In a previous post, Joel Thomas, in the comments, referred me to an article in the New York Times that covers a memo detailing private thoughts of Bill Hinson, president of the Confessing Movement, on "an amicable and just separation".
I cannot find a link to the May 7 NYTimes article but I remember it quoting Mark Tooley, president of UM Action, part of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, as saying that conservatives were seeking a split for a long time. This quotation seemed to be very much out of character for anything I had read coming from Mr. Tooley. I subscribe to UM Action, and all of their exhortations to dissatisfied Methodists are to stay in the church and work for reform from within. I cannot help but think that Mr. Tooley was misquoted by the Times.
Here's another news article from another paper with a different quotation from Mark Tooley:
Church organizer calls for Methodist split
Anyhow, getting back to Rev. Bill Hinson, while he is the president of an organization with much influence, he also stated that the views expressed in this paper, An Amicable and Just Separation, are his own and have not been officially approved, nor submitted to the UMC General Conference. I am a supporter of the Confessing Movement, but I am not happy to hear these ideas expressed. I think they do a disservice to the United Methodist Church, especially given the goals achieved by the Confessing Movement at the General Convention. The public expression of these views only supports those who claim that conservatives are to blame whenever churches divide over conflicts involving Biblical authority and orthodoxy.
UPDATE: Another article from Christianity Today has further quotations and viewpoints from Rev. Bill Hinson, James Heidinger, President of Good News, and Mark Tooley of UM Action.
Posted by Joel Fuhrmann at May 8, 2004 10:53 PM