The Battle For The Church’s
By Thomas Hampson
Last week the United Methodist Church (UMC) caved to the LGBTQ agenda.
For several years the UMC has pushed back against progressive efforts to embrace same-sex marriage, the ordination of LBGTQ pastors, and the full inclusion of those who identify as LGBTQ into all church ministries and activities. That all ended last Tuesday by an overwhelming vote of 667-54 by the general conference delegates.
The UMC joins other major denominations—The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Presbyterian Church, the Episcopal Church, and the United Church of Christ—in the sell-out to our sexualized culture. These denominations represent approximately 12 million baptized Christians in the US; the UMC is the largest of these, with over 5 million.
The pressure on all churches in the US is not to welcome attendance of LGBTQ individuals at church services. Most churches welcome all seekers. The real pressure is to affirm those who identify as LGBTQ as a special group whose unique needs must be accommodated and celebrated, namely that their sexual identity is normal.
The “normality” view of LGBTQ identities has grown dramatically in just the last few years largely because of our inaction as Christians and, frankly, as citizens. Our failure to effectively advocate for the truth about God’s design has led to a growing number of children being groomed and recruited into LGBTQ lifestyles, many through school-backed gay-straight alliances.
Between 26% and 30% of children currently in school identify as LGBTQ. This is up from 20.8% for Gen Z, which is up from 10.5% for Millennials.
The dramatic increase in children identifying as part of the alphabet sub-culture over such a short period of time points toward an artificial cause. This is not a spontaneous reordering of the sexuality of our younger generations. This is the result of propaganda and active recruitment to a cause.
The dramatic increase means there are intentionally increasing the number of Christian parents who are torn between a child they love who identifies as LGBTQ and their church, a church that is theologically opposed to affirming those who claim such identities. Yet parents and their church leaders alike fear pushing their LGBTQ-identifying children away from the church.
Continue reading here Or listen to Tom and Jack discuss it here on the “Become Who You Are” podcast!
