Pastor's Ponderings: Why are there so many denominations?

By BILL SANFORD

EDITOR'S Note: The Sun-Star has invited frequent contributor (more than 28 years) Bill Sanford to write a column in the area of religion and ethics twice a month. Sanford, a resident of Atwater, is a retired United Methodist minister. He invites your questions and can be contacted at wjsanford@sbcglobal.net. Here's his first installment:

QUESTION: Why are there so many denominations?

ANSWER: Would you like a short answer offered with tongue only partially in cheek? We have so many denominations because so many people embrace the Burger King advertising slogan: "Have it your way."

Seriously, advertisers are uncommonly adept at identifying the springs of human behavior. You may not be aware of why you do certain things, but advertisers tap into motivations we have not consciously identified. That's why I suggest we not dismiss the Burger King slogan without due consideration. The company may be on to something.

It is readily apparent that people don't want to support beliefs and programs with which they disagree. If a church or a local congregation demands dollars and time for something a member is convinced is wrong, that member will not "hang in there" very long. He or she will stop attending services and stop writing checks.

If a sizable segment of a denomination is unhappy about something that's important to them, very likely a new denomination will form.

From the Methodist Church's beginning in this country in 1784 down to 1828 most Methodists were under the tent titled Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination was basically governed by its clergy. Laypersons had no standing at the annual conference sessions.

More and more Methodists embraced the view that that was wrong. Laymen, they said, should be represented in the annual conferences. They said so loudly and clearly, but they were not heard with respect to institutional change. So, at length a number said in substance: "We aren't going to take it anymore; we're outta here. Call us the Methodist Protestant Church."

Fast forward to 1844 when most Methodists were involved in another split, but the issue was slavery. There was a bishop in the South whose wife died. A while later he remarried, and guess what? The woman owned slaves. That made a Methodist bishop a slave owner. Of course, the issue far transcended this single situation, but it served as a flash point. And so there came into being The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1939, a reunification was undertaken.

I invite you to go find your own examples.

From time to time we get new denominations traceable to a charismatic individual. This person will be a powerful preacher, an influential teacher, perhaps a gifted writer. He or she will develop a package of beliefs, project assurance that they've "got it" and persuade willing seekers to rally around them.

Some of the denominations born this way appear to prosper and achieve histories of length. Others come to early and awful endings, such as Pastor Jim Jones and the mass suicides in Jonestown, Guyana, and of David Koresh and the followers who perished with him in Waco, Texas.

A number of new denominations have come into being by virtue of the mergers of two or more older denominations.

In 1968, there was a union of what was then called simply The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church. The new name, what we have today: The United Methodist Church.

I have considerable sympathy for the "have it your way" mentality. I confess there's a lot I regard as important and want my way. But, still as Jesus might view the denominational scene today, I think a tear might come to his eye.