Traditionalists win Methodist vote

ST. LOUIS — Late Tuesday afternoon, United Methodist delegates at the St. Louis General Conference voted 438-384 to adopt the Traditional Plan retaining and perhaps strengthening prohibitions on LGBTQ persons and their supporters in the UMC.

The final vote took place after lengthy and unsuccessful amendments and points of order by the progressives among the delegates. The final vote was immediately met by impromptu singing of “Blessed Assurance” from hundreds of LGBTQ supporters in the bleachers and joined by many of the delegates on the losing side of the question.

The final vote, a 55 percent majority, was exactly the same margin of victory as the first key vote three days ago, a strong signal that three days of debate and prayer did not change anybody’s position

Church officials say is too early to know the long-term implications for the denomination. The Traditional Plan had earlier in the day had key sections ruled unconstitutional, making it uncertain if conservatives got enough — even in victory — to satisfy them.

The conference was set to adjourn an hour after the vote with a church as painfully divided as it was upon convening the session. Few Methodists will leave St Louis with any sense of joy or success in the work of the body, although conservatives will correctly claim that at every opportunity for a vote over the decades, the Methodists have always voted to retain traditional standards.

Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, writes a weekly column that is carried in The Albany Herald. He was at the St. Louis General Conference as an observer.