Note: This story has been updated to clarify new United Methodist rules regarding same-sex weddings.
In recent years, the United Methodist pastor, Nathan Malone, has encouraged his church to model what it looks like for different people to sit at the same table. He believes division creates weakness.
“Can we say to this culture, ‘We don’t have to live that way?'” he wondered over the phone recently.
But even for his congregation on East Brainerd Road, that vision — “that we don’t have to separate just because we differ” — is under strain. Weeks after United Methodist delegates’ landmark vote to permit same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ clergy, Christ United Methodist Church, among the largest in the Chattanooga area, may consider splitting from its denomination.