United Methodists Remove Official Language Denouncing Homosexuality

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United Methodist delegates voted to remove language condemning homosexuality from their official social teachings on Thursday, a day after voting to remove a ban on gay clergy. 

Key Quotes: The restrictions ended on Wednesday had banned “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained as ministers. The language removed on Thursday had deemed “the practice of homosexuality” to be “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Delegates also approved a new formal definition of marriage as between “two people of faith.”

How the Media Covered It: While AP (Lean Left bias) said the United Methodists removed “anti-gay language” and called the conference “overwhelmingly progressive,” The Washington Times (Lean Right bias) — which has its own religious ties — highlighted previous “mass defections by conservative-leaning congregations” and said the conference’s decisions “will likely lead to a further schism.”

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Robert Blain, a Houston public high school teacher, saw many friends leave the United Methodist Church in recent years because of the denomination's ban gay clergy. But on Wednesday, Blain celebrated when reading news posted on X that the majority of UMC delegates at the annual General Conference in Charlottesville, N.C. agreed to remove a 40-year-old rule forbidding "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from taking leadership positions in the church.

United Methodist delegates voted Thursday to make the denomination, which has skewed leftward in the wake of mass defections by conservative-leaning congregations, more gay- and LGBTQ-friendly.

By a 523-161 vote, delegates to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, voted to drop a decadeslong definition of marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman and struck language saying homosexual practice “is incompatible with Christian teaching.”