So for the conservative, doctrinaire element of the church, increased acceptance of homosexuality in the life of the church will so pollute the Body that it will weaken and fail. Either way, the fear is a loss of the future, of purpose, of identity. No one can safely lay claim to any certain knowledge of what or how we should move into the future. The proof is our own recent history and the fallacy of Monday morning quarterbacking. Many are the voices that point to a wide variety of what they see as causes for the current state of the church.
Doctrinal flabbiness has led to the decline in membership of the last twenty years, say some.
Others say that our theological openness is building our worship attendance and support for World Service. Even fresh on the heels of events, our interpretations are distorted. We truly are free, by divine grace, to enter into the unknown future in a variety of ways, a future that has never been simply an extension of the present. We have the God-given capacity to choose among many causes in the attempt to yield the desired effects. The connection, the unity the Divine yearns for in our midst is therefore not a uniformity of behavior or even belief, but rather the unity of justice, peace, compassion, physical and spiritual well-being and wholeness.