
UMC Map sharpened
Special to United Methodist Insight
Africans, represented by the Africa Initiative, have effectively taken over control of the United Methodist Church (UMC)! And while there are some who believe that the Africa Initiative is a proxy organization of the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA), the reality is that African delegates have never been taken seriously as representatives to the General Conference by American liberal and progressive organizations such as the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC). So, the Reform and Renewal Coalition of the UMC, which predates the WCA, invited the African delegates to come and have a seat at their table, which is the exact same thing that liberals and progressives in the UMC did during the Civil Rights Movement.
Black Methodist for Church Renewal’s (BMCR) involvement in the LYNC is the result of accepting the invitation to come have a seat at the table. American liberal and progressive Methodists did extend the same invitation to the African delegates, but the Africans rejected the American interpretation of scripture on sexuality.
The number of UMC congregations in Africa has more than doubled from 2006 to 2016, while the American Methodists have closed more than 2,500 congregations during the same time period. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants are soon to become a minority in the denomination that they founded. This falls in line with the research that shows the Christianity is growing in the Global South, while it is declining in the West. Yet, it is apparent that those who are in power are not willing to share it unless it is on their theological and ideological terms.
At the 2016 General Conference, African delegates (who were one-third of the total delegates) provided enough votes to force the UMC to withdraw from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (an abortion rights organization). This move shifted the UMC closer to a Pro-Life position on abortion and angered Pro-Choice members of the UMC.
In 2019, African delegates, again one-third of the total delegates, provided enough votes to reject a plan to debate Jesus' teaching on marriage (Matthew 19:4-6), and begin conducting same-sex marriages. This move has angered the LGBTQIA members of the UMC, who formed the Resist Harm movement in response. Yet, this response was seen as colonialist by many African delegates, who objected to white people lecturing to them about sex.

Human Rights Map
Additionally, there seems to be a lack of knowledge around how Christianity came to sub-Saharan Africa among American Methodists. The American Academy of Religion, the premiere learned society of religion scholars worldwide, is on record acknowledging that the Christian Kingdom of the Kongo was established in 1491. And Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has done the research to confirm this also in his PBS special on Africa’s Great Civilizations (The Atlantic Age – Episode 5). The narrative of colonial laws against homosexuality among African people, need to be examined for racial bias among the colonial European powers, who found no problem hiding the truth about the existence of Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade began.
Progressive Christians are reeling from the defeat of their ideology at the hands of African delegates. The LYNC (which seeks to free oppressed people from racism, colonialism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism or any other discrimination that threatens the integrity of the Gospel) sent a response to the African Bishops’ letter to the UMC before the 2016 General Conference entitled “Let's Talk.” However, there is no evidence to support that a conversation has actually happened. Instead, there has been a marginalization of African Christians by liberal and progressive American Methodists.
Sadly, neither BMCR, nor the General Commission on Religion and Race have shown any Pan-African support for the African delegates publicly. I watched this being addressed at the 2019 BMCR Conference in Atlanta, Georgia by Austin Frederick. Some members of BMCR feel that we should be speaking truth to power in the UMC, and that includes to white liberals, who believe that they have been disabused of the tripartite evil of power, supremacy, and privilege.
There is a “power shift” happening in the UMC. Bishop Will Willimon noted in an interview, “The progressives were all busy talking about unity and community and listening and loving. The conservatives were on the floor getting the votes.” If progressives want to impact the future of the UMC, they must negotiate with African Christians.
Odell Horne, Jr. serves as a Lay Servant at Impact Church (East Point, GA), and is the President of the North Georgia Conference United Methodist Men. He has a graduate degree in African and African American Studies and is a Doctor of Theology candidate.