A common trope from classic cartoons featured characters sawing off the tree limb on which they were standing. Last month, the United Methodist Church (UMC) tried to pull the same stunt in real life. At a closed-door meeting in Nashville, Tenn. from June 17-18, the UMC University Senate decided to remove Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. and Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, N.Y. from its approved list of seminaries.

The UMC University Senate is the denomination’s organ for determining which institutions of higher education meet the criteria for affiliation with the UMC. It is comprised of 27 voting members, who are elected from among faculty at UMC-affiliated institutions and who meet twice yearly.

“The decision to delist both institutions followed findings from their respective quadrennial reviews, which included an examination of the curriculum and direct dialogue with institutional leadership,” said Roland Fernandes, a top executive for the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, which assists the University Senate. “The University Senate’s decision is intended to ensure that United Methodist candidates for ministry are formed in settings clearly aligned with United Methodist teachings, theology, leadership and values.”

“The Senate’s requirements, particularly those related to the UMC’s 2024 Social Principles concerning ‘Human Sexuality’ and ‘Marriage,’ are not aligned with Asbury Theological Seminary’s institutional ethos and the historic witness of the Christian faith,” responded Asbury Theological Seminary President David Watson on June 25. “We affirm marriage as sanctioned by God, which joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union for life, as delineated in Scripture, and provides the sole context for sexual intimacy, helping to ensure the blessings of that relationship as God intended.”

Asbury Seminary’s “Ethos” also affirms “God’s design for holy living” and “that Scripture clearly prohibits certain acts, including but not limited to … engaging in sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage (including but not limited to premarital sex, adultery, and same-sex sexual behavior).”

On the issue of transgenderism, “We believe God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as either male or female,” Asbury declares. “We do not affirm theologically the adoption of a psychological identity discordant with one’s birth sex as a result of the tension between one’s biological sex and one’s experience of gender. Similarly, we do not affirm attempts to change one’s given biological birth sex via medical intervention in favor of the identity of the opposite sex or of an indeterminate identity.”

This stand on biblical principles is part of the reason why “Asbury Theological Seminary was first approved in 1946 by The Methodist Church, one of the predecessor bodies of the UMC, to educate those seeking ordination. Beginning in 1981, Asbury Theological Seminary received approval from The United Methodist Church.” The university was only founded in 1923, meaning that it has been affiliated with the UMC for most of its institutional history.

Strangely, however, the denomination seems to be drifting into liberalism more rapidly than the seminaries — reversing the ordinary trend. Since 1972, the UMC had affirmed that “the practice of homosexuality… is incompatible with Christian teaching.” But, in 2024, the United Methodist General Conference removed that language from its Social Principles, redefining marriage “within the church” as “a sacred, lifelong covenant” of “two people of faith, an adult man and woman of consenting age, or two adult persons of consenting age.”

The UMC’s updated Social Principles also declares that “Human sexuality is … expressed in wonderfully diverse ways from birth to death” and “shaped by a combination of nature and nurture.” It continues, “We further honor the diversity of choices and vocations in relation to sexuality.” To further signal their cultural capitulation, the document also recognizes “that families come in a variety of sizes and forms.”

With regard to transgenderism, the UMC now states, “We support both gender equality and gender diversity as important goals” and “promote the leadership of all people, regardless of gender. We also urge governments, businesses, and civil society to enact laws and policies to ensure that all members of society are afforded equal access, opportunities and protections.”

These ethical statements differed so sharply from the biblical ones expressed by Asbury that the UMC decided it could no longer associate itself with the school.

The UMC’s 2024 revision of its principles to approve homosexuality and transgenderism is directly traceable to the 2022 schism in American Methodism, which resulted in the liberal churches kicking out orthodox congregations. From 2019 to 2023, more than a quarter of UMC churches left the UMC to either become independent or to join the new conservative alternative, the Global Methodist Church (GMC).

According to its website, “The Global Methodist Church exists to spread scriptural holiness across the globe and to carry forward the faith once delivered to the saints.” The UMC apparently stands for this faith no longer.

No symbol of the UMC’s decline into liberalism is more poignant than its dissociation from Asbury Seminary. The school was founded in 1923 in a conservative response to the growing liberalism in older Methodist seminaries. Ironically, this time it was the seminary that stayed faithful, while the denomination strayed into a theological mush indistinguishable from the culture.

The school is named after Francis Asbury, a prominent Methodist preacher during the Second Great Awakening. From its theological roots to its recent revival, Asbury (both the university and seminary) retains the Wesleyan tradition’s spirit of holiness and obedience to Scripture.

In other words, Asbury has stuck to its guns, which makes it different from the culture at large. That very difference makes it attractive.

The UMC’s total break with Asbury Seminary will have a minimal immediate impact on either institution. The UMC currently runs 13 seminaries and has approved education at 25 other schools. Asbury associates with dozens of denominations, and only 9% of its student population is affiliated with the UMC. These students (and any starting this fall) will be grandfathered into the UMC. Meanwhile, Asbury remains approved in the GMC and other denominations.

Nor will the change make much difference to Asbury in the long run. “Our theological commitments, including our commitment to Scripture, remain unchanged,” Asbury President Watson pledged. “As an independent, multi-denominational seminary in the Wesleyan tradition, we have remained steadfast for more than a century in teaching the unchanging truth of orthodox Christianity. Our mission and values are the same today as they have been for more than a century.”

However, the decision may have a great long-term impact on the UMC. By cutting its future ministers off from one remaining light that holds to the true gospel, the UMC has stifled the possibility that a conservative minority might remain to object to further leftward slide. With this move, the UMC may have hastened its decline.