{"id":9838,"date":"2019-02-28T23:18:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T04:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=9838"},"modified":"2019-02-28T23:18:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T04:18:34","slug":"no-longer-united-the-umcs-current-plight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/9838","title":{"rendered":"No Longer United: The UMC’s Current Plight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lindsey Smith–<\/strong>The United Methodist Church(UMC) is no longer so united after a decision by the Special General Conference 2019 delegates to reject same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ pastors in their church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The decision to follow\nwhat is known as the Traditional Plan is widely being criticized by those in\nthe church (clergy, churchgoers, etc.) as well as those outside of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krista Waite, a senior at\nMorningside College and the Interim Director of Children\u2019s Education at Grace United\nMethodist Church, is deeply troubled by the news, even tearing up during the\npanel discussion of the events held on Thursday night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says, \u201cThis has been\nreally hard for me. It breaks my heart just listening to the faith, the\nreligion you grew up with going through so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This news hasn\u2019t just\nbeen hard for students. It\u2019s weighing heavily on the minds of professors and\ncountless clergy in the United Methodist Church (UMC), which is why religious\nstudies assistant professor Elizabeth Coody invited several guests to host a\ndiscussion panel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guests included Grace\nUMC Rev. Jim Shirbroun, adjunct faculty member and pastor of Le Mars UMC Rev.\nDr. Michel Lundula, former Morningside chaplain and retired UMC pastor Rev. Kathy\nMartin, and current Morningside chaplain Pastor Andy Nelson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All were in agreement that this decision is a step backwards for the United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What makes this decision\nso hard for the UMC in particular is that it spans worldwide, with churches in\nEurope, Asia, Africa, and the United States. Most United Methodists reside in\nthe United States and are primarily older conservatives. Rev. Lundula addressed\nthis within the panel discussion, saying \u201cThe big challenge is that we live in\ndifferent cultural contexts. That issue will not stop.\u201d He went on to describe\nthe current state of the UMC as many different churches under one big umbrella.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the third largest\nChristian denomination in the U.S., this decision could spell devastating news\nfor unification efforts within the UMC. Before the conference was over,\ndelegates were already discussing \u201cgracious\nexits\u201d<\/a> for those congregations that disagreed with the decision or no\nlonger felt they should be associated with the UMC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the tide is\nturning with more progressives and young people entering the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the general\nconference began, a joint\nstatement<\/a> released by the presidents of the National Association of Schools\nand Colleges of the United Methodist Church stated: \u201cEmbracing the United\nMethodist Church\u2019s core religious and humanistic values that all persons are of\nsacred worth and equal standing, the 93 United Methodist (NASCUMC) affiliated\ncolleges\/universities and their respective presidents serving over 260,000\nstudents strongly affirm access and inclusion of all students, faculty, and\nstaff on our campuses regardless of their race, ethnicity, creed, national\norigin, gender, gender identity\/expression, or sexual orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This statement was\nsummarily rejected by the general conference after four days of heated\ndiscussion and is heartbreaking for many allies within the UMC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Lundula, who is\noriginally from Africa, spoke of his unique perspective from seeing the\nMethodist missionaries be welcomed by his grandparents and great grandparents\nin Africa, to learning and preaching Methodist teachings in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, Rev.\nLundula remains skeptical of the current management of the general conference.\nHe says: \u201cI learned a lot by being a stranger all my life. Usually the general\nconference is a time to celebrate, but it is not that way again. Instead of\ncelebrating what we do, it is not surprising, our general conferences have\nbecome a ground of fighting. It\u2019s like we are not the church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other panel members, like\nProfessor Coody, addressed the statistics. Those who identify as LGBTQ+ are\nthree times more likely to commit suicide than those who do not. When rejected\nby their community or organizations like the UMC, suicide becomes eight times\nmore likely for LGBTQ+ individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many of the panel\nmembers expressed their mission to keep their lives and the doors of their\nspecific churches open to everyone, the general conference\u2019s hardline approach\nto same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ pastors will continue to create division within\nthe United Methodist Church, and discussions on the topic are far from over. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lindsey Smith–The United Methodist Church(UMC) is no longer so united after a decision by the Special General Conference 2019 delegates to reject same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ pastors in their church. The decision to follow what is known as the Traditional Plan is widely being criticized by those in the church (clergy, churchgoers, etc.) as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[46954,46941,46880,46955,46953],"class_list":["post-9838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-lgbtq","tag-morningside-college-2","tag-msidelife","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-unitedmethodistchurch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9839,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9838\/revisions\/9839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}