Religion

Is the “practice of homosexuality” compatible with Christian teaching? That question is at the center of a debate between progressive and conservative members of the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States. This debate is taking place as states and the U.S. Supreme Court are considering whether same-sex marriages are constitutional.

Methodists are among the last mainline Protestant holdouts on the topic of homosexuality. Karen Oliveto, pastor of San Francisco’s Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, is bound and determined to change that at the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Fla., just steps away from the site of the Republican National Convention. Similar to a political convention,