that they are done with one another<\/a>.\u00a0 Traditionalist Rob Renfroe argues that the two factions should part company and Frank Schaefer, who was deprived of his ordination credentials for a time after officiating at his son\u2019s wedding to another man, has declared, \u201c\u2019It\u2019s better for our LGBTQ community if we split.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nExperts in Methodist polity observe that the fatigue and frustration on both sides of the divide are at nearly intolerable levels and that if the General Conference does not make a decision, it will be made for them.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t just a sentiment.\u00a0 Both sides are also making plans to go their own way, even as they board trains, planes and automobiles for St. Louis, Missouri.<\/p>\n
Then there are the plans before the church itself.\u00a0 The \u201cTraditionalist Plan\u201d doubles down on the current rules or Discipline<\/em> of the church, it promises to prosecute those who fail to abide by those rules, and plainly describes an exit plan for those who are willing to acknowledge that they don\u2019t plan to conform to the dictates of Discipline.<\/em>\u00a0 One could argue that this isn\u2019t schism, but just the church getting clear about its commitments, but the effect is the same.<\/p>\nThe Connectional Conference Plan reorganizes the entire church, abandoning its regional system of jurisdictional conferences and creates three virtual conferences instead: Progressive, Traditional and Unity \u2013 read, left, right and center.\u00a0 As hard as planners have argued that this is one of the plans which preserves denominational unity, the fact of the matter is that it is really in-house schism, with two groups pulling in opposite directions and one crying, \u201cCan\u2019t we just get along?\u201d The plan promises that every four years the church can check in with one another to see if things have changed.<\/p>\n
The One Church Plan also looks like organized schism.\u00a0 This plan, which is the one favored by a number of bishops and denominational leaders, would modify the language of the Discipline<\/em> to foreclose on church trials, and then allow local congregations, clergy and annual conferences to each choose a side.\u00a0 If it prevails some would understandably argue that the plan preserves the unity of the denomination, but from another perspective the only form of unity that the plan safeguards is largely administrative and financial.<\/p>\nAs someone who believes that the unity of the church is a theological value that is often neglected, I feel for my friends and colleagues who grieve the likely division that lies ahead.\u00a0 The bureaucratic and financial issues are of little long-term importance, and often the attachment that people have to the unity of the church is little more than a vague (if understandable) longing for the familiar.\u00a0 But the failure of the church to witness to the kind of community that exhibits the love and mercy of God has much larger significance.\u00a0 If the church cannot move forward in unity, one has to ask, what substantive difference does the church\u2019s teaching make?<\/p>\n
That said, I have reluctantly concluded that American Protestantism was made for schism.\u00a0 This is not the first time that Methodism has fractured.\u00a0 There are already multiple versions of Methodism in the United States thanks to the schismatic character of Protestantism.\u00a0 The Methodist Church has divided in the past, and the same predilection for division can be illustrated across denominations, including my own.\u00a0 The more important question is why that predilection is so common across American Protestantism.\u00a0 That is a question that deserves far more attention that I can give it here, but it is fairly safe to say that a handful of factors dominate.<\/p>\n
One is the dynamic set in motion by both the European and English Reformations.\u00a0 The moment that Luther responded to his own excommunication by founding a new church and Henry VIII declared himself the head of the church in England, unity took a back seat to other considerations.\u00a0 Whether it was monarchical independence in Henry\u2019s case or the longing for a church marked by purity and faithfulness in Luther\u2019s case, the unity of the church was relegated to the fringes of Protestantism\u2019s theology.\u00a0 Protestants were not the first to long for reformation and contrary to popular belief, Catholics had made constant efforts to reform the Roman church long before the rift with Luther.\u00a0 But once Protestant reformers broke with the church itself as a means of addressing other concerns, unity was always likely to be sacrificed to other considerations.<\/p>\n
Another dynamic is the fusion of the democratic process and the life of the church.\u00a0 Crafted hip to hip with the American Revolution, Protestantism in the United States combined politics and faith from the beginning.\u00a0 Decision making bodies mimicked the country\u2019s bicameral legislative structure, church proceedings were shaped by the parliamentary rules that governed other bodies, and national conferences (or conventions) became a common means of managing the church\u2019s business.<\/p>\n
More importantly of late the crafting of legislation and political maneuvering has become the way of navigating issues that were once addressed pastorally and on the local level.\u00a0 Gone is the pastoral space that was once considered necessary to address the struggles that the church faced individually and collectively.\u00a0 Now the reigning assumption is that both can and should be addressed legislatively. \u00a0It is striking, then, but not really surprising that to one degree or another United Methodists are now willing to reorganize themselves into what are essentially center, right and left political coalitions.<\/p>\n
Is American Protestantism made for schism, then?\u00a0 There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that it is.\u00a0 What it means to acknowledge that as a given, however, should give us all pause.\u00a0 After decades of ecumenical efforts, it now appears that we will part company across a growing number of issues and there is no reason to believe that United Methodism or any other American denomination has reached the end of the issues that may divide us.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As my Methodist siblings approach their General Conference, many have been looking for a way to hold their denomination together, and not a few have agonized over the prospect that they are headed for schism.\u00a0 While it is hard to be definitive, there seems to be more evidence than not that Methodists are going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2713,116,112,2710,2707],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-conference","category-protestant-reformation","category-protestantism","category-schism","category-united-methodist-church"],"yoast_head":"\n
Methodism and American Protestants: Built for Schism?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As my Methodist siblings approach their General Conference, many have been looking for a way to hold their denomination together, and not a few have\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2019\/02\/methodism-and-american-protestants-built-for-schism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Methodism and American Protestants: Built for Schism?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As my Methodist siblings approach their General Conference, many have been looking for a way to hold their denomination together, and not a few have\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2019\/02\/methodism-and-american-protestants-built-for-schism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"What God Wants for Your Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-23T14:03:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-23T17:30:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/174\/2015\/06\/ID-100206611.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2019\/02\/methodism-and-american-protestants-built-for-schism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2019\/02\/methodism-and-american-protestants-built-for-schism\/\",\"name\":\"Methodism and American Protestants: Built for Schism?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-23T14:03:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-23T17:30:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\"},\"description\":\"As my Methodist siblings approach their General Conference, many have been looking for a way to hold their denomination together, and not a few have\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2019\/02\/methodism-and-american-protestants-built-for-schism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2019\/02\/methodism-and-american-protestants-built-for-schism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2019\/02\/methodism-and-american-protestants-built-for-schism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Methodism and American Protestants: Built for Schism?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\",\"name\":\"What God Wants for Your Life\",\"description\":\"Thoughts on the perennial demands and changing shape of Christian spirituality.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\",\"name\":\"Frederick Schmidt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frederick Schmidt\"},\"description\":\"The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt, Jr. is inaugural holder of the Rueben P. Job Chair in Spiritual Formation and a Senior Scholar at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. He is also Vice Rector at Good Shepherd, Brentwood, TN; an Episcopal Priest; spiritual director; retreat facilitator; conference leader; and writer. He is the author of numerous published articles and reviews, as well as several books: A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1998), The Changing Face of God (Morehouse, 2000), When Suffering Persists (Morehouse, 2001), in Italian translation: Sofferenza, All ricerca di una riposta (Torino: Claudiana, 2004), What God Wants for Your Life \ufeff(Harper, 2005), Conversations with Scripture: Revelation (Morehouse, 2005), \ufeffConversations with Scripture: Luke \ufeff(Morehouse, 2009), and The Dave Test (Abingdon, 2013). He and his wife, Natalie (who is also an Episcopal priest), live in Arrington, TN. 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<\/a>As my Methodist siblings approach their General Conference, many have been looking for a way to hold their denomination together, and not a few have agonized over the prospect that they are headed for schism.\u00a0 While it is hard to be definitive, there seems to be more evidence than not that Methodists are going to part company with one another.<\/p>\n