Fort Worth, Texas, May 1, 2008 / 12:31 pm
Yesterday the United Methodist General Conference delegates affirmed not only that marriage is between a man and a woman but that marriage is a "covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage," an issue regarded as one of the most controversial within the church.
According to the Institute of Religion and Democracy (IRD), the delegates voted down the committee report that would change The Book of Discipline to explicitly condone homosexual practice by a vote of 501- 417.
Other delegates at the convention emphasized that the defeated "majority report" would have acknowledged that members of the United Methodist Church "deeply disagree with one another" on the issue of homosexuality.
Frederick Brewington, a layman who is a member of the New York Annual Conference called the failed report a "mature way forward" and "an honest, yet humble approach to how we are to view one another," according to the United Methodist News Service.