[THEEPOCHTIMES] A schism characterized by documents on "grace through separation" has brought forth a lawsuit.
In Florida, 106 churches are suing the United Methodist Church (UMC) because it charged them large amounts of money to leave, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
The National Center for Life and Liberty (NCLL) represents these churches.
The departure price varies from church to church, according to Jonathan Bailie, chief operations and financial officer of the NCLL.
Some congregations must pay more than $1 million, while others must pay less than $100,000, Bailie said. But in previous decades, leaving the UMC was free.
"Churches have been transferring to other denominations, like the Free Methodists, for decades," he said.
Some of the departing churches owned their buildings before the UMC denomination existed and maintained their buildings without UMC help, the lawsuit states. The denomination still demanded money from these churches.
The churches leaving are conservative, and they’re leaving over procedural and theological issues, Bailie said.
Perhaps the most divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled ...
of these issues has been the biblical view of homosexuality. 
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