a "Joint Declaration on the End of Life and Palliative Care", on 17 September 2018, reaffirming the common stance of both denominations in opposing euthanasia. Gambling The United Methodist Church opposes gambling, believing that it is a sin which feeds on human greed and which invites people to place their trust in possessions, rather than in God, whom Christians should "love ... with all your heart." It quotes the Apostle Paul who states: The United Methodist Church therefore holds that: Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, and destructive of good government. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice. Where gambling has become addictive, the Church will encourage such individuals to receive therapeutic assistance so that the individual's energies may be redirected into positive and constructive ends. The Church should promote standards and personal lifestyles that would make unnecessary and undesirable the resort to commercial gambling—including public lotteries—as a recreation, as an escape, or as a means of producing public revenue or funds for support of charities or government. Gun control The United Methodist Church supports federal legislative efforts for strict gun control measures in the United States, and outright bans of most weapons in other nations. The Church also declares all of its churches to be "a weapon-free zone." Homosexuality According to The United Methodist Book of Discipline (a new edition of which is usually approved by the United Methodist General Conference every four years), the Church "affirm[s] that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God" and encourages United Methodists to be in ministry with and for all people. In accordance with its view of Scripture, the Church considers "the practice of homosexuality (to be) incompatible with Christian teaching." It states that "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" cannot be ordained as ministers, and supports "…laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman." However, this official position remains controversial and hotly debated within the denomination; for instance, the Western Jurisdiction of the UMC voted to elect the denomination's first openly gay bishop. According to polling from Pew Research, the majority of United Methodists in the US support the inclusion of homosexual persons, 60 percent of United Methodists said "homosexuality should be