The United Methodist Church’s racial monitoring agency is awarding grants to what it calls “bold ministries” aiding immigrants. But it’s not telling who’s getting the money to protect the safety of the ministries and their locations. The UMC’s Washington, D.C.-based…
UMC immigration webinar gives facts, cautions and hope
More than 2,100 participants logged in July 17 to a United Methodist-sponsored webinar that gave 90 minutes of spiritual encouragement, prayer and information — but not legal counsel — on birthright citizenship and immigration enforcement. United Methodist leaders organized the…
UMC can sue SMU over governance, Texas high court says
The Texas Supreme Court says the South Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church has legal standing to sue Southern Methodist University over changed bylaws that deprived the regional body of its right to govern the church-owned university located in…
International student visa ban threatens bilingual mission school
Carla Cardoza, president of United Methodist-related Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, Texas, has been telling this story at annual conference sessions across the denomination’s South Central Jurisdiction since May 28: “Karla is a rising senior at LPI. She has…
Indiana attorney general targets DePauw and Butler over DEI
United Methodists in Indiana have officially backed UMC-related DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., for its continued support of diversity and inclusion in the face of a threat from the state’s attorney general to strip its nonprofit status unless it complies…
New US travel ban will harm The United Methodist Church
President Donald Trump’s announced travel ban will harm members of The United Methodist Church and its far-flung ministries significantly if allowed to stand. According to the newsletter 1440: “Countries whose foreign nationals will be banned are Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), Chad,…
United Methodist schools stand up to Trump administration
Leaders of United Methodist-affiliated colleges and universities are expanding their resistance to Trump administration efforts to interfere in the nation’s educational institutions. The movement began in late February when Roland Fernandes, top executive of the General Board of Higher Education…
For United Methodists, politics isn’t partisan; it’s gospel
This is the last in a five-part series on the newly adopted Social Principles of The United Methodist Church. “Politics” often gets a bad rap in American churches, not least because it’s confused with “partisanship.” For United Methodists, politics…
The phrase that haunted United Methodists for 52 years is gone
Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the updated Social Principles of The United Methodist Church. Back in 1972, delegates to the first full General Conference of the four-year-old United Methodist Church struggled to adopt a…
‘Economic Community’ teaches United Methodists all wealth belongs to God
Editor’s note: This is the third in a five-part series on the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church and how they intersect current issues. Money, money, money, money. Everybody needs it, and some get a lot more than…
‘This is no longer just about Palestine; it’s about our collective humanity’
“This is no longer just about Palestine; it’s about our collective humanity,” a Palestinian Christian pastor told the World Methodist Council March 19. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and author of Christ in the…
Become ‘courageous resisters,’ scholar tells UMC women
“Everyday women” of the Civil Rights Movement should inspire Christians today to become “courageous resisters,” according to AnneMarie Mingo. She spoke during a March 18 webinar hosted by United Women in Faith, the worldwide women’s organization of The United Methodist…