Nation IN BRIEF : COLORADO : United Methodists Keep Anti-Gay Stand

United Methodists voted to uphold church policy declaring that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Delegates to the quadrennial General Conference in Denver voted, 577 to 378, to turn down a proposal that would have eliminated language critical of homosexuality from the church’s Social Principles. “I think there is an ethical Continental Divide,” the Rev. David A. Seamands of Nokomis, Fla., said as he argued for the current church policy. “It is . . . our basic, bottom-line biblical and theological standard on sexual practices.” First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton also addressed the conference, quoting Scripture in encouraging church leaders to put children first in their work.