For the next 10 days, it will be put to the United Methodists, with hundreds of delegates from around the world hashing out more than 1,000 proposals on topics from abortion and whether to digitize hymnals to potentially divesting from businesses connected with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Disputes over human sexuality appear to many to be most pressing. This is in part because United Methodists have not changed their stance on homosexuality, whereas much of mainline Protestantism has in some way. The United Methodist Book of Discipline – the group’s book of law and doctrine – calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The church has also seen huge controversy in recent years as pastors have begun openly bucking the ban on officiating at same-gender weddings, and high-profile disciplinary trials have embarrassed many Methodists.
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