(Above, UMC Bishop Karen Oliveto (right) and "wife," Robin Ridenour.)
The United Methodist Church (UMC) finally made official what many have anticipated for years by repealing the denomination’s longstanding rule that forbid “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from serving as clergy.
The decision was made at the UMC’s 2024 General Conference (GC), a meeting held every four years in which UMC delegates from congregations around the world gather for 11 days to set governing policy, pass budgets, and address other denominational matters.
The delegates voted, without debate, by a margin of 692-51, to repeal the ban on homosexual clergy, a rule contained in the UMC’s Book of Discipline since 1984.
Why the overwhelming vote?
The UMC’s weakened stance on LGBTQ issues in recent decades has been no secret. The doctrinal standards – at least on paper – remained orthodox, but in practice those standards have been abandoned for years.
Progressives within the ranks have long desired to update the denomination’s stated views on such issues; however, biblically-minded delegates at each GC meeting prevented it from happening officially.
Nonetheless, the UMC’s rapid departure from the plain teachings of Scripture and its disregard for conservative voices was clear, leading those who wanted to remain faithful to Scripture to begin exploring ways to break away.
In 2019, a disaffiliation process was approved for congregations that wanted to cut ties with the UMC behemoth, but the process proved difficult and even impossible for many.
However, by 2022, the UMC had split, and the Global Methodist Church was birthed.
Still, despite the burdensome process, by the December 2023 disaffiliation deadline, over 7,500 congregations had chosen to exit the UMC.
With the holdouts – 7,500 conservative congregations – gone, the way was paved for the progressives in the denomination to finally have their way.
Former UMC pastors weigh in
Dr. Ray Rooney, digital media editor for The Stand online, and former UMC pastor, was not surprised by the recent rulings.
“The recent decisions of the UMC reveal better than any essay or speech why more than 7,000 churches left the denomination over the past two years,” Rooney said. “Rather than grieving over the sexual anarchy culture has foisted on people and the heartbreaking damage it continues to inflict, the UMC has fully embraced and celebrated it all while thanking God for inspiring it.”
Rooney’s reference to the UMC “thanking God for inspiring” its decision came from the telling words of Bishop Karen Oliveto, the UMC’s first openly homosexual bishop.
“The Holy Spirit is moving and birthing a church that we always knew was there,” Oliveto said after the decision.
“And that is why the denomination has become ‘a dead sect,’ as John Wesley predicted would happen if it ever strayed from Scripture,” Rooney explained.
Buddy Smith, AFA vice president emeritus and also a former UMC pastor, shared his grief over the decision.
“I am deeply saddened that the UMC, as I have loved and served it as an ordained clergyman for over 50 years, exists no more,” Smith said. “Through the wayward decisions of the 2024 GC, the UMC has traded its orthodox biblical moorings for a belief in sexual anarchy, which celebrates that everyone should do what is right in their own eyes.
“The UMC is no longer United, is not Methodist, and not even a Church as defined by the New Testament,” Smith concluded.
(Digital Editor's Note: This article was published first in the July 2024 print edition of The Stand. Click HERE for a free six-month subscription to The Stand magazine.)
