Southeast
United Methodist Church abolishes LGBTQ bans, 'last of the major mainline groups to liberalize'
It took just a few days for United Methodist delegates to remove a half-century’s worth of denominational bans on gay clergy and same-sex marriages.
But when asked at a news conference about the lightning speed of the changes, the Rev. Effie McAvoy took a longer view.
“Oh, it didn’t take days, honey,” she said.
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH VOTES TO LIFT BAN ON LGBTQ CLERGY, MARKING HISTORIC POLICY SHIFT
It took decades of activism for a change that was “so very healing,” said McAvoy, pastor of Shepherd of the Valley United Methodist Church in Hope, Rhode Island. A member of the Queer Delegate Caucus at last week’s UMC General Conference in Charlotte, she was grateful to be part of the historic moment.
The reversals can be seen as marking the end of a half-century of epic battles and schisms over LGBTQ involvement — not only in the United Methodist Church but in U.S. mainline Protestant denominations overall. Those are the tall-steeple churches in myriad town squares and rural crossroads, traditionally “big-tent” and culturally mainstream congregations — some predating America’s independence.
The nation’s largest Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Lutheran denominations have all now removed barriers to LGBTQ participation in the pulpit and at the altar. But this comes amid long-term declines in membership and influence.
The Rev. David Meredith, left, and the Rev. Austin Adkinson, right, sing during a gathering of those in the LGBTQ community and their allies outside the Charlotte Convention Center, in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 2, 2024. When the United Methodist Church removed anti-LGBTQ language from its official rules in recent days, it marked the end of a half-century of debates over LGBTQ inclusion in mainline Protestant denominations. (AP Photo/Peter Smith, File)
Surely there will be skirmishes to come. Individual congregations, and entire regions across the world, will sort out the implications. Controversies have grown among some conservative evangelical churches and colleges, which largely avoided past battles.
But for mainline Protestants, last week’s General Conference looks like a landmark. It was a relatively quiet coda to what had been an almost annual scene on America’s religious calendar — impassioned showdowns at legislative assemblies of Protestant denominations, marked by protests, political maneuverings and earnest prayers.
Across the decades, there were many cases of ecclesiastical civil disobedience — clergy doing ordinations and marriages that defied church bans, some of whom were tried for heresy or other infractions.
“A part of me still doesn’t believe it,” said the Rev. Frank Schaefer, one of the last United Methodist ministers to face church discipline after presiding at the same-sex wedding of his son. Schaefer was restored to ministry in 2014 by a Methodist appellate panel after a lower tribunal had defrocked him.
“We’ve fought for it so long and hard, and there were so many disappointments along the way,” said Schaefer, now a pastor in California. “Our tears have turned into tears of joy.”
But the UMC faces the same dire challenges as Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopal and smaller mainline denominations that took similar routes.
All lost large numbers of congregations in schisms, and they have had to navigate fraught relations with partner churches in Africa and elsewhere.
Retired United Methodist Bishop Will Willimon, a professor at Duke Divinity School, supported greater LGBTQ inclusion in the church — but said bigger issues loom.
“We’re an aging denomination,” he said. “We share that with so many mainline denominations. Unfortunately I don’t see how this vote addresses any of that.”
Willimon said even conservative breakaway groups like the new Global Methodist Church, comprised of many former UMC congregations, face similar challenges with predominately white, aging memberships.
In the U.S., mainline churches have lost millions of members since their peak in the 1960s — some to schism and many to underlying demographics. Their members are aging and don’t have many children, and they struggle to retain the children they do have, said Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University.
“There is no silver bullet” for reversing mainline decline, said Burge, who studies religious demographics.
The United Methodists counted 5.4 million U.S. members in 2022 — less than half their 1960s peak, and the recent departure of about 7,600 mostly conservative congregations will lower that number further. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 1.1 million membership is barely a quarter its 1960s peak. Other denominations have similar trends.
The mainline battles over LGBTQ issues began heating up in the early 1970s, before those initials were used.
A United Methodist General Conference in 1972 declared homosexual practice “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Other denominations issued similar teachings. Some imposed explicit bans on gay clergy.
An Episcopal bishop was tried and acquitted of heresy in 1996 for ordaining a gay pastor. The 2003 ordination of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, ignited long-simmering controversies.
Conservative and liberal groups formed their own church caucuses for denominational legislative sessions, where Scriptures and slogans flew back and forth between proclamations of Robert’s Rules of Order.
Progressive Presbyterians blocked an entrance to a General Assembly in 2000 and were arrested. As the United Methodists steadily tightened LGBTQ bans, progressives disrupted General Conferences with protests, drums and songs. A conservative United Methodist leader, the Rev. Bill Hinson, roiled the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh with a call for denominational divorce — even though his side had won all its legislative battles.
“Why do we go on hurting each other?” asked Hinson. Others quickly tamped down the idea, but it was a foreshadowing.
By the second decade of the 21st century, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Episcopalians had largely dismantled their bans. They navigated major strains with partner churches elsewhere in the world.
Substantial minorities of their U.S. congregations joined more conservative denominations, saying the sexuality debates were symptoms of a deeper theological chasm.
The United Methodist Church is unique because it is international, with many delegates from countries with conservative sexual values and laws. A special legislative session in 2019 reinforced LGBTQ bans.
That result proved short-lived.
U.S. churches increasingly defied the bans and elected more progressive delegates for this year’s gathering. Many churches began disaffiliating under a temporary measure approved in 2019 that let churches keep their properties under favorable conditions.
To Willimon, that process was devastating. Whether the congregation stayed or left, peoples’ relationships were ruptured, he said.
Many churches went independent, but thousands joined the new Global Methodist Church, which pledges to enforce restrictions on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage.
Now attention turns to Africa, where the UMC counts 4.6 million members.
One group of African delegates protested outside the General Conference and said their members would discuss whether to disaffiliate.
“The General Conference did not listen to us,” said the Rev. Jerry Kulah of the conservative group, Africa Initiative, contending the denomination departed from biblical teaching on marriage. “We do not believe we know better than Jesus.”
Bishop John Wesley Yohanna of Nigeria said he would likely leave the denomination after his term ends, though he is staying for now to help heal a rift in the local church. “From the tradition of the church in Africa,” he added, “marriage is between a man and a woman, period.”
But other African delegates are heartened by a plan that expands regional autonomy on such matters. They said African churches will keep the marriage and ordination bans in their region while remaining in the denomination.
“Our decision to stay in the United Methodist Church is not conditioned by what happens in America,” said the Rev. Ande Emmanuel of Southern Nigeria. “God has called us to a church, and the church is not a property of the United States.”
Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa of Zimbabwe the majority of the African bishops at General Conference agree the regionalization plan respects local cultures.
The United Methodist Church was the last of the major U.S. mainline groups to liberalize its policies on sexuality in part because of its large presence in rural, small-town and Southern areas, where a more conservative sexual ethos prevails, said James Hudnut-Beumler, a professor of American Christian History at Vanderbilt University. He is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister and co-author of “The Future of Mainline Protestantism.”
“That’s why they’re the last to go,” he said.
And it won’t automatically bring back the more-accepting younger generations who left over the bans, said Hudnut-Beumler, adding that conservative evangelical congregations are not exempt.
“Some conservative megachurch pastor may be thinking to himself, ‘We won this. Look what happened to the Methodists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians,’” said Hudnut-Beumler, “Don’t be so smug.”
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In 2025, idyllic small towns across America were interrupted by acts of violence from Mississippi to Montana, Arkansas to Washington state.
The murders struck during homecoming weekends, inside neighborhood bars, at campgrounds and along hiking trails.
Together, the cases exposed vulnerabilities in small-town America: unresolved personal disputes, untreated mental health crises and domestic violence.
Clinton and Cristen Brink were murdered at Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (GoFundMe)
FRIENDS UNVEIL DEVIL’S DEN COUPLE’S HAUNTING FINAL MESSAGE BEFORE DEADLY PARK AMBUSH
Devil’s Den, Arkansas:
In northwest Arkansas, a visit to a state park ended in a double homicide.
Clinton Brink, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, the parents of three children, were stabbed to death while hiking at Devil’s Den State Park on July 26.
The couple had recently moved to Arkansas to be closer to family and begin a new chapter. Friends described them as gentle, active and devoted parents.
“They loved to take the girls and go hiking,” said Mary Hinebauch, a friend from their former church in Montana. “That wasn’t an unnatural place for them to be.”
The Arkansas State Police arrested Andrew James McGann, 28, charging him with murdering the couple. Investigators said the killings appeared unprovoked. The arrest came a day after police released “a composite sketch of a man” they were “seeking to identify for questioning in connection with the double homicide.”
“This was a very safe place to be,” Hinebauch said. “It’s pure evil.”
To read more about this case, click here.
The FBI’s Jackson Field Office released this “seeking information” poster featuring four suspects wanted in connection with the Oct. 11, 2025, mass shooting in Leland, Mississippi, that left six people dead and 20 injured. (FBI)
Leland, Mississippi:
On Oct. 11, 2025, just after midnight in Leland, Mississippi, a small city in Washington County where the population hovers around 3,700, the excitement of homecoming weekend was shattered when a shooting broke out following a football game.
At least six people were killed and at least 19 others wounded.
The FBI’s Jackson Field Office announced that four people were arrested in connection with the shooting.
Three men, identified as Teviyon Powell, 29; William Bryant, 29; and Morgan Lattimore, 25, were charged with capital murder. A fourth suspect, Latoya Powell, 44, was charged with attempted murder.
MUGSHOT OF RURAL MONTANA BAR MASSACRE SUSPECT RELEASED AFTER WEEK-LONG MANHUNT
Investigators said they believe the violence stemmed from a personal dispute, though no final motive has been confirmed.
“This is not who we are as a community,” Leland Mayor John Lee said. “Our hearts are broken for these families.”
To read more about this case, click here.
Main Street in Anaconda, Montana, leads to the Deer Lodge County Courthouse with mountains in the background on Aug. 8, 2025. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)
Anaconda, Montana:
In Anaconda, Montana, a quiet bar in a former mining town with about 9,000 people was interrupted when a man opened fire on Aug. 1, 2025.
Authorities said that Michael Paul Brown, 45, an Army veteran and longtime local resident, entered The Owl Bar around 10:30 a.m. and opened fire. Authorities said Brown lived next door to the bar and was known to the patrons inside.
Four people were killed: Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74. Kelley was working as the bartender; the others were regular customers.
Brown fled, sparking a massive weeklong manhunt involving more than 130 local, state and federal law enforcement officers. The FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service and Montana National Guard all assisted, deploying helicopters, air patrols and ground teams across rugged terrain.
The Department of Criminal Investigations in Montana released a photo of Michael Brown fleeing the scene after allegedly shooting and killing four people at a bar on Aug. 1, 2025. (Department of Criminal Investigations)
MONTANA MANHUNT EXPANDS FOR EX-SOLDIER SUSPECT SEEN WITH STOLEN SURVIVAL GEAR AFTER BAR MASSACRE
Residents told Fox News Digital that fear settled over the town as the search dragged on.
“The town is just scared,” one bartender said. “Everybody’s on edge.”
Brown was captured Aug. 8 near a barn about five and a half miles from the bar. Authorities said he was armed.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen called the killings “cold-blooded.”
To read more about this case, click here.
Travis Decker was suspected of murdering his three daughters before disappearing into the Washington wilderness. (Chelan County Sheriff’s Office)
SPECIAL FORCES VET EXPOSES TACTICS OF MONTANA, WASHINGTON STATE SURVIVALISTS: ‘CAN’T STAY HIDDEN FOREVER’
Wenatchee, Washington:
In May 2025, a manhunt was launched for the fugitive father of three accused of murdering his three daughters before disappearing into the wilderness.
The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said Travis Decker, a military veteran and wilderness survivalist, failed to return his three daughters from a court-mandated custody visit in late May 2025. Days later, the bodies of Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were found at a Chelan County campground.
According to police, the girls had been bound with zip ties and suffocated.
This undated photo provided by Whitney Decker shows Paityn, Olivia and Evelyn Decker. (Whitney Decker via AP)
A manhunt followed, spanning rugged mountain terrain and involving multiple law enforcement agencies. In September, human remains were discovered on Grindstone Mountain, less than a mile from where the girls’ bodies had been found. DNA testing later confirmed the remains belonged to Decker.
“This will bring a close to our case,” Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said after the DNA results were confirmed. “We wanted to show honor to them and let them know we haven’t forgotten.”
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Court records showed Decker’s ex-wife had previously petitioned to modify the parenting plan, citing his worsening mental health and unstable living conditions.
To read more about this case, click here.
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca, Julia Bonavita, Michael Dorgan and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
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Southeast
MAHA backers refuse to stop pushing for healthier food as Obama-appointed judge deals blow
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The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement hit the ground running in 2025 — pushing a wave of health policy changes nationwide, especially around food and nutrition. Now supporters vow that one court setback will not slow them down.
A West Virginia judge paused enforcement of parts of H.B. 2354 — the state law restricting certain food dyes and preservatives — during the holiday week, on Dec. 23. That triggered swift backlash from state leaders and advocates who say the fight is only intensifying.
In her ruling, Judge Irene Berger — appointed by former President Obama — said the law is “unconstitutionally vague because it fails to provide sufficient notice and invites arbitrary enforcement.”
COMMON CHEMICALS, FROM FOOD ADDITIVES TO PESTICIDES, MAY BE WRECKING YOUR GUT HEALTH, STUDY SAYS
She added that the statute does not spell out how the West Virginia Department of Health should determine whether color additives beyond those specifically listed are “poisonous and injurious.”
Berger was nominated in 2009 by Obama to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of West Virginia.
A West Virginia judge appointed by former President Barack Obama has paused a Make America Healthy Again food dye ban, calling the law “unconstitutionally vague” in a major setback for the health movement. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
West Virginia’s House Bill 2354, signed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, aims to phase out specific artificial dyes in stages.
Beginning on Aug. 1 of this year, seven dyes were banned from school lunches — and starting Jan. 1, 2028, the same dyes, along with two preservatives, would be banned from food products sold statewide.
The judge’s new ruling does not apply to school nutrition programs — so the school-lunch portion remains on track even as the broader legal fight plays out.
PEPSICO TO REMOVE ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS FROM POPULAR FOOD ITEMS BY END OF 2025
Red Dye No. 3, Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6, Blue Dye No. 1, Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3 were all banned from school lunches starting in August.
The same food dyes, plus the preservatives butylated hydroxyanisole and propylparaben, will be banned from all food items sold in the state beginning in 2028.
The food dye ban in West Virginia is “unconstitutionally vague because it fails to provide sufficient notice and invites arbitrary enforcement,” said a judge. Others disagree vehemently. (iStock)
Gov. Morrisey, a Republican, issued a statement blasting the decision as a detour, calling it “premature and incorrectly decided.”
“West Virginia will continue to defend its authority to protect the health and well-being of our citizens, especially children,” his statement said. “We are reviewing our legal options and will continue to press forward with our efforts to get harmful crap out of our food supply.”
Morrisey told Fox News Digital in an interview that “West Virginia has set the standard for the nation when it comes to protecting children from harmful ingredients in food.”
“Since we acted, other states have stepped forward and manufacturers have already begun changing formulas, because they see where this is headed,” Morrisey said.
“We are reviewing our legal options and will continue to press forward with our efforts to get harmful crap out of our food supply,” said Gov. Patrick Morrisey in reaction to the judge’s decision. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“Children who consume these dyes across many foods, day after day, during critical stages of development, face a higher risk of chronic disease,” he added. “West Virginia acted because protecting children’s health should never be optional, and we remain proud to lead this effort.”
Red dye gives food a bright cherry red color. It has been linked to behavioral issues in children, while non-human studies have linked the dye to cancer, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services, has made removing artificial dyes from America’s food supply one of his priorities during his work as a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
“Artificial food dyes offer zero nutritional value.”
During his first trip as America’s lead healthcare official in March, Kennedy spoke in Martinsburg alongside Gov. Morrisey, who said his state’s ban plan and the Democrat scion’s choice to visit the area first showed that the “MAHA” movement “begins right here in West Virginia.”
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
The debate over artificial dyes has become a flashpoint for MAHA-aligned supporters. Many see the legal challenge as proof the movement is beginning to hit real resistance. They see it as a reason to push back hard, rather than retreat.
Liana Werner-Gray, nutritionist and author of “The Earth Diet,” told Fox News Digital that “artificial food dyes offer zero nutritional value.”
The native Australian said the European Union (EU) requires warning labels on products containing several common artificial dyes “because of links to activity and attention effects in children.”
“I know who is going to win — because there is nothing more powerful than moms protecting their children,” said a MAHA advocate. (Fox News Digital)
Werner-Gray added that “from a preventative health standpoint, removing unnecessary additives is a straightforward way to reduce avoidable risk.”
She noted that injunction or not, one bright spot is that the conversation has shifted.
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“Parents are asking why ingredients linked to behavioral and neurological concerns are still common in children’s food, and that question isn’t going away,” she said. “They want it to go away, they want us to go away with this, but we won’t.”
Vani Hari, better known as the “Food Babe,” told Fox News Digital that “the judicial system is going to see the might of the MAHA movement.”
“There is nothing more powerful than moms protecting their children.”
“I know who is going to win — because there is nothing more powerful than moms protecting their children,” said Hari, who is based in North Carolina.
The case was brought by the International Association of Color Manufacturers, an organization based in Washington, D.C., that alleged the West Virginia bill causes economic harm to its member companies.
“The statute arbitrarily and irrationally targets color additives no U.S. agency — state or federal — nor any court has ever found to be unsafe,” IACM said in a statement announcing its suit, adding that the ban also lacks “scientific evidence.”
West Virginia’s governor, for his part, said the decision by the Obama-appointed judge is legally flawed. Morrisey said he believes the decision will be reversed.
California, Virginia, Utah and Arizona have sought to enact similar bans focused largely on children’s school lunches.
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Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel and Charles Creitz contributed reporting.
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Southeast
Florida bell ringer allegedly tries to ‘impale’ store manager with donation tripod while drunk
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A Florida man working as a Salvation Army bell ringer for the holidays was arrested Christmas week after he allegedly attempted to “impale” the manager of a grocery store with his donation kettle tripod, according to officials.
Steven Pavlik, 63, was arrested at his home this week and charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest after he fled after allegedly drunkenly attacking the manager of a Publix in Stuart, Florida.
Pavlik had been stationed as a bell ringer outside the store.
MURDER IN SMALL-TOWN AMERICA: THE CRIMES THAT TORE QUIET COMMUNITIES APART IN 2025
Steven Pavlik, a Salvation Army bell ringer, allegedly was intoxicated and attempted to stab a Publix manager. (AP Photo, File/Martin County Sheriff’s Office)
Sixty-three-year-old “Steven Pavlik tried his hand at some part-time Christmas charity work — however, drunk ringing, belligerent tidings and assault took him from bell duty to booking blotter after a full-blown charity tirade,” the Martin County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Christmas Eve Facebook post.
The store manager confronted Pavlik after he allegedly got drunk on duty and began “aggressively” harassing passersby, causing a “major disturbance” outside the store, according to the sheriff’s office.
The suspect allegedly attacked the store manager with his donation kettle tripod. (Tim Boyle/Getty Images)
TEXAS FATHER RESCUES KIDNAPPED DAUGHTER BY TRACING HER PHONE’S LOCATION, SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS
Pavlik then allegedly attacked the store manager with his donation kettle tripod.
“When the Publix manager came outside to speak to Pavlik, he became violent and attempted to impale the manager with the donation kettle tripod,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
Pavlik was confronted after he allegedly got drunk on duty and began “aggressively” harassing passersby. (AP Photo, File/Torin Halsey)
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The manager wasn’t injured during the attack, the sheriff’s office said.
Pavlik fled, but deputies later located him at his home, where he was taken into custody.
Publix and the Salvation Army did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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