Bishop Scott Jones of the Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church (encompassing Kansas and Nebraska) recently strongly declared his commitment to uphold the denomination’s ban on same-sex unions.
In a January 15 gathering of all ministers (elders, deacons, licensed local pastors, and associate clergy members) of his conference, he forthrightly addressed the challenge our church is facing with the nationwide, secular-supported campaign of renegade United Methodist clergy performing publicity-stunt same-sex unions in hopes of testing, besieging, and overwhelming our denominational accountability structures. Such activists have been emboldened by not only the quiet and not-so-quiet encouragement of a few radical bishops, but also by the perceived weakness of the UMC Council of Bishops as a whole in terms of its expected unwillingness to stand firm against strong liberal challenges.
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