Happenings Around the Church — In Defense of United Methodism

I received this e-mail from Dr. Riley B. Case and wanted to share it with all of you.

Randy

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Evangelical United Methodists are sometimes seen as malcontents when it comes to complaining about the denomination. It is not uncommon to hear: “United Methodism is far too liberal”; “United Methodism has lost its way”; “United Methodism is apostate.”

These remarks should be seen as within the family. When it comes to outsiders, we don’t like to see our denomination under attack.

So the UM evangelical reaction to this characterization of the United Methodist Church in Joel Belz’s editorial in the November 11 issue of World magazine:

It would be hard to find two denominations that more vividly characterize the anti-evangelical spirit that became repulsive to such hard-core evangelicals than the United Church of Christ (Barack Obama’s denomination) and the United Methodist Church (John Edwards and Hillary Clinton’s denomination). Through and through, both the UCC and the UMC have been stalwarts of everything that is liberal-both theologically and socially.

We would invite Joel Belz and other “hard-core evangelicals” to attend our UM evangelical gatherings. The message that the Confessing Movement and other evangelical renewal groups seek to communicate is that evangelical faith is alive in the United Methodist Church. Despite what some of our seminaries teach, and despite what some of our boards and agencies say (which unfortunately is sometimes the public face of United Methodism), a large part of our church is faithful to the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church (which is, theologically, evangelical and orthodox), is evangelistically minded, and has a heart for missions. We frankly are not pleased to be put into the same boat as the UCC.

To set the record straight: 70% of United Methodists live in the red states (as per the 2004 national elections); Republican congresspersons who are United Methodist outnumber Democratic congresspersons 2 to 1. In terms of theology and mission outreach, United Methodists are among the largest supporters of parachurch evangelical ministries. The United Methodist hymnal is the only mainline denominational hymnal that has maintained most of the traditional language in its hymns and has not purged from its pages the atonement and blood hymns. The United Methodist Church has not compromised its stand on traditional marriage and its teaching on homosexuality as incompatible with Christian teaching.

Of course the church is diverse. Of course the struggle for the soul of the church is still taking place. But consider: in the upcoming General Conference it is not the evangelicals but the progressives who are most unhappy with who we are, and who want to do a major overhaul on the traditions and the stances of the church. It is the progressives who in the name of “inclusiveness” want to do away with all membership standards, and who, if they cannot impose their way legislatively would seek to do so through packing the Judicial Council. It is the progressives who would redefine marriage and bless the practice of homosexuality. We maintain that is not really who United Methodists are.

We urge the critics not to give up on the United Methodist Church, because we ourselves haven’t.