I grew up a Methodist, although I don't consider myself one now.
Here's what precipitated the break for me:
The Methodist church will not let gays or lesbians be members of the clergy, they are considered second class members. They evidently leave it up to a popular vote every four years. I've had it explained that after the evangelical outreach in Africa, where pseudo Christians (self-proclaimed evangelicals) took it upon themselves to demonize homosexuality, the Methodists in Africa have voted overwhelmingly to keep gays out of the clergy ever since. The Methodist book of rules also says homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity, as if you can be one or the other, but not both.
The guy who writes for AL. Com, John Archibald, grew up in Decatur, his father was my Methodist minister. His brother, who was in my class all the way through high school, is openly homosexual.
So we get to the gay marriage debate. Rev. Archibald would be in jeopardy of being kicked out of the clergy if he conducted a same sex marriage for his son. A Methodist minister from up north somewhere married his son and his spouse, the church took him to trial to defrock him.
Meanwhile, another Methodist minister, Terry Greer, who used to preach at the same church went nuts, shot and killed his wife, and tried to kill his daughter. Five years later, he's out of the nut house, ready to rejoin society. He was never defrocked and had been preaching to the others at the facility the whole time.
So that left me wondering, if the minister who conducted a same sex marriage for his son was taken to church court to defrock him...would the church have been more understanding, and not tried to defrock him if he had simply shot his son instead of helping him marry?
And conversely, would the preacher who murdered his wife and was not defrocked...would he have been defrocked if he had committed the grave sin of conducting a same sex marriage when he was under detention?
I credit the modern day version of evangelicals for this gross set of priorities.