United Methodists’ New LGBTQ+ Direction: Progressivism vs. Traditionalism and why it should matter to all of us
I was just in a conversation this week with a member of a local United Methodist Church. As many of you may be aware, the UMC is moving toward splitting the denomination, creating a new denomination that will be called Traditionalist Methodist. Those remaining in the UMC, my friend lamented, would then be free to take the “bold, progressive” step of repealing the LGBT-related prohibitions that are currently in place.
I often wonder what John Wesley would say if he could see the direction of the denomination he founded. What would the Methodist circuit riders say who crossed the span of our great nation a few centuries ago preaching God’s Word— the wonderful truths as well as the difficult ones? I am told that my ancestors were Methodist circuit riders, and I am confident when I say they would be firmly in the Traditionalist camp. While many in Methodist society have considered traditional to mean fundamentalist, which has taken the connotation of angry, hate-filled, unloving old white men screaming from a pulpit, traditional actually means holding to the beliefs of the early church that line up with God’s Word.
Standing against the Traditionalists is the Progressive movement, which, when we stop for a moment and examine its beliefs, is not concerned with the “progress” of the church at all. How can a body that claims to be followers of Christ make any real progress by denying the Word of God they claim to revere?
How can one progress by digressing from truth? How can you claim to stand on God’s Word and yet reject it when it offends the very world it was sent to convict of sin? God’s Word does not allow us to have a smorgasbord approach to truth, taking what we want and disregarding the rest, no matter how “inclusive” and “loving” we think we are being.
The church today finds itself in an interesting spot. On one hand, we are commanded to love all people who struggle with sin. On the other hand, we cannot affirm sin nor turn a blind eye to the unrepentant practice of sin by those who claim to be Christ’s followers. We care so much for others that our desire for them is to have a relationship with God via repentance, but in return, we are labeled haters and homophobes, what irony. Those who love are called haters, and those filled with hate are called tolerant. Liberals are “mainstream,” while those who support the tenets of Scripture are called mean-spirited fundamentalists. Up is down and down is up. Right is wrong and wrong is right. The liberal left thinks they’re right, and some on the arrogant right think they can do no wrong. A boy can be a girl, and a girl can be a boy, and if they’re not sure, they can choose to be “fluid”—whatever that means. We make decisions based on not offending others, never stopping to ask if God is offended by our position. Folks, this is not progression; it’s digression.
The Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation are crystal clear that those who embrace homosexuality (as with many other enumerated sins such as murder, hatred, sexual immorality) do not have a relationship with God. They are not on the path of truth. I’m not talking about someone who struggles with sin—we all struggle—but about those who blatantly shake their fist in the face of God’s character, call Him a liar, and decide they themselves are really God, choosing what commands they will follow and what they will not.
And what are the predictable results of this rebellion? (I say predictable because the Word gives us many examples of what happens to those who oppose God.) He gives them over to their desires. The high suicide rate in young adults in the LGBTQ+ community is an excellent example. So often these men and women are taking their lives because they have pursued what they were told would make them happy, only to find it empty, and they are left without hope. Their LGBTQ supporters, desperate to find some solution to the emptiness, try to redefine truth rather than face it. They seek to pacify conviction rather than respond to it, and they would rather die than repent of their error and turn back to “traditional” ways, back to the truth of God’s Word, back to wholeness and freedom in Christ. Who the Son sets free is free indeed.
This doesn’t mean that everyone is set free of sinful desires when they repent. Sometimes the alcoholic still craves a beer and the food addict still craves chocolate (I can attest to that), and those who struggle with same-sex attraction may still struggle. Praise God when He delivers someone completely, but that’s not always the case; sometimes it’s a battle, but in this battle, we are following a General who can never be defeated. This is the hope that the church should be offering—not following some hell-inspired notion that if we are simply “inclusive” and “loving” enough, if we adopt enough of the world’s principles and methods, we can save these lost souls. In reality, what the progressives are teaching is that these people are not sinners at all—that homosexuality is just a choice, like what kind of clothes you wear to church or what kind of food you eat.
This is a lie, a digression from truth, anesthetizing the lost against their own consciences and congratulating each other for making their trip to hell as comfortable as possible. We fear offending people more than offending God, and think we are loving when we let those around us drive off the cliff simply because we thought they would be offended by our warning that the bridge was out. Christ’s sheep will never be offended by Christ’s voice.
What about you? Where do you stand on this issue, and on what do you base that stance? Are you truly progressing and getting better, or digressing—fighting depression, fear, anxiety, and confusion? Take time now to consider these things in the light of God’s unchanging Word.