News Tip: United Methodist Church Split Mirrors U.S. Cultural Divide, UMC Bishop Says

On Friday, leaders in the United Methodist Church announced they had agreed to push forward a plan that could split the church between those who oppose same-sex marriage and refuse ordination to LGBT clergy and those who are pro-LGBT. The divide “merely mirrors the current political and cultural divisions with the U.S.,” says UMC bishop Will Willimon.

Quotes:
“A set of complex church issues were reduced to a showdown between the left and the right, ‘progressives’ and ‘traditionalists.’ Both factions love their take on the issues more than the continuance of the United Methodist Church,” says Will Willimon, a professor of the practice of Christian ministry at Duke Divinity School and a bishop in the United Methodist Church. “The bishops -- unable to lead continuing discussion of our differences -- have now decided that the best they can do is to oversee church disintegration.”

“Our unwillingness to stay in conversation with fellow Christians with whom we disagree is testimony to the inability of our church to live out our core Wesleyan identity, Christ’s teachings on the unity of believers, and the diversity within Scripture. Schism is always sad for a church.”

Bio:
Will Willimon is director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Duke Divinity School, professor of the practice of Christian Ministry and was for eight years bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. He has published widely on Methodist issues.
https://divinity.duke.edu/faculty/william-willimon

For additional comment, contact Will Willimon at
will@duke.edu

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Media Contact:
Keith Lawrence
(919) 681-8059
keith.lawrence@duke.edu