The Disunited Methodist Church

Jun. 27—ALBIA — The United Methodist Church, one of the largest protestant denominations in America, is undergoing a large-scale fracture over performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples and the ordination of openly LGBTQ+ clergy. Southeast Iowa church leaders and pastors say that at ground level, the split is heartbreaking and feels like filing for a divorce.

To date, 83 Iowa churches — accounting for 11% of the 750 conference United Methodist Churches in the state — have voted to disaffiliate from the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church since 2019, when the United Methodist Church passed its disaffiliation, or exit plan.

The plan requires a two-thirds majority vote from a congregation before it can disaffiliate from the denomination, and is now being widely used since the Iowa Conference passed a new "vision" last year. The vision paves the way for, among other things, ministers to host wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples without discipline, a departure from historic practice within the denomination.

The denomination's website says the exit plan provides a way for congregations that cannot in good conscience adhere to the denomination's new vision to exit the United Methodist Church.

David Paxton, chairman of the administrative board at Albia Trinity Church, which was formerly the Trinity United Methodist Church of Albia before the congregation voted to officially disaffiliate last year, says that his church's disaffiliation is in line with orthodox Christian beliefs.

"Orthodox Christianity believes that marriage is between one man and one woman," Paxton says. "We believe in the sin-nature of man, whether it's heterosexual sin, adultery and so forth ... We believe in, at the same time, forgiveness and redemption."

While the flagship issue of the split has been LGBTQ+ issues, Paxton says there are larger and more foundational theological elements at stake, including the concept of Biblical inerrancy, or the personhood of Jesus Christ.

"The whole homosexual issue was the start of it," Paxton says, "but then now it's grown to much broader, much more important, I think, theological concepts of 'Is the Bible true?' 'Can you trust what the Bible says?'"

The Bible isn't the only text involved in the split. "The Book of Discipline," Methodism's governing document since the 18th century, still defines marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman. To date, the denomination has fallen short of the necessary votes to officially change the document's stance on marriage.

The book in its current form states that marriage is a "covenant that is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman."

The Book of Discipline affirms that all humans have sacred worth and makes a distinction between sexual orientation and practice. It does not, however, recognize marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples as valid. It also prohibits the ordination of "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" as clergy.

While these rules are still technically in effect within the United Methodist Church, many congregations across the United States are openly defying them — something the church's conference has shown little interest in opposing and has in some ways signaled support for.

David Timmer, a former professor of religion at Central College in Pella, says that while the denomination's stance hasn't changed in writing, its process of enforcing The Book of Discipline has.

"It's not as if the denomination fundamentally changed what it was saying about same-sex sexuality," Timmer says. "The United Methodist Church did not change its discipline. What changed, seemingly, was its willingness to enforce its discipline aggressively."

According to Paxton, that unwillingness to enforce the Book of Discipline in its current state is what started the Albia Trinity Church down the road of feeling discontented with the leadership in the United Methodist Church all the way back in 2016.

"In about 2016, I think, this church said, 'Okay, if you're not going to follow the Book of Discipline, we're not going to pay apportionments,' which is our share to run the church. It's money," Paxton says. "We sent a letter to the bishop, never got a reply, and so we took our apportionments and put them in escrow since 2016. So that was the beginning."

Timmer says the inability of the theologically conservative and liberal factions of the United Methodist denomination to come together is part of a broader, dual narrative conundrum that has plagued protestant America since as early as the 1960s.

In America, the conservative faction sees the push for LGBTQ+ validation in the church as a blatant attack on historic, revered Christian teachings and church tradition; something that must be opposed within the church in defense of the faith. On the other hand, the liberal faction sees it as the next chapter of the Civil Rights movement and is more willing to bend on long-held historic doctrines in a noble pursuit of LGBTQ+ inclusion in all church matters, including leadership.

One side sees the push for LGBTQ+ validation within the church as a direct attack on Christianity, and the other sees it as an important part of cultural progress that the church should be a part of.

"I think, to a certain extent, the two sides ... have been talking past each other for the past 30 or 40 years because they're living different stories," Timmer says.

The tense coexistence of those two stories has finally reached its boiling point, leaving churches on both sides feeling jarred as the rift widens. Paxton says the process of disaffiliation has been like getting a divorce.

"We're happy to be out from under what we thought was really bad ... leadership in terms of our orthodox belief ... but we're not jumping around celebrating too much," Paxton says.

"[Divorce] is dicey," he says. "It's tough. It's hard on kids. And so I'm thinking we're the kids of this. We're the kids of the church."

Even for the churches that have chosen to remain, the division has been difficult.

"Personally, as a leader, I think that votes divide people," says Brian Williams, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Pella, which has chosen to stay in the denomination. "You have some of these churches that took a vote, the vote did not pass, but still you've got division. You've got splintering. Even if the vote doesn't pass, clearly, you've drawn lines in the sand."

The Central United Methodist Church of Oskaloosa is one of the congregations that held a vote to leave, which didn't pass.

Williams, who believes that the separation is "the right move forward" due to the factions being unable to come to an agreement on these issues, says that the whole situation is heartbreaking.

"I have had all sorts of different kinds of grief in this because even though I think that churches being able to have an exit plan if they disagree — aka the church breaking apart — is the right decision, is the right move at this point because we can't seem to come to a way to say together, it still breaks my heart because I don't think that's what Jesus wants," Williams says. "I think it distracts from the goal that we all should have of making disciples for the transformation of the world, which is the mission statement of the United Methodist Church."

Williams hopes that the remaining congregations in the United Methodist Church will have the necessary majority to vote for a change in the Book of Discipline at the denomination's next General Conference in 2024.

"My hope is that we can ... be able to refocus on that work that's at the heart of what we do, even though there'll be some other thing that we'll find will become a distraction," Williams says. "For me personally, a part of that is being able to welcome folks of all different kinds of identities and stripes."

Approximately half of the congregations that have left the United Methodist Church have joined the Global Methodist Church, a new, more conservative denomination comprised of congregations from across the globe that have tended toward conservative theology. African churches, in particular, have held a famously conservative stance on the issue.

Albia Trinity Church plans to remain an independent congregation for now.

Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com.