Church ends 52-year-old anti-gay stance

The United Methodist Church’s condemnation of homosexuality — which sparked a half-century of conflict — is now no more.

By a vote of 523 to 161 after about an hour and a half of debate, General Conference delegates eliminated the 52-year-old assertion in the denomination’s Social Principles that “the practice of homosexuality… is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

In the same vote, delegates affirmed “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age) into a union of one another and into deeper relationship with God and the religious community.”

Randall Miller, who chaired the Social Principles Task Force that led the development of the revisions approved over the past week, said this was a historic moment.

“It's been 40 years of work for me and others to remove the incompatibility clause from our Social Principles and really live in through our belief that all people are sacred,” said Miller, who is gay and long advocated for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in church life. “Just deeply grateful and it's wonderful to have come to this moment.”

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