The Institute on Religion & Democracy is an ecumenical think tank committed to responsible Christian witness in society rooted in historic church teaching.
Economic discontent is rife as millions justifiably feel the job market is rigged in favor of a 'knowledge' class that can afford expensive college education, leaving a broad swathe of the workforce behind. This is a huge challenge, writes
@DiddamsJames
United Methodism’s largest overseas jurisdiction has voted to quit the denomination in response to the church’s divorcing sex from marriage at its governing General Conference earlier this month.
#umcgc
How does an
#Episcopal
diocese as small as New Hampshire shed 20 percent of attendees in a single year?
@jeffreyhwalton
reports on a particularly difficult year for the Episcopal denomination.
The
#Episcopal
Church Bishop who garnered widespread praise for his lively sermon during Saturday’s British royal wedding now plans to lead a protest against a “dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership” on May 24 in Washington, D.C.
Panelists at an
@indefchristians
congressional briefing argue that the Nigerian government should be held accountable for its failure to adequately address religious violence and persecution.
Religious freedom is a universal right, knowable by reason alone to people of any faith or no faith, wherever they are in the world, emphasized
@McCormickProf
at a
@ThomisticInst
lecture.
Emmett Till was a teenage nobody whose brutal murder ultimately helped transform America. In God’s eyes, nobodies are often very important, ultimately superseding many supposed somebodies, writes
@markdtooley
.
It has been heartbreaking to be a United Methodist this week, writes IRD's Sarah Stewart. Self-congratulatory and virtue signaling language has been used to masquerade deeply unchristian actions.
#UMC
Anglican congregations in North America are reporting a significant attendance increase of 30 percent following a widespread return to regular worship services post-COVID.
Filipino United Methodist lay leaders declare support for traditional biblical definition of marriage. Every lay leader in the Cavite Annual Conference signs statement, making the conference’s voice strong and clear,
@JohnLomperis
reports.
#umc
As congregations consider pursuing United Methodist disaffiliation, it may be helpful to consider the testimonies of others. Thanks to their brave steps to prioritize faithfulness over all else, these are no longer uncharted waters, writes
@JohnLomperis
.
Advocacy group International Christian Concern has made available to the public its report on the worst persecutors of the church in the year 2023: not just countries, but also individuals.
In our UM Voices forum, Pastor
@revbethanncook
is convinced that progressives and centrists do not understand what motivates those who voted for the Traditional Plan at the recent United Methodist General Conference.
#UMCGC19
Over last decade Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has lost over 1 million members or 25% of membership, now down to 3.5 million, from 4.7 million ten years ago. At this rate denomination won’t exist in 30 years or so.
@markdtooley
Listen In: The United Methodist Church's finance agency anticipates a nearly 40% drop in income across the next four years, implying an expected equivalent drop in church membership,
@markdtooley
tells
@IssuesEtc
radio.
#umc
Ordinary United Methodists who just want to ignore what’s going on in the leadership “are going to wake up in a couple of years – after the escape hatch has been closed to disaffiliate – and see their denomination’s decline and dysfunction accelerate."
So far this month, about 900 church congregations disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church. This is just part of a major, slow-motion, increasingly global breakup of America’s second-largest Protestant denomination.
A North Carolina bishop ambushes an historic, conservative congregation with announcement that she is abruptly shutting them down, while seizing their property and assets.
#umc
“We Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We don’t need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to ‘grow up’,” Declares Liberian Delegate Jerry Kulah.
#UMCGC
“We thank God for the just acquittal of this precious sister in the Lord. Please pray for her and her family, and all religious minorities in Pakistan, that they will be protected from the virulent backlash of the mobs," says
@Cuchulain09
as
#AsiaBibiFreed
"We will not condone your attempt to compromise the authentic teaching of the Holy Bible on the issue of human sexuality, and thereby betray the trust and earnest labor of your great grand parents whose blood became the 'seal' of the Gospel in Africa."
How is God moving Presbyterians, their communities, and churches, to live as salt and light in the world? Hear opening remarks from
@porterharlow
at our Presbyterian & Reformed Public Theology Conference convened with
@ministrytostate
.
#presbyterian
"Unlike any official United Methodist conference I have ever attended,"
@JohnLomperis
marvels about a "refreshingly different" Global Methodist gathering in Ohio.
#Methodist
Liberal United Methodists claim more than 2/3rds of U.S. church supports redefining marriage. But data shows slight majorities of pastors and involved laypeople support church policies prohibiting same-sex ceremonies, reports
@JohnLomperis
#umc
Tim Keller was known for his winsome, urbane style in conveying orthodox Christianity. To New Yorkers, he was a surprise, undermining crude stereotypes of evangelicals.
“The overthrow of Roe v. Wade enables Christians and The Church in America to explain why our faith affirms the humanity of unborn persons and why we think they deserve legal protection," says
@markdtooley
.
What a group from
@WheatonCollege
! Thanks for your thoughtful questions and contributions to the
@ProvMagazine
Christianity & Nat’l Security Conference in DC.
"The United Methodist Church has chosen to follow what pleases man instead of what pleases God," African delegates to General Conference say in a press statement.
#umc
DC Episcopal Bishop Budde "outraged" at Trump church photo op. She was unbothered by $20,000 in damage to church in riot. Danger of selective outrage is in exposing one’s self as another partisan instead of acting as senior shepherd, writes
@jeffreyhwalton
Outside DC a dwindling United Methodist church with rainbow signage & 54 members touts inclusion; across street the Baptists have massive building project vastly expanding their space while offering services in Spanish, Arabic, Korean & Vietnamese.
Too many United Methodists believe misleading propaganda about how if liberalization advocates had their way, they would still lovingly tolerate conservative United Methodists who remained in the denomination, and that such tolerance was even workable.
Despite Turkey’s rogue actions and the threat posed to Christians in the region,
@indefchristians
President Toufic Baaklini hasn't lost hope. “This is where Christianity began, and this is where Christianity is going to stay, with our help and support.”
This week IRD welcomes intern Teresa Overholser from Dayton, Ohio, an
@Ashland_Univ
sophomore majoring in history, philosophy, and religion and minoring in ethics and political science. Teresa hopes to make a career in public policy, media, or education. Welcome, Teresa!
United Methodist agencies are preparing for a 38 percent drop in funding for 2025-2028, implying an expected membership loss of 2.3 million members from the nearly 6.3 million in the U.S. in 2020. That is not a minor exodus, writes
@markdtooley
.
#umc
Join us in welcoming autumn intern Kennedy Lee, an Evangelical United Methodist and student in the Comparative Politics of Eurasia Master’s program at the Russian Higher School of Economics. She holds a BA in Russian and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
North Georgia United Methodist officials resemble 3rd World dictatorship that, having called election, realizes results won't be favorable, & cancels voting, faulting factually incorrect & defamatory information spread by the opposition.
@markdtooley
Enormous scale of deaths caused by abortion compared to guns or death penalty is undeniable, notes
@ChelsenVicari
So where is the same amount of outrage/advocacy from progressive Christians and social justice activists as devoted to guns and death penalty?
In a key United Methodist General Conference vote setting voting priorities for the next three days, delegates preferred the Traditional Plan backed by global evangelicals over the liberalizing One Church Plan backed by most bishops
#UMCGC
“We’re valuable based on our intrinsic worth, not our instrumental worth – what we can do for other people,” says
@RyanTAnd
at
@Anglicans4Life
summit. “We all have an equal claim to dignity.”
“We’re seeing a new church being born!” The best of what a Methodist annual conference can be is seen in Texas as a first for the Global Methodist Church, reports UM Action Director
@JohnLomperis
.
This January IRD welcomes winter intern Hope Rawlson from Patrick Henry College. Hope comes to IRD from Florida and has a background in Political Science and International Affairs. Welcome,
@HRawlson
!
We’re delighted to welcome a delegation from
@my_ccu
as we think through issues of statecraft and foreign policy drawing upon the Christian tradition. Thanks for joining in at the
@ProvMagazine
Christianity & Nat’l Security conference!
“This was a historic turning point for our denomination, and will hopefully help make the United Methodist Church look refreshingly very different from what we have seen in the last several years,” says
@JohnLomperis
as
#umcgc2019
adopts Traditional Plan
Can Jews, Christians and Muslims unite in the face of postmodern nihilism? The
@RFInstitute
hosted an interfaith panel of philosophers and theologians on our shared ethical commitments, writes
@DiddamsJames
"It's become very clear that this is not your parents' United Methodist Church anymore,"
@JohnLomperis
updates
@IssuesEtc
. "We have a narrowing opportunity," Lomperis says of window for congregations to depart.
Virginia congregation punitively singled out and blocked from exit despite vote of 97% of the congregation to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church.
#umc
White evangelicals condemning fellow white evangelicals for supporting the President is a practice that has exhausted itself, writes
@DerryckGreen
as a recent
@CTmagazine
piece disparages assumed motivations.
United Methodist congregations in Iowa explicitly have “a limited right” to disaffiliate and keep their properties—but only if their church councils act before the end of June, reports
@JohnLomperis
.
#umc
Liberian United Methodist leader: “Please understand me when I say the vast majority of African United Methodists will never, ever trade Jesus and the truth of the Bible for money.”
#UMCGC19
“I just pray for a day when the Methodist movement in America finds its roots again in Wesleyan thought and practice, but also in the discipline of church planting and giving ourselves away to make more new disciples for Jesus.”
@EricTheStory
As United Methodism moves towards separation, whichever new group rejects biblical teachings on this matter will be less ethnically diverse & less effective in reaching newer immigrant communities in demographically changing America
@JohnLomperis
More than 20 countries criminalize leaving one’s religion of birth or changing one’s faith. IRD's
@RickPlasterer
reports on the stories of Christians from Iran, Mauritania and even several states of India where anti-conversion laws resulted in violence.
Today IRD welcomes summer intern Kate Cvancara, a graduate of George Fox University with a degree in biology and political science. Kate has a special interest in the Christian responsibility to civic discourse. Welcome, Kate!
Churches leaving United Methodism by next year’s deadline will own their property, have authority over next pastoral appointment, no longer subsidize United Methodist bureaucracy & be able to plan for hopeful future.
@markdtooley
Every active United Methodist bishop in America oversees a culture of theological anarchy. Clergy can — and do — publicly discourage belief in core doctrines, with no response from bishops.
Predicting the future of Protestant denominations in the US seems simple when analyzing seminary data, notes
@ChelsenVicari
.
@SBTS
has become the largest U.S. seminary, while a Seventh-day Adventist school now ranks among the top 10 largest
Several liberal United Methodist Church conferences officially begin exploring possible split from the
#UMC
to form new liberal denomination. "We are in a de facto schism, which is merely awaiting some sort of more formal recognition"
@JohnLomperis
writes.
What caused a gay organist to vandalize his Episcopal Church with antisemitic imagery? The story is a case study in projection and deciding that the correct course of action following post-election anguish is to make perceived opponents look as bad as possible.
The story of an
#Episcopal
church spray-painted “Heil Trump” was national news. Later the church organist was revealed as responsible. Washington Post coverage by
@PeteJamison
investigates personal and familial brokenness in the choices of those involved.
"As the only church thus far from the Northern Virginia District of the UMC to disaffiliate, I am hopeful that our church growth will be aided by new membership coming from other churches who have not allowed discussion of the issues," writes Nokesville Methodist's Jeff Brown.
Showing the new normal, a second openly partnered, gay activist bishop, Cedric Bridgeforth, was elected in the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church.
Our parents said it. Politicians say it. Pastors insist it. Denominational executives declare it. It is usually uttered as the clinching point of any possible argument: “Well, we are all children of God after all!”
No,
@TalbotDavis
writes. We’re not.
One decade after the
#Anglican
Church in North America was inaugurated, Anglicans returned to Texas to release a revised Book of Common Prayer and be challenged by speakers to emphasize Christian discipleship.
#disciple2019
“Peace and love, freely offered here; cast aside your doubts and fears,” the congregation sang, as the phrase “We’re accepted as we are” was repeated several times at the Integrity Eucharist, which announced a new transgender president.
#gc79