"Fired" for denying Hell: Is there more to this story than just a Facebook post?

Secular journalists who report on church-related controversies often exhibit a gross lack of knowledge about particular ecclesiastical policies and practices. This story from AP writer Tom Breen raised several questions in my mind.

DURHAM, N.C. — When Chad Holtz lost his old belief in hell, he also lost his job.
The pastor of a rural United Methodist church in North Carolina wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and critic of the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal torment for billions of damned souls.

Two days later, Holtz was told complaints from church members prompted his dismissal from Marrow's Chapel in Henderson.

The caption underneath the photograph of Pastor Holtz reads as follows:

Chad Holtz was fired from his position as pastor of a church in Henderson, N.C., after posting on his Facebook page a defense of a forthcoming book by megachurch pastor Rob Bell, in which Bell challenges millions of Christians’ understanding of the afterlife.

As a former United Methodist pastor, I am familiar with the itinerant system in that denomination. Under that system, pastors are not "fired" or "dismissed." They are merely reassigned by the bishop to another church. In most cases, this is a routine procedure. Every pastor is subject to reassignment on an annual basis and, if the UMC is still following the same calendar it followed during my tenure, this is about the time of year when decisions of that nature are being made. So, I have to wonder whether or not Mr. Breen has all the facts straight.

There are rare occasions when a congregation puts up such a fuss that a pastor is removed before the annual reassignments are made. But such a pastor would have to have been caught in the back pew of the sanctuary with the church secretary, three pygmies, and a chimpanzee before the bishop would make such a drastic move. A provocative post on Facebook hardly rises to that level. But, apparently, this was not Pastor Holtz's first offense.

Church members had also been unhappy with Internet posts about subjects like gay marriage and the mix of religion and patriotism, Holtz said, and the hell post was probably the last straw. Holtz and his family plan to move back to Tennessee, where he'll start a job and maybe plant a church.

So, the whole template of the story -- that Holtz was "fired" for posting a note supporting Rob Bell -- is undermined. It's not just his views on hell, but his views on just about every other controversial subject which have aroused the ire of his parishioners. But what about his plans to relocate to Tennessee, get a job, and plant a church? Under the normal procedure, Holtz would simply be sent to another church or, if worst came to worst, be given a desk job at the conference office. The fact that he is moving out of state and starting a new church is all the more evidence that this story is about a lot more than a Facebook post.

But, then again, maybe I've been out of the Methodist loop too long and things really have changed that dramatically.

UPDATE: A comment on Brad A. Greenberg's post at GetReligion offers some clarification on Holtz's situation:

Rogers and Sanctus are only partially correct. Holtz was not “guaranteed” an appointment because he is an MDiv student and classified as a student local pastor. The only people “guaranteed” an appointment in the UMC are ordained elders. It sounds like he’ll go back to his home conference after graduation which is far different than getting shipped off to another conference.

(I’m not in that conference but am an elder in the UMC)

Ah, yes! The student local pastor. I remember those days well.