Featured Conservative Methodists are offered $25,000,000 to go away

Inside Higher Education • Most schools likely to remain with UMC

"The 93 college presidents in attendance for a meeting of the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United Methodist Church (NASCUMC) in January 2019 unanimously issued a statement opposing the church’s adoption of new restrictions on LGBT+ clergy and same-sex marriage."

"The leaders of the 13 theological schools also unanimously opposed the restrictions, which were approved by a vote of the church’s general conference last February."

"Three institutions, Baldwin Wallace University*, Randolph College and the University of Mount Union, [had already] formally disaffiliated, describing the church’s stance on LGBTQ issues as incompatible with their own....It's unclear if [they will] choose to affiliate with the United Methodists again in the future....A spokesman for Baldwin Wallace, Shawn Smith Salamone, declined to comment on whether the university might choose to reaffiliate...She noted....'At the current time, we continue to believe that we can best support our values and the active faith lives of our community as an independent university'."

* [the Association of Reformed Baptists Churches of America (ARBCA) held their General Assembly last year at Baldwin Wallace University ! ]

"There is widespread hope among Methodist college presidents that this proposed resolution will be adopted," said Rock Jones, president of Ohio Wesleyan University....[it] would preserve the United Methodist Church as a fully inclusive institution and thus one that Ohio Wesleyan would wish to remain affiliated."

"while it's clear that Methodist higher education institutions, as a whole, support more inclusive church policies...about five Methodist-affiliated institutions may choose to depart the United Methodists and affiliate with the "traditionalist Methodist" denomination....While the presidents of those institutions are strongly aligned with...the NASCUMC statement and position, they understand that some of the characteristics of their own institutions may lead them to be with the new denomination."