United Methodism: How Conservatives won the Debate, but lost the Denomination
The “United” in “United Methodist Church” (UMC) has always been aspirational. The UMC was founded in 1968, when the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren Churches joined forces, marking the apex of denominational mergers in the twentieth century. But ever since, the UMC has been in numerical decline and in turmoil over human sexuality. And last week, it finally came apart. At the UMC’s General Conference (GC)—the meeting of the denomination’s highest legislative body every four years—the denomination officially voted to end its fifty-year ban on same-sex weddings and on the ordination of LGBTQ clergy. All prohibitions regarding LGBTQ ordination and marriage were removed.
Casual observers over the past two weeks will be forgiven for thinking this change in the church’s position represents a profound about-face for most of the United Methodists in the United States. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth.
In 2016, Karen Oliveto, a married lesbian, was elected bishop by clergy in the western region of the UMC, in clear defiance of the church’s democratically determined rules of order. The denomination’s “Supreme Court,” the Judicial Council, ruled her election was a violation of church law and ordered a review. To the dismay of Methodist conservatives, who rightly view church law as the true bind of their denomination, that review never took place and Oliveto remains a bishop to this day.
A special meeting of the GC was called in 2019 to deal with the controversy. Progressives hoped finally to persuade conservative delegates, especially from Africa, to give up their convictions regarding human sexuality. But when it came to a vote, conservatives took the majority. Progressives were now irate, with one bishop calling on the African delegates to “grow up” and embrace progressive wisdom. With conservatives in firm control, the GC created a process whereby progressive congregations could leave the UMC, if they so desired, with their assets and property. Everything was then ready for the regularly scheduled GC of 2020 when, it was assumed, progressives would leave and form their own new Methodist denomination.
