Gay Lutheran pastor removed over partner

AP via Yahoo! ^ | 2/8/7 | DORIE TURNER

[SmithL]

ATLANTA - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said Thursday it is removing from the clergy a gay minister who announced he has a partner.

The Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who has led Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church since 2000, will be removed from the roster effective Aug. 15, according to a report from the ELCA's disciplinary committee.

Schmeling, who was open about his sexuality when he took the job, announced last year he had found a lifelong companion. Bishop Ronald Warren asked the 44-year-old pastor to resign, but Schmeling refused.

Warren then began disciplinary proceedings last year against Schmeling for violating church rules barring sex outside of marriage.

Schmeling had told both the bishop and the congregation at St. John's about his sexual orientation before he was chosen as pastor. He didn't have a partner at the time.

[SmithL]

FYI

[lightman]

Lutheran Ping!

DEO GRATIA!

[PeterPrinciple]

Repeat after me.........Homersexuality is a behavior, it is not an orientation

[lightman]

Thanks be to God, the disciplinary panel had backbone and enforced the standards of "Visions and Expectations" (V&E) and "Standards and Guidelines for Discipline". Pr. Schmeling was questioned repeatedly about abiding by V&E at every step through candidacy so he cannot claim ignorance.

The cloud in an otherwise very bright sky is that he will now be viewed as some type of martyr or cause celebre for the revisionist camp, causing them to crank up the "Memorial" machine to request this summer's Churchwide Assembly to revise V&E or something similar so as to advance their agenda. Rumor has it that PBp Hanson's # 1 concern is being re-elected and that he will stand for nothing that might spoil his coronation...thus, the revisionist lobby may find he very unsympathetic. Time will tell.

[RebelBanker]

Well how about that! I must admit I am pleasantly surprised.

All the Doubting Thomases out there will probably say it was not enough and that the ELCA should do this, that or the other, but at least they are following the rules that they established. It's a start!

By the way, I forwarded your "E-L-C-A" song to my pastor, who had the choir singing it at practice last week ;-)

[lightman]

Naughty choir director!

[redgolum]

I must admit, I expected them to cave. Praise be to God!

Next question is, how will the more liberal districts handle this?

[lightman]

The Metro NY Synod had a special assembly in October in which they requested that the ELCA simply stop enforcing the existing guidelines until 2009 when the Sexuality Statement is to be adopted. That will have to be addressed by the 2007 Churchwide Assembly this August in Chicago.

Watch the website of the gay lobby group Lutherans Concerned North America www.lcna.org because they will surely offer boilerplate Memorials to filter up through the 65 Synods as they meet in assembly late April through mid June.

[TonyRo76]

...And this is in the ELCA?!

WOW!!

Could just possibly be, the tide is turning. Finally. Let's hope to God so...

[Kenny Bunk]

Too bad Max Schmeling is not on hand to straighten out this intrepid navigator of the windward passage.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Me, too. This is very good unexpected news.

[TonyRo76]

» navigator of the windward passage

LOL! Yuck, yuck...yuck!

[Kenny Bunk]

OK, I stole it from Ambrose Bierce's Dictionary
That's a footnote, so I'm not a plagiarist!

Sodomite.....Intrepid Navigator of the Windward Passage.

[TonyRo76]

Ah, Ambrose Bierce! A good ol' Southeast Ohio boy, like myself.

Wasn't it he who described wars as "God's way of teaching Americans geography"?

[madprof98]

I don't think this report is accurate. The radio news here in Atlanta at the top of the hour said that the decision will be put "on hold" pending reconsideration by the ELCA of its anti-gay policy.

[Redleg Duke]

I am surprised that the ELCA took such "drastic" and "insensitive" action!

I guess they are afraid of over-population in the LCMS.

[lightman]

I don't think this report is accurate. The radio news here in Atlanta at the top of the hour said that the decision will be put "on hold" pending reconsideration by the ELCA of its anti-gay policy.

The AP still has the story SmithL posted verbatim on their website, timestamped 2:29 PM. Who is right? I'm hoping and praying the AP!

[Kenny Bunk]

Say "hello" to everyone in Gallipolis and Marietta, but wake them up first.

[SmithL]

All of the wire stories are similar to the one I posted. I assume that the decision will be appealed, and they are hoping the the action will be put on hold. Some synods have already asked for the ELCA's policy to put on hold pending the ELCA Sexuality Study presentation in 2009.

[lightman]

And now, straight from the horse's orifice:

[lightman]

Made an html error in my previous post. New article from ELCA News Service posted here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1781593/posts

[madprof98]

According to this new thread, the committee which made the decision also expressed opposition to the policy it was called upon to enforce and urged that it be changed at the earliest possible opportunity. Evidently the radio announcement I heard reflected that point. Pending the meeting at which it might be changed, the Gay Rev. will keep the job.

[lightman]

Yep, very bad news. Obviously the committee is hoping that the 2007 Churchwide Assembly will revise V & E by its adjournment on August 11 thus making moot their decision; ergo they chose August 15 (Festival of Mary, Mother of our Lord) as the termination date.

Holy Mary, pray for your Church! (Can't believe that I am saying, praying, and posting that, but desperate measures are needed in desperate times!)

[TonyRo76]

LOL! I miss the pace of life in Appalachian Ohio.

I miss it more than ever when I'm fighting the congested freeways, high taxes, annoying social liberalism, and everything else I can't stand about Columbus.

;)

[Kolokotronis]

"Holy Mary, pray for your Church! (Can't believe that I am saying, praying, and posting that, but desperate measures are needed in desperate times!)"

Drowning people are wont to yell out "Save Me!", as a very wise Greek priest once explained to me a refrain from the Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos.

[Honorary Serb]

Yes, the press release and the actual statement sounds like the ELCA is talking out of both sides of its mouth.

And I believe that there will be war over Kosovo in a few months. Then all the ELCA powers-that-be, from my poor congregation to our ultra-liberal synod to Higgins Road, will be taking the side of that Nazi Ahtisaari and the muslim "Kosovars" and Bosniaks, while I will support the Serbs no matter what. Between the Balkan situation, the bogus new ELCA hymnal, and the "gay" situation with Schmeling, I probably won't want to be around the ELCA.

Holy Theotokos, Mother of God, pray for us Christians!!!!

[Prost1]

No one has said it yet so I will be the 1st...

You cannot be Queer and love God.

[Honorary Serb]

You cannot be Queer and love God.

Yeah. But you can think you love God, and that you are even offering service to him/her/it/whatever. Just like Brad Schmeling and "Selfish Gene" Robinson!!!!

[Prost1]

"And God said 'Let Us make Man in Our Image'....

"And then God took a Rib from Adam and created Eve (a helpmate)..."

God did not take a Rib and make a boy child or another man to possess. God created a Woman to be a Man's companion and mother of his children.

If man wishes to be obedient then a woman is the choice of pairing.

[SmithL]

No one has said it yet so I will be the 1st...
You cannot be Queer and love God.

I'm not willing to say that. I am grateful that God loves me, and sent his Son to die on my behalf, in spite of my sins, and not because my sins are any better than anyone else's.

However, I have absolutely no use for any church body that is willing to abandon biblical teachings and instead, worship at the altar of political correctness. And I condemn any so-called church that claims that some sins are more "special" than others and institutes pseudo-sacraments. That's an indulgence that I will not stand for.

[Prost1]

Well, I am not a christian. I am just a simple man who tries to abide in the goodness of God and that goodness is made manifest by certain Rules that pervade all major groups, most succinctly summed up in the 10 commandments.