I’m still on our spiritual retreat at the beach. My plan was to share some of my previous posts rather than writing new ones. And as I was praying and looking, and yes, thinking, I found this post from six years ago. Honestly, in 2016 I didn’t have a clue of how true it would be, especially this line: “I foresee the time coming of a “split” or “divorce” within the United Methodist Church, and coming much sooner than many anticipate.” And no, I do no consider myself a “predictor of the future”.
At that time, a ‘commission’ was formed to ‘find our way forward’. And in 2019, a called General Conference was convened in St. Louis to settle “that” issue once and for all. But read this in the context of 2016. Oh, and when I mention my age, add 6 years to it. Here is that blog:
Kingdom Pastor 
We are just a bunch a sheep. And are like some others that let things go. But the progressives and Democratic Liberals don’t.
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Where I have a problem with your stance is here.
The advocates for the LGBTQI anything goes agenda would have us believe that we cannot even define the terms “man” and “woman.” That is absurd.
We have gotten into this mess because Christian churches have refused to participate in moral controversies, even those where the Biblical position is unambiguous.
The primary institution responsible for spreading the moral poison of what is essentially a Marxist/Secular Humanist ideology is the public school system. Unfortunately, Protestant churches have actually supported the public school system instead of fighting it. Why? They feared Roman Catholic schools.
Our public schools are run by politicians. Because human beings in the pursuit of power are so easily corrupted, nobody in his right mind trusts politicians. Yet we have put politicians in charge of deciding who teaches our children, what our children are taught, and how our children are taught. The result has been a slowly growing disaster.
The Bible is clear that PARENTS have the primary responsibility to decide who teaches their children, what their children are taught, and how their children are taught. Therefore, Christian churches should be fighting tooth and nail to help and encourage parents to assume responsibility for their children.
Does church participation in the political process violate the Constitution? No. The Constitution protects the free exercise religion which obviously would include the religious instruction of children in private institutions. Giving politicians the power to indoctrinate children in Marxist/Secular Humanist ideological beliefs against the wishes of their parents, however, clearly violates the Constitution. Pastors campaigning for school choice, therefore, is clearly constitutional.
What is unconstitutional? Government has no business establishing a state religion. When politicians use the public schools to promote statism in the name Marxist/Secular Humanist ideologies, that is effectively using government to establish a state religion.
Anyway, I respect the fact you are legitimately bucking the UMC hierarchy, but why are you in this situation? Is it because of government funding of our education system? Is it because even our most respected universities, which almost all began as Christian seminaries, have been uniformly secularized.
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You have a great point. I was looking at it strictly from a Constitutional viewpoint. But you are right, when government legitimizes sin, the church becomes a target.
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