The United Methodist Church this week placed itself firmly in the ranks of people clinging to hierarchies as it rejected the One Church Plan, a measure what would have erased the denomination's restrictions on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriages. At a special session of the church's General Conference held in St. Louis, the vote was 438 to 384 to uphold the Traditional Plan.
Traditional in this case, of course, means traditional hierarchies, where heterosexual relationships, limited to those heterosexual relationships deemed appropriate by this religious body, are acceptable. Everyone else is pushed so far down their hierarchy that they aren't even recognized.
Our sympathies go out to those people at the conference who tried so hard to bring the United Methodist Church into the 21st century. We know they are very disappointed, and are worried about the future of the denomination in a time when hierarchies are crumbling elsewhere, and people holding on to the past seem more and more out of touch.
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/698188343/united-methodist-church-votes-to-keep-bans-on-same-sex-weddings-lgbtq-clergy
