These Idaho churches are breaking away from the United Methodists over LGBTQ rights
The number of churches leaving the United Methodist Church is mounting.
Churches in the Pacific Northwest can now be added to the totals after two special sessions last weekend.
In all, four churches in Idaho, one church in Oregon and 11 churches in Washington are leaving the United Methodist Church over the issue of homosexuality.
The Oregon-Idaho Conference, which includes Southern Idaho and all of Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest Conference, which includes Washington and North Idaho, held special sessions to hear requests from churches seeking to disaffiliate with the United Methodist Church.
The four Idaho churches that are leaving are:
Eagle United Methodist Church, otherwise known as Eagle Hills Church
Castleford United Methodist Church in Castleford, outside Buhl in Twin Falls County
Cavendish United Methodist Church in Kendrick, Latah County
Orofino-Peck United Methodist Church, in Orofino, Clearwater County.
Only one church in Oregon, Fossil United Methodist Church, in Fossil, a small city in the middle of Oregon, disaffiliated over the weekend, while 11 churches in Washington state disaffiliated.
As I wrote in a column last month, at issue is an apparent conflict in church doctrine.
One part of the church doctrine states that “all human life is of sacred worth.” That suggests that everyone — gay or straight — deserves the same rights, including being clergy members and getting married. However, another part of doctrine states that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
What’s happened over the years is that many congregations within the United Methodist Church have placed more emphasis on the “all human life is of sacred worth,” leading to gay clergy and gay marriage.
So conservative churches are leaving the United Methodist Church over the widely accepted practice of many churches in the United States of ordaining and marrying LGBTQ people.
The United Methodist Church’s governing body in 2019 voted to allow churches to leave the denomination if they’re seeking to leave because of differences in theology related to sexuality.
Individual churches can leave the denomination through the end of this year. Depending on the rules of their specific conference, they can leave with their land and buildings.
Churches can become an independent church or join another denomination. Some churches are choosing to join the newly formed Global Methodist Church, a breakaway conservative denomination formed in response to what’s happening within the United Methodist Church.
The Rev. John Stimpson, pastor at Eagle Hills Church, did not return phone messages left for him at his church. There was no answer at the Castleford church phone number and no option to leave a voicemail. The church did not respond to an email request for comment.
As many as 30 churches out of about 400 in the Greater Northwest Area, which includes Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, have been considering disaffiliating, according to the Rev. Karen Hernandez, superintendent for the district that covers eastern Oregon and the southern part of Idaho.
With just 16 disaffiliations so far, the Northwest has one of the lowest rates of those leaving.
Some regions have seen large numbers of disaffiliations, such as the Southeast (8.1%) and South Central (14.1%), particularly Texas, where 525 churches have disaffiliated, according to a review of church data analyzed by Religion News Service in an article that appeared in Christianity Today.
In April, 264 churches, or nearly a third of the churches in one Tennessee conference, disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church there.
Alabama-West Florida added another 193 disaffiliations this year, and Western North Carolina has had 192 disaffiliations, according to the church.
Nationwide, about 3,000 churches out of 30,000 have been granted permission to disaffiliate since 2019, according to United Methodist News.
Hernandez previously said that she expects more disaffiliations in the Northwest before the deadline.
