Methodist Panel Hears Appeal Over Gay Wedding

[trotsky]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/methodist-panel-hear-appeal-gay-wedding-26366680

A Methodist pastor who was disciplined for officiating at his son's same-sex wedding will soon find out whether he can remain an ordained minister in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer was suspended and then defrocked last year after refusing to promise to refrain from conducting same-sex marriages in the future. The action against Schaefer — who officiated at his son's 2007 wedding in Massachusetts — was taken after a church trial in Pennsylvania.

An appeals panel restored Schaefer's pastoral credentials in June, but that decision is being challenged. The United Methodist Church's Judicial Council, the denomination's highest judicial body, heard arguments in the case Wednesday in Memphis.

...

The United Methodist Church accepts gay and lesbian members but rejects homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching," and clergy who perform same-sex unions risk punishment ranging from a reprimand to suspension to defrocking.

[Cartoonist]

1. Methodist Panel

I know they don't burn people at the stake anymore, but a cold shiver went up my spine when I read "church trial."

[edhopper]

2. I am sure

the reasons they oppose gay marriage has nothing to do with religion.

And though this is the governing body of the Methodist Church, it surely represents only a small minority of Methodists.

Or something like that.

[skepticscott]

3. They surely are not

Real Methodists (r)

[hrmjustin]

4. Last I saw the Methodists are deeply divided over the issue.

I would not be surprised if they split. It would be a shame for them because they spent decade after decade uniting all of the Methodist churches.

[edhopper]

6. That might be a good thing

then the people who aren't anti-Gay bigots can still go to a Methodist Church without supporting the assholes who can't get over their prejudice.

I say this because it seems people find it very hard to change churches, no matter how much they disagree with where the churches stand.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Why is the right thing to do ever a 'shame'?

Why would that uniting effort be a consideration on the table at all, in the face of an issue of this magnitude?

I honestly do not understand.

[hrmjustin]

8. It wouod be sad to see the church split up after spending so long trying to unite.

I would like them to get over their prejudices.

[trotsky]

5. You forgot one item.

If they do vote to reinstate him, despite not changing their official anti-gay teaching and policy, this will represent a huge and seismic shift in the Methodist church.