Hundreds of congregations of the United Methodist Church voted to leave the denomination, and remaining congregations have just a few weeks left to decide whether to leave or stay amid the schism over same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ clergy, furthering a theological divide that has split up some of the largest Protestant churches in the United States in recent years. Congregations have until the end of 2023 to split from the UMC. Four years after the United Methodist Church decided to allow churches to disaffiliate from the denomination over the conflict within the church regarding homosexuality, 261 of the nearly 700 congregations from the UMC’s North Georgia Conference have opted to leave so far. The last time so many denominations underwent schisms was in the 19th century when some denominations split over slavery. Tensions over LGBTQ+ issues have also taken hold in the Catholic Church, which has been increasingly criticized by conservatives over the leadership of Pope Francis, who is perceived as more welcoming to LGBTQ+ Catholics than his predecessors. In July 2013, Francis famously asked: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” He has since supported civil unions for same-sex couples and said that God loves gay Catholics, though he has reaffirmed traditional church teachings that marriage is between a man and a woman and homosexual acts are sins.
