Petition Text: 22340-CS-NonDis-O

Understanding Petition Numbers

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Whereas, The United Methodist Church professes to accept and teach scriptural theology as contained in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible; and

Whereas, Scripture is the primary of our four fundamental bases for religious faith and practice in John Wesley's "Quadrilateral"; and

Whereas, the Bible is very explicit throughout both Testaments regarding God's abhorrence and condemnation of the practice of homosexuality (see Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26, 27; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; 1 Timothy 1:8-11); and

Whereas, the rejection of the sin of homosexuality is not to be construed as a rejection of those homosexual persons making repentance and seeking grace and pardon from God and the church, nor is it to be construed as a shirking of the church's responsibility to evangelize those still deeply entrenched in the homosexual lifestyle just as much as those entangled in any other sin;

Therefore, be it resolved, that since God is so clear in the Bible about his commandment concerning homosexuality that we, as a highly visible, world-wide church, do hereby proclaim God's standard of holiness and moral righteousness and forbid ever after consideration of the questions of ordination of homosexuals for ministry or the acceptance of the homosexual orientation/lifestyle in The United Methodist Church; and

Be it further resolved, that United Methodist congregations, pastors and/or other Church leaders who insist on defying this stance of the Church as it is based upon God's statute will be disciplined in accordance with procedures in applicable paragraphs of the Book of Discipline

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Petition Text: 22340-CS-NonDis-O
1996 United Methodist General Conference