BREAKING NEWS – St. Louis, Missouri – The number of congregations departing the United Methodist Church (UMC) exceeded 5,000 last week as the second-largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. continues to fracture over theological disagreements, mostly pertaining to human sexuality.
The number of churches that have been given the green light by their annual conferences to disaffiliate recently increased from approximately 4,600 to 5,321, according to UM News.
Several traditionalist members of the Methodist clergy told Fox News Digital in 2022 that conservative churches are leaving in response to liberal leaders within the UMC choosing to disregard the 2019 vote by commissioning gay clergy and officiating same-sex weddings anyway.
UMC President Thomas Bickerton stated, “I tried to offer a compromise to all of the departing churches that think homosexuality is a sin. I told them the fair thing to do, is for all our members to ‘white-out’ all scriptures relating to sex, as if they never existed, so no one can pass judgment on homosexuality. All 5321 churches rejected my suggestion without giving me an explanation. They wouldn’t meet me halfway. I don’t understand conservative Christians.”