This past weekend, the United Methodist Church held its annual bishops conference in Tampa, Fla. The topics up for debate were the ordination of homosexual clergy and whether or not the church would endorse gay marriage.
The liberalization of Christian denominations and their policies regarding homosexuality have been prevalent in the headlines lately.
Numerous sects in the U.S. and Europe have been re-evaluating their relationship with the LGBT community, and two things have become increasingly clear: Christianity in the West will by and large come to accept homosexuality, at least nominally, and the days are numbered for America’s old-line denominations.
And that’s not necessarily a good thing.
With bishops gathering from all over the world, LGBT activists descended on Tampa.
Pamphlets were printed in five different languages, including Swahili and Portuguese, and a group of 1,200 former and current Methodist ministers rallied in support of the LGBT cause.
Specifically, the conference debated lifting anti-homosexual clauses from the Methodists’ “Book of Discipline,” a book which outlines basic Methodist doctrine, and discussed the official sanctioning of marriage ceremonies for homosexuals where gay marriage is already legal.
Several Methodist congregations in homosexual-friendly states have already performed marriage ceremonies and plan to keep performing them no matter what the international body decides.
This shouldn’t be much of an issue for Louisiana’s Methodists. This state has already banned gay marriage.
Twice.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the culture war, a church in Portland, Ore., has been vandalized by a group calling itself “The Angry Queers” for expressing opposition to the legalization of gay marriage in that state.
This isn’t the first example of blowback from the LGBT community, either.
During the fallout of a California referendum which banned gay marriage in 2008 (after it had been legal for more than a year), several Mormon and Catholic churches were vandalized, and burning copies of the Bible and the Book of Mormon were left on their doorsteps.
Fighting intolerance with intolerance is like using a flamethrower to put out a fire. The California situation and others like it have done nothing but breed further distrust and anger.
As the two sides push further away from one another, the cracks in America’s traditional religious communities are beginning to show.
In response to popular pressure, restrictions against homosexuals have been loosened in Presbyterian, Lutheran and Episcopalian congregations throughout the country – but it’s put church leaders in a tricky situation.
They can liberalize and open the doors to new members at the risk of alienating a conservative congregation or watch as attendance drops year after year.
This sort of catch-22 is evident in the International Anglican Communion’s decision in 2008 to appoint homosexual bishops.
That move has pushed the traditional Anglican Church close to collapse, as hundreds of parishes and individual churches have seceded and struck out on their own.
The likelihood of a Methodist endorsement of gay marriage has been greatly tempered by what has happened to the Anglicans, but that doesn’t mean that popular opinion is not coming more and more onto the side of the LGBT position.
Many in the progressive Christian movement have warned the Methodists to get with the program or risk rendering themselves irrelevant to the modern believer.
It’s becoming clear that both sides are entrenching, and feelings across the country are hardening.
As this debate widens, it’s going to become more and more difficult for traditional religious communities to maintain cohesion and the public perception that their purpose is to minister to the ills of our wicked world.
As public opinion becomes more understanding of homosexuality, it becomes less understanding of traditional religion’s refusal to accept gays into their leadership.
Traditional religion is in a tight spot.
Should the major denominations fall into infighting, we’ll see a western Christianity divided between small, ineffectual liberal churches and far harsher fringe sects.
Keeping the left and the right under the same tent is necessary for the Church’s continued survival in the West, and our definition of tolerance needs to be clarified.
We need to understand that tolerance doesn’t mean people cannot disagree, it just means people need to treat each other fairly despite those disagreements.
America’s traditional denominations need to stand their ground and meet in the middle – lest they lose the whole bag and signal dark days for the future of American Christianity.
Nicholas Pierce is a 22-year-old history junior from Baton Rouge, follow him on Twitter @TDR_nabdulpierc.
 
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Contact Nicholas Pierce at [email protected]