Earlier this month, delegates at a United Methodist Church conference struck down the UMC’s longstanding anti-LGBTQ policies and created a path for clergy ousted because of them to return.
Christian pastors and social media influencers have connected the concert's sexual content with unprecedented floods that have devastated cities in Rio Grande do Sul state and killed 116 people.
It’s the latest in a string of professor terminations at Christian colleges seemingly tied to clashes over narrowing and often unspoken political and theological criteria.
On the first Sunday after the conclusion of the denomination’s General Conference, many queer United Methodists celebrated their release from the tight and narrow spaces that had confined them.
The nation’s largest Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Lutheran denominations have all now removed barriers to LGBTQ participation in the pulpit and at the altar.
The consensus was so overwhelming that it was rolled into a 'consent calendar,' a package of normally non-controversial measures that are bundled into a single vote to save time.
The 667-54 vote, coming during their legislative General Conference, removes some of the scaffolding around the UMC's longstanding bans on LGBTQ-affirming policies regarding ordination, marriage, and funding.
Regionalization has been framed as an undertaking of decolonization. But the plan is also an acknowledgment that cultural and theological differences are driving Methodists apart, especially regarding sexuality.
Even after the departures, 24% of North Carolina clergy remaining in the denomination disagree with allowing LGBTQ people to get married and ordained within the denomination.
This issue of A Public Witness explores the problem with Trump’s call for Nov. 5 and proposes an alternative date for a more authentic “Christian Visibility Day.”