- Candace Chewell Hodge, Religion Dispatches -
The United Methodist Church voted today to keep intact its section in the Book of Discipline that calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching” and sanctions only heterosexual marriage. New wording would have removed those passages.
The vote came after a debate that became contentious when one African delegate compared homosexuality to bestiality and declared that God would not create humans as gay or lesbian.
During the vote, supporters of the petition to change the Book of Discipline stood at the edges of the convention floor, or the “bar” as the church calls it. As the debate continued, many delegates moved from their seats to join the members on the margins to show their solidarity. In the end the petition failed to pass.
