ricochet neighbors.
Alas, no “connections”…just had a prime seat from which to witness some rather pathetic displays after the 2019 conference:
I have since stopped attending this farce. It was interesting to observe the make up of the much smaller traditionally service versus the packed contemporary service…I’m guessing the total attendance was split 20%-80%, respectively. It is not hard to imagine that the tally from the collection plate was nearly the reverse of that. As the traditional service thins out even more, due to age and/or just dropping out, the “emotionalists” are destined to gain in power. We may be nearing the tipping point…
Heh, yes. Locally, my formerly Episcopal / now Anglican friends have moved pretty much intact, and are hanging together. Not sure if they have aligned with the African archbishop. I need to ask.
Interesting, Know the country with the largest and fastest – growing Lutheran church organization in the world? Ethiopia.
I think you are in virtual agreement, and perfectly bracketing the issue, and highlighting what the left uses as a weapon to try to shame the Church into silence. The left proposes a bill of some sort that is repugnant, not just to Christian and Jewish theologies, but also to the very foundations of the United States’ moral character – and indeed the basis for all of Western culture. The churches and synagogues (the one who have not abandoned their own foundations) righteously and correctly speak out against that assault on their faith. And, having proposed a bill, the left rails against the churches for getting into politics.
No, politics are intruding -nay, assaulting – our very freedom of religion. Government is declaring itself as the god.
Need I point out that Democrats then march to churches and spew politics from the usurped pulpits, with no fear of reprisals?
Phil Rizzuto calling it, “Well ladies and gentlemen, the United Methodists have pulled a full six-hundred and sixty-six furlongs past the Unitarian Universalists in the Heretic 500!”
They use this same tactic on “politicizing” an issue during a “time of grief”.
They leverage grief to rail against our constitutional rights and justify usurping them, but If we defend our rights, we are politicizing the issue.
Same with how they use “unity” and “divisiveness”.
So another protestant denomination bites the dust. Freedom leads to that. So conservative denominations benefit, Catholics do as well, and what’s interesting is that the serious folks get closer all the time although one must worry about the Pope who strikes me as too close to the moderns who like the power but not the 2000 year old theology. I don’t understand this pope or what’s going on at the top.
I would LOVE to know why Pope Benedict stepped down, and how Pope Francis gained power, exactly…
You and a billion Catholics. /:
Indeed. One wonders if he’ll leave an article or two, or tell someone.
This is such a painful and difficult subject for many who have found their way to Christ through the Wesleyan tradition. I am one of them. Notice I did not say Methodist. A word that struggles to find any consistent meaning today. Much like Republican. Or Liberal. Hearing it should be followed by: what do you mean by that?
John Wesley, much like Martin Luther and the original split of the catholic (universal) church, would find no pleasure in today’s discordant split in the United Methodist Church. Wesley and Luther had a keen interest in a loving but personal accountability to the Gospel. Just as Luther’s 95 theses expressed accountability for the Roman Catholic Church, the Wesleyan call to missions also exemplifies this. And I dare say only the Methodists rival the Catholics in worldwide faith missions toward poverty in the last century.
Many in this thread have rightly observed the conflict. The UMC has fully embraced Christ’s first impulse towards humanity: “Come as you are”. But the current split essentially attempts to absolve Methodists from His loving commandment for repentance: “Do not leave as you came.” Call. And response.
Yes, Christ’s grace and love is open to all. But Christ will ask for boundaries on human appetites. Many refuse. There is no encounter with Christ in scripture that doesn’t follow this ‘recipe’: come as you are, but don’t leave as you came. Call. And response.
These are uncomfortable discussions but necessary for human flourishing. The United Methodists seem unwilling to continue this mission. The Global Methodists, maintaining much of Wesley’s foundations, see it rather clearly in the opposite. So much for the term United.
Full Size Tabby makes the accurate observation that the African and far eastern Asian Methodists dominate the clearer interpretations of scripture. The west dominates the ‘progressive’ view, leaning toward happiness, cultural and self-identified fulfillment. It really leans into:
What bothers me most is I will be forced to choose and demolish my faith family; probably even my biological family. I am not beholden to Methodism but I am beholden to Christ (Matthew 10:34-37, Luke 14:25-27). I am not looking forward to this.