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Protestant churches losing members with approval of same-sex 'marriages'
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
July 22nd, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
July 22nd, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Mainline protestant churches - those apart from their evangelical
counterparts, have liberalized their standards and have since lost
members. Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutherans have
provided provisions for the blessing of same-sex unions and ordination
of transgender people and have seen a downturn in attendance. Rt. Rev.
Mark Joseph Lawrence, the Episcopal bishop of South Carolina fears that
his church will soon be adrift with the adoption of secular values.
"Do I think that these two decisions will cause further decline? I believe they will," Bishop Lawrence said. "I think we've entered into a time of sexual and gender anarchy."
Memberships at Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutherans have fallen over the past few decades, and some observers attribute to their supposed leftward drift.
"Practically every denomination - Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian - that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance," wrote columnist and author Ross Douthat in a New York Times editorial.
The Episcopal Church has lost more than 16 percent of its membership since the turn of the century. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in 2008 reported that "the proportion of the population that is Protestant has declined markedly in recent decades."
As the Episcopal Church weighed gay-union rites last week, most of the Diocese of South Carolina's delegation left the General Convention to show their concern.
"I had an issue of conscience in which I believed that a line had been crossed in the church's teachings, that I could no longer pretend that nothing significant had happened," Bishop Lawrence says. He added that he has no intention of leaving the church.
"It's not merely a matter of adapting the Church's teachings about Jesus Christ, about salvation, about right and wrong to the culture," he said. "The culture is adrift in sexual confusion and obsession."
In contrast, Jenna Guy, an Episcopalian from Iowa, says the gay-rites are important to the younger generation of Episcopalians and that the resolution would bring more people into the church.
"It's always with great pride that I tell [people] of the inclusive nature of this church," Guy said.
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