United Methodist Church Gearing Up For Full and Official Affirmation of LGBTQ

February 23 marks the date for a special session of the General Assembly of the United Methodist Church, a gathering of denominational leaders, bishops, and clergy to deliberate the issue of homosexuality and other sexual perversions present in the church.

A Council of Bishops was asked by the General Assembly in 2016 to begin putting together an LGBTQ inclusion plan for the denomination and in 2018, the One Church Plan was unveiled and has the majority support of the denomination’s bishops. Next month, the plan will officially be voted on and is expected to pass nearly unanimously.

It’s no secret that the United Methodist Church has been apostate for years. They do not stand on the Scriptures as their authority nor do they hold to an orthodox view of Christ–to them God is a sin-affirming God who accepts people just how they are without repentance.

However, officially, the United Methodist Church currently does not allow the ordination of openly LGBTQ clergy–but that appears to be about to change.

The one church plan, touted as “supported by the majority of bishops,” includes several key affirmations of homosexuality and other sexually deviant behaviors as acceptable and normal within the church. According to the website,

This plan, preferred by a majority of the Council of Bishops, would remove restrictive language from the Book of Discipline that prohibits same-gender weddings in UMC properties and ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” It would add language to protect churches and pastors who choose not to allow same-gender marriages.

While there may be some individual local churches who choose not to fully apostatize on the LGBTQ issue, the issue here is a removal of the biblical restriction of sin-infested clergy in the church. In other words, you may be in open rebellion to God and still be fully included and accepted as a leader–both at the local level and the denominational level–so long as your congregation is cool with it. And let’s just be real, if you’re in the UMC, you’re most likely cool with it.

The justification for calling the special assembly lies in their faulty theological understanding of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness.

We are aware that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) persons exist in every nation and every culture in the world, with varying degrees of openness, acceptance, and freedom […] There are, and have been, LGBTQ persons serving at all levels of leadership in the UMC, as laity and clergy. Currently they suffer as they are unable to live into God’s calling on their lives to ordination or to lay leadership.”

The idea is that homosexuals “suffer” when they’re not allowed ordination as clergy. But the Scriptures clearly teach that sexual immorality is the judgment of God and not necessarily the cause (Romans 1). The reason they suffer isn’t because they can’t be ordained, it’s because they are in open rebellion to God and God has given them over to a debased mind.

Let’s pray for the people who are lost in this denomination and if there is a remnant left, let’s pray that they come out.