Christy Thomas, retired UM clergy and columnist, writes on UM-Insight that the UMC does not have a future. And it is because of the rigid binaries of biblical literalists when it comes to sexuality. She writes:
No. There is no future to the UMC.
It’s as simple as that.
No, because those “Bible believers” who have taken over The UMC have also shaken their fist in the face of God and declared God a heretic and unacceptable in their church. Why? Because God doesn’t create only in “male or female” categories. Therefore, God has no place in a “Bible-believing” church.
For “Bible-believers,” only a rigid sexual binary, i.e., everyone is either unmistakably male (and desires only women for life partners) or entirely female (and desires only men for life partners), is acceptable. There can be no blending or spectrum of either sexuality or sexual desire in their world....
The hard-right turn away from God by those “Bible believers,” has destroyed the previous good reputation of Methodism as a place of justice and social holiness.
There is no future to The United Methodist Church.
At this moment, good people, identifying as centrists and progressives, are trying their darndest to salvage something out of this. I appreciate their hard work, their hope of institutional survival, the real concern over the work of the many people who do profoundly important work as part of the general agencies.
Nonetheless, I do not see a way to escape the carnage to come... [More on her blog...]