I am a United Methodist who - until a couple of years ago - was an Episcopalian.

To be honest, I didn't so much leave the Episcopal Church as it left me.  The once-great church went off the tracks, led by extremists who think that what they want is more important than what God wants.

I met many wonderful people at the Episcopal Church and it wasn't easy for me to break fellowship with them.  But ultimately the dissonance became just too much.

I would read in the Bible that men who have sex with men will not inherit the kingdom of God and then they would announce that the new pastor was a homosexual who lives with another man. I would read in the Bible that "a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh" and then they would announce that they will be marrying homosexuals in the church from now on.

Going to church became confusing and troubling to me.  I couldn't understand why they would stand up and read the Bible every Sunday, apparently not listening to what it said.  As much as it pained me to do it, I went looking for a more faithful denomination.  It's not easy to be that guy walking in cold to an unfamiliar church on Sunday morning when everybody else knows each other, but it had to be done.

The Methodist Church appealed to me because United Methodists affirm the authority of scripture.  Methodism isn't a "believe anything you want" denomination.

So when I read about Amy DeLong, A lesbian Methodist clergywoman who recently officiated at a lesbian union, and registered with her partner under Wisconsin’s Domestic Partnership law, I got a pit in my stomach that I can only describe as a mixture of sorrow for God's people and déjà vu.

DeLong goes on "trial" on June 21-23 and will be defrocked.  But the Church needs to go further.

112 clergy in the New England Conference alone have signed a statement saying that they "will offer the grace of the Church’s blessing to any prepared couple desiring Christian marriage."  Rather than wait until these clergy take action and break their sworn vows, the Methodist Church should remove them right now.

I am aware that membership in the Methodist church is already declining (as is membership in the Episcopal Church).  Some may argue that we're not in any position to be showing anybody the door, but I disagree.

If the Methodist Church isn't going to be faithful to God and His Word then it doesn't honor God by keeping its doors open.  The Methodist Church is a great church because it stands for something worth standing for.  Once it stops standing for something, it will have no value whatsoever.

Last Saturday at the New England Conference of The United Methodist Church, a man stood up and made the most compelling argument against marrying and ordaining gay people that I have ever heard.  He stood up with a Bible in his hand and said, "I hold in my hand the Holy Word of God. It's called the Bible."  Then he sat down.

Don't get me wrong, God calls us to love all people, and that includes homosexuals.  But marriage and ordination are very different matters.  The Bible says what the Bible says.

If you are a liberal Methodist who somehow believes that when the Bible says "it is abomination" that means "God wants us to marry and ordain homosexuals," let me respectfully offer you two words: Episcopal Church.  Go there.  Take my spot.  Don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya.