Posted at the blog re:conexxion, a statement from Charlene P. Kammerer, Resident Bishop Virginia Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, and W. Clark Williams, Jr., Chancellor Virginia Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church:
The Virginia Annual Conference strongly believes that theological disagreements within any denomination should be resolved according to the polity and discipline of the denomination itself, and not by the Court’s imposition of itself as arbiter of those disagreements, or by civil legislative mandate. This is true especially where such intrusion by the state courts and legislature permits the Court effectively to nullify the doctrine and discipline of a religious denomination, under which churches have been acting in agreement for years. Such a role by the state government and secular courts is inappropriate, and offends the First Amendment principles of separation of church and state which have been central to the religious freedom of Americans since the founding of our nation.