United Methodists Face Fractured Future
The decision by United Methodists to reaffirm a traditional stand on homosexuality and marriage leave the church's future unclear.
For decades, the United Methodist Church has officially judged homosexual activity to be immoral, barred gays and lesbians from serving as clergy, and opposed same sex marriage.
Those conservative doctrinal positions went against prevailing cultural and social trends, at least in the United States, but they didn't split the church into rival conservative and progressive camps because church leaders rarely enforced them.
No more.
Delegates at the church's General Conference, meeting in St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 23 to Feb. 26, adopted several resolutions that not only reaffirmed the church's longstanding conservative positions but introduced tough new
