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“We Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to “grow up.”

In response to the current United Methodist Church’s deep division over its LGBTQ ordinance, Liberian Dr. Jerry P. Kulah, Dean at the United Methodist University in Liberia, offered his remarks at the at the recent United Methodist Church Conference.

Sexual Colonialism?


Most notably, he reproached the UMC’s US-based push for LGBTQ recognition in the global church and the condescension aimed at those unwilling to comply, saying, “We Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to “grow up.” He also reminded the global congregation of its global nature, noting, “We stand with the global church, not a culturally liberal, church elite, in the U.S.”

To the nay-sayers who implied that African support of the UMC’s Traditional Plan (that which denied the ordinance of LGBTQ members) would result in withdrawal of US funding for those supportive African chapters, Dr. Kulah responded, “If anyone is so naïve or condescending as to think we would sell our birthright in Jesus Christ for American dollars, then they simply do not know us.” 

Read his full speech here.

United Christendom and Education


These remarks raise important questions: How might we, as members of global Christendom, remain globally united? How might we bind these deep fractures in the future? It begins with deep familiarity with the Word and Nature of God. 

The Liberian wing of the Methodist Church demonstrates profound courage which classical Christian schools may soon be called to imitate. The colonialism of the progressive left, as it seeks to dominate the American church, will continue to point both inward and outward, threatening everyone who does not fall in line with their sexual pieties. 

The African Methodists, in a victory for orthodoxy, had the courage to know the Lord would provide. 

Will the same be said of classical Christian schools?