Multiple Major Denominations are in Crisis
Institutional Problems Plague the US Church
Those who are paying attention to big news in the world of Major US denominations (and honestly, who isn’t?) may be tracking a few big stories that are currently developing. These stories have very little to do with one another, but taken together, they signal the potential of a major shift in American Christianity. The United Methodist Church is experiencing a split based on the affirmation of same-gender relationships (one similar to that experienced by my own denomination a decade ago), the Southern Baptist Convention is grappling with a massive sexual abuse scandal, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, of which I am a member, if facing a major reckoning with race as a result of an action in one of its Synods. I think it may be worthwhile to recap some of these events and to reflect on the broader impact they may have on the Church.
UMC Split
Let’s start with one of the more dramatic recent moments: after years of debate about the place of LGBTQIA+ people in the church, a large number of United Methodist Churches have decided to split off and form the Global Methodist Church. Now, it’s worth pointing out that the United Methodist Church is already Global. Unlike the other two churches on this list, the UMC technically spans four continents, though it is most prominent in the United States.
In 2019, a special session of the General Conference of the UMC took up a vote on same-gender marriage and on the right of openly gay pastors to serve. This is an issue that had been simmering in the denomination for a very long time, with many pastors continuing to serve despite being openly gay, and the sexuality of many other clergy being an open secret. At the same time, a strong faction of Traditionalists stood strongly opposed to any changes to Church polity.
The vote was in response to a 2018 decision to leave questions of sexuality up to local authority, essentially adopting the same policy that the ELCA has. The 2019 vote ended with 53% of the votes in favor of imposing what was called the…