A Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church has approved a pro-gay resolution denouncing the denomination's Book of Discipline's opposition to homosexuality.
Meeting in Charleston, W.V., nearly two-thirds of the 227 delegates at the Northeastern Jurisdiction of United Methodism approved the resolution on Thursday.
"…while bound to the Book of Discipline, [Jurisdiction leaders] are also bound to exercise their consciences and are bound by Jesus's commandment to stand with the marginalized and the oppressed in our midst when called upon to enforce unjust laws, policies and procedures to the detriment of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals wishing to participate fully in the life of The United Methodist Church," reads the resolution.
Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy and author of a book on the history of the United Methodist Church, deemed the resolution "the frustrated last gasps of dying North American liberal Protestantism."
"The NEJ is a very liberal controlled region that has lost hundreds of thousands of members. These kinds of stances are not unusual there," said Tooley in an interview with The Christian Post.
"But most of the lay people are not liberal and a significant minority of clergy are not. Their election of an evangelical bishop is an important sign of hope." Read more
Goodbye traditional Western piety, for the postmodern, and thus--the collapse of Western piety. Hope lays only in these various denominations reactionaries.
ReplyDelete