It appears that the leftists are now using financial extortion as a tool in their continuing hostile takeover of the United Methodist Church. While all the media oxygen was (understandably) being used up by the Mueller Report release and the Muslim massacre of almost 300 Christians at Easter services in Sri Lanka, this article by NBC went largely unnoticed.
The article’s lede,
NEW YORK — There’s at least one area of agreement among conservative, centrist and liberal leaders in the United Methodist Church: America’s largest mainline Protestant denomination is on a path toward likely breakup over differences on same sex marriage and ordination of LGBT pastors.
In the third paragraph down, comes this distractor:
Many believe the vote will prompt an exodus from the church by liberal congregations that are already expressing their dissatisfaction over the move.
The article goes on to describe, in leftist terms of course, the differences that led to this point and some acts of defiance, from flying the “rainbow flag” to withholding dues as a form of extortion.
Churches are withholding dues payments to the main office in protest, and the UMC’s receipts were down 20 percent in March, according to financial reports posted online.
The UMC’s largest church — the 22,000-member Church of the Resurrection with four locations in the Kansas City area — is among those applying financial pressure. Its lead pastor, Adam Hamilton, says his church is temporarily withholding half of the $2.5 million that it normally would have paid to the UMC’s head office at this stage of the year.
The solution? Quite reasonable of course:
“It’s time for some kind of separation, some kind of amicable divorce,” said James Howell, pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, who posted a video assailing the proposal for its “real meanness.”
Quite reasonable indeed. You go your way and I’ll go mine. Quite amicable. Except as always, the devil (pun absolutely intended) is in the details. In the last 3 paragraphs, the article’s bait and switch is revealed.
Hamilton [Pastor of America’s Larges Methodist Congregation and the one withholding $1.25M] in a telephone interview, said two main options are under consideration.
Hamilton starts out following along with the distraction in the third paragraph of the article.
Under one scenario, many centrists and liberals would leave en masse to form a new denomination — a potentially complex endeavor given likely disputes over the dissolution process.
Then what the Leftists really want comes out (emphasis mine).
Under the other option, opponents of the Traditional Plan would stay in the UMC and resist from within, insisting on LGBT-inclusive policies and eventually convincing the conservatives that they should be the faction that leaves under what’s envisioned as a financially smooth “gracious exit.”
“There’s a sense that some conservatives have been wanting to leave for a long time,” Hamilton said. “They’re tired of fighting about it.”
As I’ve said before, this is a Hostile Takeover. Leftists are all about democratic voting…when the vote goes their way. If it doesn’t, then much like the 2016 election, they use lawfare and outright subversion, coercion and extortion to get their way.
What is so sad, a once solid mainline Protestant Church, has slowly allowed its standards to be diluted and thus placed itself in this position. They, like the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts, allowed their solid standards and moral platforms to be slowly eroded by incrementalism to such a point that going back is no longer possible. The imminent death of those two once revered institutions (at one time Eagle Scout was considered a major plus in Military Academy applications) should have been fair warning that lowering your standards and morals, isn’t a viable approach to increase quality membership. It merely speeds your destruction.
As I said in a previous article, It’s never settled with the Leftists. They are like a combination of the Shark in “Jaws,” the Creature in “Alien” and the Borg in “Star Trek.” They never, ever quit.
You can find other articles about this issue below
The Hostile Takeover of the United Methodist Church
With the Leftists, It’s Never Really Settled
Mike Ford is a retired Infantry Officer who writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.
Follow him on Twitter: @MikeFor10394583
You can find his other Red State work here.
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