Oden, Against Schism in First Things
Thomas Oden has a piece in the April 2012 edition of First Things entitled "Do Not Rashly Tear Asunder: Why the Beleaguered Faithful should stay and reform their churches" (pp. 40-44). He is writing about the specific situation of the United Methodist Church on the issue of ordaining those in same-sex unions. The essay is an argument to those of his fellow members in the Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church to remain within the UMC rather than separate. John Wesley serves as an example, since Wesley never left the Church of England and preached a sermon in 1784 entitled "Against Schism". Oden offers a number of poignant quotes from that sermon: "Do not rashly tear asunder the sacred ties which unite you to any Christian society." Oden states: "Wesley admonished those who hastily assumed that separation is a moral virtue: 'They leave a Christian society with as much unconcern as they go out of one room into another. They...w...