Comments for Will local church split impact some of our local primary elections? UPDATE | Eastern North Carolina Now

Those issues were dealt with in the mid 1960s, Bob. You are history challenged again. Those things were gone where I lived in North Carolina when I was in high school in the late 1960s and college in the early 1970s. During that period, minorities not only had equal rights, they also had affirmative action. You apparently mis-remember things to try to push your race-based agenda.

Commented: Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 @ 11:54 am By: Steven P. Rader

Bob, you seem really challenged when it comes to history. The lunch counter stuff was in the early 1960s, and I have had the opportunity to meet one of the leaders of the sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro. He is now a Republican activist and I have met him at a number of GOP meetings including one Beaufort County Republican convention, where he was appearing for the Frederick Douglas Foundation, a black Republican organization.

No, in 1971, the social gospel stuff was mostly welfare state promotion. Some of us in our Methodist Youth group, which was where I first encountered it, called it "socialIST gospel" in those days.

Further, religion is not inherently political, although it is a target for takeover by the left, and social gospel is one of their means to try to do so.

Commented: Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 @ 9:31 am By: Steven P. Rader

Actively being "part of a vocal minority" that pushed the liberal position seems to me to be more than being "caught up in this controversy". However, we have freedom of religion in this country and people are free to dress up just about anything as a religion. However the conflict arises when politicians campaign for the liberal position one place and then proclaim how conservative they are during their political campaigns. That does not pass the smell test.

Among a number of the national church bodies, lots of liberal politics, including very active support for illegal immigration, are dressed up as religion. The United Methodist Church is one of the worst offenders on that. Since illegal immigration is one of the top national issues, I would think that the UMC's position on border issues would have entered the discussions, but I was not there and do not know that. Apparently positions on homosexuality were a big driver on both sides.

Commented: Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 @ 8:46 am By: borderhawk

Sad to see Randy and Carolyn caught up in this controversy, but as a former Methodist myself, I was pleased to see the emergence of the Global Methodist Church and proud that Washington's own First Methodist joined it. I myself bailed out of the United Methodist Church back in 1971 over the "social gospel" when I went away to college. I had grown up active in the Methodist Church, and our own congregation and minister were great, but in high school I became aware of the impact of social gospel on the overall church organization. I was going to have to join a new church in a new location anyway, and due to the social gospel decided it would not be a United Methodist Church. My family was historically Lutheran from the time they settled in North Carolina in the 1740s until my parents decided to join a Methodist church many of their friends and neighbors were members of, so I researched the Lutheran Church and found way too much social gospel in its dominant branch, so I ended up joining the traditionalist Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, which met my expectations. If the Global Methodist Church had been an option in 1971, that is probably where I would have gone.

Commented: Monday, February 12th, 2024 @ 7:30 pm By: Steven P. Rader

You make a very good point, Van Zant, about most people's loyalty to their church revolving around their local congregation, not the far off national denomination. Church members usually look to their friends in the local congregation, their local minister, even a cherished church building rather than the agenda of a distant denomination office. Why would someone prioritize a national church body unless it was over ideology? In this case, it appears that promotion of homosexuality was the lightning rod in the split, with the Global Methodist Church rejecting that promotion. Someone would really have to be wound up in the issues involved to leave their longtime local church. I can readily see how this would concern voters particularly over a school board member,

Personally, I am not in Mrs. Walker's district, but if I was my vote would have been determined by the fact that she is part of the "seat warmer" faction that fails to give proper financial oversight to the liberal school superintendant Cheeseman, or, in fact, proper oversight of much of anything.

Randy Walker initially impressed me with his many social media posts about being a watchdog for the taxpayer, but once he won the primary, he took all of those down. Instead, Randy has become a lapdog of the county manager and the ruling coalition, and has not looked out for the taxpayer at all. With his record he would never have had my vote anyway. He has been part of the group piling up a slush fund instead of reducing taxes. With the revaluation coming, we need pro-taxpayer commissioners now more than ever, and Randy just is not one of them.

The state motto Esse Quam Videri is Latin for "To be rather than to seem". That is what voters need to look for in elections, those who are the real deal instead of those just telling voters what they think the voters want to hear as Randy did in his first primary with regard to taxes.

Commented: Monday, February 12th, 2024 @ 12:04 pm By: Concerned Taxpayer

Each to their own. People have a right to their beliefs, but they should also own it, especially as public officials. It is hard to understand why supposedly conservative minded public servants would choose to flee to the increasingly more radical left and woke U.S. United Methodist Church rather than stay in their church in the same building with the congregation that voted to affiliate with the traditional Wesleyan Christians in the Global Methodist Church. Ducks say quack quack. Maybe woke is as woke does.

Commented: Monday, February 12th, 2024 @ 10:06 am By: Van Zant

If this dispute were about whether to use wine or grape juice for communion or the proper role of the bishop, it would be wholly irrelevent to a political campaign. Here the dispute is whether the church ought to push a cultural / political agenda of the left, which would be relevent to an election to public office.

Still, I would hate to see it in a campaign ad for an opponent. It is a delicate subject because it is tied to a church. Informed public or private discussion among voters, however, is proper.

I congratulate First Methodist Church in getting out of the United Methodist Church mousetrap. Although I am not a Methodist myself, I like what I see in the new Global Methodist Church.

Commented: Sunday, February 11th, 2024 @ 6:49 pm By: Conservative Voter

Wow. A race to the bottom. Congrats

Commented: Sunday, February 11th, 2024 @ 6:33 am By: Big Bob

Other candidates may well be in an awkward position to get this information out, but individual voters can and should do so. The position of the Walkers on whether to support their own longtime church embracing conservative values or defect to a woke congregation in another church speaks volumes and it clearly says they are not the conservatives they try to tell voters they are. Voters need to hear that from other citizens, which is more effective than rival candidates telling it anyway. The Walkers fled from conservatism and straight into the arms of "woke". Is that what we want on the county commission or even worse, the school board?

Commented: Saturday, February 10th, 2024 @ 7:16 pm By: Rino Hunter

The United Methodist Church is heavily involved in promoting illegal immigration. Anyone who chooses it over the Global Methodist Church and then tries to tell you they are for secure borders is either 1) totally ignorant of their own church's positions and activities, or 2) lying to you.

Commented: Saturday, February 10th, 2024 @ 2:25 pm By: borderhawk