Harmed, Now Free: Queer and Traditional Emotional Responses to Disaffiliation and Change in the UMC

Tying together multi-disciplinary theoretical approaches of grief, my research considers the real-time institutional shifts within the largest US mainline and largest global Methodist denomination, The United Methodist Church (UMC). UMC members express grief and pain at the pending split over disagreements on the ordination and marriage rights of LGBTQ+ persons. Within my findings is a significant strand that ties language of harmed and freed to emotion and structural change. Research includes interviews and focus groups across several UMC conferences, content analysis of UMC-related documents, and over 900 in-depth qualitative surveys of current or previous UMC members.