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PAGE 4A THE JACKSON HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2023 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. Henry Ward Beecher Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com What does Methodist church split foreshadow for the nation? The slow-moving break-up happening within the Unit ed Methodist Church could just be another chapter in a multi-chapter book of minor religious schisms, or it could be the harbinger of darker days to come in the country. As both a reporter and a lapsed Methodist, I find the UMC controversy both fas cinating and troubling. The size of this UMC splintering depends on whom you ask. Technical ly, only around 6% of UMC churches in the nation have decided so far to splinter from the mainline church since the national body of the church created a path for individual churches to disaffiliate a few years ago. But that number may just be the tip of an iceberg. In some regions, the percent age of disaffiliated church es is much, much higher. To stem that flow of out bound churches, some UMC conferences (essentially, geo graphic regions that represents groups of churches) have made it difficult for individual churches to disunite, putting in requirements that are financially untenable. This area’s conference in North Georgia has gone a step further by recently halting any further approval of church es that want to leave the conference. That action has led to a massive lawsuit that a number of local area churches have signed on in support. All in all, it’s a pretty messy divorce. How the UMC will look at the end of all this remains to be seen. • •• Historically, this isn’t the first time Methodists have frac tured. Since its official founding in the late 1700s, Method ists have splintered a number of times over theological and structural issues. War has played a part in some of those divisions. The Methodist movement began as an outgrowth of the English Anglican Church, which itself was an outgrowth of the Catholic Church (but then came Martin Luther and Henry VIII, if you recall your high school history class.) All of that revolved around religious fractures, some times for theological reasons, other times over political issues. Following the American Revolution, the American Methodist church was officially founded since the nation had split from England and the Anglican church. (But Methodist roots as a sub-part of the Anglican Church go much deeper, especially in Georgia.) As the decades passed, several splits of Methodists hap pened as the church grew in the early 1800s. Then the big split came just before the Civil War when Southern Methodists split from their Northern brethren over the issue of slavery. A Methodist bishop’s wife in Georgia owned slaves; he declined to free them and that set into motion the North-South split. (But not all Meth odists in the South supported slavery. In Banks County, a group of anti-slavery Methodists, led by the Ragsdale fam ily, split from the historic Mt. Pleasant Methodist church and formed Mt. Olivet. Last Saturday, a lay leader from Mt. Pleasant reportedly spoke at the monthly Mt. Olivet service, a notation that not all splits become enemies.) While other spits occurred over the ensuing decades, the North and South Methodists divisions reconciled in 1939. But as part of that union. Southern Methodists required that Black Methodist Churches be in a separate, segregat ed. conference. Other unions and divisions over the years eventually led to the creation of the United Methodist Church in 1968, which is the church we know today in communities all across America. • •• For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, issues over slavery and race was a major factor in the various Meth odist divisions. But it was also larger than that — issues of church structure and other internal policies were also involved. And it wasn’t just Methodists who were doing all this splintering. Baptists and Presbyterians also split in the 1800s over slavery and other issues. Today, a slew of var ious affiliations continue to exist in both of those large mainline church denominations. (Not to mention the doz ens of other smaller Protestant churches that exist.) While race was a historical a factor in much of those divisions, today the large issue is about human sexuality. The issue of gay clergy and gay marriage appears to be at the heart of the current Methodist controversy. Officially, the UMC is against gay clergy and gay mar riage. That’s interesting because many of the churches that have, or want, to disunite from UMC appear to believe the denomination is too liberal on those issues. But there’s some thought that if the more conservative Methodist churches leave, the current UMC would be free to change its current anti-gay marriage policy. In a larger sense, however, the current UMC split seems to have a conservative vs. liberal undertone. Some of that is perhaps theological, but it also echoes the broader national left vs. right political divisions we’ve seen in recent years. • •• It’s that quasi-political echo that is starting to garner na tional attention outside the church’s walls. Several recent national articles question whether today’s UMC split fore shadows a deeper civil division in the nation the same way the church’s split foreshadowed the Civil War. “The United States is not likely staring down the barrel at a second civil war, but in the past, when churches split over politics, it was a sign that country was fast coming apart at the seams,” said a recent article in Politico Mag azine. The article goes on to note that there are differences be tween today and the mid-1800s: The biggest difference is that in the 1800s, churches were often the building blocks of community. They played a huge social and cultural role across American society in that era, not to mention religious indoctrination. Today, churches are much less socially powerful across the broad swath of the American cultural landscape. • •• Which brings us to an even bigger story than the slog ging Methodist split. Overall, mainline church affiliation across the country is in a steep decline. A 2021 article in Christianity Today (online magazine) notes that in the 1970s, the religiously unaffiliated were around 5% of the population; today, it’s over 30%. A Pew Research article projects that by 2070, that number could grow to over 50% of the population being unaffiliated with a religion. Mainline churches, including Methodists, have lost a huge number of adherents over the past decade. Method ists, for example, are down 15% between 2009-2020. That kind of data may be difficult to believe in an area where churches still play a key role in rural communities. In the more suburban areas of North Georgia, the rise of mega-churches seems to counter the idea of churches in decline. (Indeed, Georgia’s share of unaffiliated is lower than that 30% national trend and is around 18%.) • •• All of which begs this question: Why amidst this down ward decline in membership have Methodists — and some other mainline denominations — decided to fight a debili tating internecine war? The outcome of this can’t be good. Internal divisions over gay rights and the ongoing national debate about abortion are happening at a time when a majority of Americans hold more liberal views about both topics. Most people really are moderate on abortion and on gay rights, but it’s the ex tremes that have come to define both issues. And it’s those extremes that seem to be driving the UMC controversy. Some of those who want to keep the UMC intact say much of that controversy is being fueled by misinforma tion and misrepresentation from those who want to create a splinter Methodist denomination. That seems to echo what we’ve seen in our political culture as well where misinfor mation has become part and parcel to a feeling of national disunity. But you would think that of all our major social and cul tural institutions, churches would be a place where people of all kinds of personal beliefs could gather in a spirit of love and understanding. Or maybe not. Fights over religion can be nasty, and sometimes petty. It remains to be seen if the Methodist splintering gets large enough to be called a true “schism.” So far, the raw numbers suggest a smaller breakup. But the internal fight might, in the coming months, grow larger and eventually lead to the collapse of the modern UMC as it’s been known for the past 55 years. With Methodist churches in just about every community across the nation, this downward spiral will be felt deeply within American culture, a stark reminder of the nation’s broader cultural war that continues to rage around us. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspa pers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com. Biden administration ‘accomplishments’ Dear Editor: Week after week, almost without fail, I encounter disparaging remarks about those deplorable Republicans in the edi torial section of The Jackson Herald. Un fortunately, the same editorial section is so focused on those dastardly Republicans that it somehow fails to extol the accom plishments of the Biden Administration. As a service to the Herald’s readers, let me encapsulate these remarkable accom plishments: Afghanistan Pullout Accomplishments: Bequeathed the Taliban with $70 billion in military equipment; 175 Americans still being held in Afghanistan according to State Dept.; left behind unknown num ber of Afghan allies to a suffer a dismal fate; created 13 gold star families; whet ted Russia’s appetite to start a devastating and costly war with Ukraine; China now threatening to invade Taiwan. Southern Border Accomplishments: Obliterated our southern border in record time; handed operational control of the border to Mexican cartels; enriched the cartels by billions of dollars; saddled lo cal communities with the financial burden of providing social services and medical treatment for approximately 5 million il legals from over 140 countries; virtually ignored the fentanyl problem which is killing close to 100,000 Americans a year; subjected our country to possible terrorist attacks due to 900,000 known gotaways and who knows how many unknown got aways; having taxpayers shell out $47 mil lion a year to store unused border wall ma terial; record number of immigrant deaths; human trafficking at record levels. North ern border now suffers a record number of illegal entries. Foreign Relations Accomplishments: Relations with Russia and China resem bling a new cold war; relationship with Mexico is souring; Saudi Arabia now part nering with China and their recent adver sary Iran; North Korea testing underwa ter nukes that create radioactive tsunami; Russia putting tactical nukes in Belarus. Economic Accomplishments: Inflation the highest in 40 years; IRA and 40IK val ues sinking like a rock; cost for gasoline, heating fuel and food much higher than the unacceptably high core inflation rate; bank failures starting to occur and likely to increase in numbers with additional in terest hikes. Energy Independence Accomplish ments: Energy independence obliterat ed quick as a whistle; Keystone pipeline killed while sanctioning the Russia-Euro- pean pipeline; 26% of the strategic petro leum reserve has been raided for political purposes rather than actual emergency with no appreciable effect on prices and no plan to replace. Other Assorted Accomplishments: Po liticized the Justice Dept, and FBI; some how won a presidential election without venturing forth from his basement; pre sented “Most Courageous Woman” award to a biological male; supports a teacher’s union that thinks it is a dandy idea to have pornographic books in school libraries; possessed classified documents as a sen ator and Veep; America’s crime rate soar ing; wokeness and critical race theory now part of training for our military. Premier Accomplishment: Managed to have his son’s lap top contents quashed prior to the election. It revealed massive influence peddling by the Biden fami ly, which has since been corroborated by bank records and business partner, Tony Bobulinsky. You’ve got to hand it to this administra tion so many accomplishments in just two years. Sincerely, Jim Siegendorf Jefferson We should fight back Dear Editor; Last year, the American people rejected extreme election de- niers in key races. But we were unable to win every fight, and a tremendous threat to our democracy remains: the new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy and the MAGA extremists he leads. According to the Washington Post, over 70% of all House Re publicans are themselves election deniers—and these extrem ists now have McCarthy in the palm of their hands. McCarthy had to give up tremendous concessions to appease the most outlandish members of his party to win the gavel. Ex tremists like Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Jim Jordan will have all the power they need to enact their agenda: sow chaos, waste taxpayer dollars on sham investigations, and ignore their constituents. In their first act, Speaker McCarthy’s MAGA majority gutted the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics—hamstringing future investigations into corrupt members like the serial fabu list George Santos. That speaks volumes. It’s up to us to call out this new MAGA majority and fight back against their extreme agenda. I hope others will join me. Sincerely, Irene Budoff Athens Your one- ^ stop site to search your yt community's ™ public notices as well as other . notices from across i the state. GEORGIA PUBLIC N0TICE.C0M IT'S YOURRIC IJJTmff TOk NOW. The Jackson Herald Founded 1875 Merged with The Commerce News 2017 The Official Legal Organ of Jackson County, Ga. Herman Buffington, Publisher 1965-2005 Mike Buffington Scott Buffington. Alex Buffington. Hannah Barron... Taylor Heam Co-Publisher Co-Publisher .News Editor Reporter Sports Editor MEMBER • Georgia Press Association • National Newspaper Association • Inland Press Association • International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. 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