Our little episcopal church is being rocked by this election.

[drray23]

The council of bishops issued a strong statement, actually a 16 page position document strongly condemning white supremacy and Christian nationalism. Of course I am grateful for this.

Our rector announced in the church bulletin ahead of last week that she would discuss it after service. She did so.

What an eye opener. Somehow 30 % of the congregation did not attend. Several outright left the church over this. Mostly, political leanings weren't discussed before but given that we are in the south and that congregation is older white people it was a likely outcome.

I think it's for the better. There is no place for this hatred if you pretend to be a person of faith and following the Bible's precepts.

[Think. Again.]

1. Good, I'm glad to hear the "Big Clean Out" has begun.

Hopefully, every rightwinger will simply leave any and every social circle they belong to and hide out for the rest of their pathetic hateful lives in lonely, dark, shamed misery.

[AllaN01Bear]

2. our church diocese( episcopa)l went through a split in 2007

it was painful. a very appropriate post.

[SomedayKindaLove]

3. Sounds like your church

Just got a lot better.

[surfered]

4. Love thy neighbor wasn't conditional, like only if they're white.

[surfered]

5. The Methodist church split over LGBT.

[Skittles]

18. do you even realize how ridiuclous that sounds

people should not care what any sanctimonious assholes think

[live love laugh]

6. 30% is about right across the board.

[Skittles]

7. yeah ok

why does anyone need a church to advise them how to be decent people

[Hieronymus Phact]

8. Maybe there's other reasons people go to church

I can think of several, can you?

[Skittles]

11. nope

I just try to be a good person because it is the right thing to do, not because I expect some kind of reward in the end.

Over and OUT.

[Hieronymus Phact]

21. wow

Hardly condescending at all.

[Warpy]

9. Chances are some people just didn't feel it needed any sort of discussion

especially because food and football were beckoning.

While a few sourpusses undoubtedly disagreed with the bishops, I'm going with "I got better things to do" to explain the high number of people who didn't stick around.

I sat tgat because it's a fairly liberal denomination. Most likely the Klanners had departed for megachurches and other places to hear false prophets before now.

In fact, I'm a little surprised 70% did stick around.

[drray23]

10. We live in the middle of nowhere in a small town in the south. no megachurch there.

It's possible that some people did not attend for other reasons of course. Some definitely left for good and notified the rector why. Thats how we know.

[Warpy]

19. There will always be some sourpusses who only went there because it was closest

You can bet there are other little churches scattered around that will be more to their liking, featuring hellfire preachers with little education and even less reading comprehension than education.

One thing the south has never lacked is churches.

Likely there will be a reshuffle, Harris voters becoming uncomfortable at the wingnut churches and coming to yours. Stranger things have happened.

[Wednesdays]

13. "Most likely the Klanners had departed ..

... for megachurches and other places to hear false prophets before now."

You'd be surprised to see the political makeup of churches in the boonies, even Episcopalian.

My church is made up of mostly Democrats, but there's one older man, who has a walker with an "Impeach Biden" sticker on it.

[usonian]

12. Your church wasn't rocked. People were rocked when confronted with the wickedness of their beliefs.

[BaronChocula]

14. Offending immorality is righteous!

Good for your church leadership.

[MLAA]

15. Sounds like the 70% that aren't offended by condemning white supremacy will make a much nicer congregation.

But sad there 30% are either white supremacists or white supremacist adjacent.

[AverageOldGuy]

16. The United Methodist Church went through this over the past few years.

The UMC Book of Discipline says homosexuality is not compatible with our beliefs. For years the UMC has wrestled with this.

It’s a long story but eventually those who wanted to retain the prohibition could “disassociate” and go their way. Churches had to decide by Dec 31, 2023. My little rural UMC did not even discuss it, we stayed with the UNITED Methodist Church. Of the eight little Methodist churches in my rural VA county, five disassociated, thanks mainly to the efforts of one MAGAt in one church.

It’s not one year later and already we have gained 15 members from churches that disassociated while one of the disassociated churches has closed, could not afford to stay open, and two others are shaky.

Meanwhile, the UMC is changing the Book of Discipline.

[summer_in_TX]

17. I am pretty sure that many of you will look around and find that their leaving was a blessing.

My United Methodist Church found that with the pandemic-forced delay in the final decision about "divorcing" over the issue of full inclusion of LGBTQ people in all aspects of our membership and worship, plus being closed to in-person worship for many months over the pandemic, caused a walk-put by many of the old guard. They were also part of a faction who were mad at our then-pastor for a variety of reasons. After we reopened and started looking around, we found all the impediments to full inclusion had taken themselves out. I miss some of them (not all left because of the LGBTQ stance of the church) but am relieved God moved the obstacle out of the way.

That doesn't mean we don't have some financial struggles. We are still rebuilding. But new folks who believe God's love is for everyone, no exceptions, have found us in the last year and a half.

[wryter2000]

20. I'm so sorry

The national church is doing good things against Christian Nationalism. I hope you are able to hang together. It's been so hard for some folks in the south.