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A pastor presides at his son’s gay wedding—and pays the price
The Deacon's Bench ^ | July 11, 2014 | Deacon Greg Kandra

Posted on 07/12/2014 2:07:09 PM PDT by NYer

The story behind a case that made headlines a few months back, from The New York Times:

Father and son had always been close, from the moment Tim Schaefer was born, six weeks premature, with blood poisoning, a weak heart and lungs, and a doctor who thought he would not make it through the night.

His father, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist minister, thought of his eldest son as a miracle child, saved by some combination of medicine and prayer, saved for something special.

“We couldn’t even touch him; he was in an incubator, and we had to reach in with latex gloves through those holes in the sides,” Mr. Schaefer said. “I begged God to please save his life.”

Their bond was such that, years later, facing a choice between upholding his church’s teaching and affirming his son’s sexual orientation, Frank chose to endanger his own career by officiating at his son’s same-sex wedding. The actions that followed — a rebellion in his congregation, a church trial, a defrocking and then, last month,a reinstatement — have made the Schaefers symbols of the conundrum facing much of American Christianity: How does religious doctrine on homosexuality respond to the longings for spirituality and community from congregants and family members who are gay?

In a series of recent interviews, by telephone and in Washington, where they attended a gay pride event with President Obama at the White House, father and son described their separate and shared crises of love and faith, which began in 2001 when Tim, then in high school, acknowledged to his parents that he was gay.

Frank, now 52, had grown up in a conservative Baptist church in West Germany, believing homosexuality was a sin, but had quietly become more accepting. Tim, now 30, had grown up in his father’s conservative United Methodist church in Pennsylvania, becoming depressed and contemplating throwing himself off the roof of a parsonage when he realized he was gay.

“I would pray at night, ‘God, get me through this phase, make me normal,’ but as time went on, it was not changing,” the younger Schaefer said. “I didn’t want to be gay, and I didn’t want to go to hell.”

Read the rest.


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; Mainline Protestant; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: baptist; falsepreacher; heresy; heretic; homosexual; marriage; methodist; sexualsin
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To: tflabo

An intense addiction to break is right, like porn, or any sexual addiction.

On a side note from the article:

“Now Frank and Tim Schaefer are recommitting to their relationship with the United Methodist Church, or at least with Christianity. Frank Schaefer, who has three gay children and a straight son, has become a sought-after speaker on gay rights and an advocate for change;”

Frank (dad) has THREE gay kids???? Something is truly amok.


21 posted on 07/12/2014 3:04:08 PM PDT by huldah1776
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To: robowombat; Shimmer1

Hate to be correct, but glad I’m not just imagining things.
I am getting snarkier and meaner by the day.
Barry’s first election I was crushed. His second my heart turned black.

(off-topic
Shimmer - thanks.
Look up Rodney Crowell and a song by the same name as my tag
on youtube - hysterical!)


22 posted on 07/12/2014 3:07:41 PM PDT by CaptainPhilFan ( It's hard to kiss the lips at night that chew yer ass out all day long.)
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To: NYer
I knew two guys who wanted to be the first gay guys in Missouri to marry. After they beat each other up and broke up, I told them that they were lucky because they would have been the first gay guys to get a divorce...and it would have cost them a lot more money!

The son Tim's split from his gay spouse is a reminder that gay or not, he was not prepared to make the sacrifice to make a marriage work. So much homosexuality is based upon innate narcissism and truly connecting with someone else, which marriage requires, is not part of their psychological profile.

Gays are going to get the right to marry and I am betting that their divorce rates will equal or exceed heterosexual rates.

23 posted on 07/12/2014 3:13:55 PM PDT by MHT (,)
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To: huldah1776
Frank (dad) has THREE gay kids???? Something is truly amok.

The odds of it being a random occurrence must be infinitesimal.

24 posted on 07/12/2014 3:14:01 PM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: MHT

They will have very open, plural “marriages” no doubt.


25 posted on 07/12/2014 3:15:16 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: bigbob

“...fag flag fly.”

Try saying that 3 times, fast! I could barely read it!


26 posted on 07/12/2014 3:26:57 PM PDT by jocon307 (These people are (some Polish word) crazy)
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To: NYer

What price? He was reinstated.


27 posted on 07/12/2014 3:27:18 PM PDT by svcw (Not 'hope and change' but 'dopes in chains')
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To: CaptainPhilFan

Well, I wouldn’t say the son looks like the Devil, but he does look quite smug and yes, the father looks beaten down, agree on that.

What’s that old saying? The camera doesn’t lie.


28 posted on 07/12/2014 3:29:12 PM PDT by jocon307 (These people are (some Polish word) crazy)
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To: Fungi
Both questions already answered:

Notice it is always a play on emotion. A rapist finds it hard to change, should he be allowed to become a minister?

(From 1 Cor 6)
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous[b] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,[c] 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

How about a murderer, or a bank robber, should they be able to continue in their sinful ways and become ministers?

(From Romans 6)
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

29 posted on 07/12/2014 3:30:02 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: cloudmountain

“My nails for these two weeks are red, white and blue in “star bursts.” “

I hope that means you’re a chick.


30 posted on 07/12/2014 3:34:55 PM PDT by PLMerite (Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
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To: CaptainPhilFan

Nope, I look for about 30 sec. and got the willey’s


31 posted on 07/12/2014 3:38:49 PM PDT by sopwith (LIVE FREE OR DIE)
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To: OneWingedShark

It was a rhetorical question but a nice response.


32 posted on 07/12/2014 3:45:37 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: NYer
Wow .. I have never had a manicure or a pedicure.

Two weeks after I started as a visiting professor in Istanbul, I knew I needed a haircut. I started out looking for a barbershop. I found one, but the sign on the window advertised pedicures. I decided that wasn't the place for me. Farther on I found one that looked like my father's old barbershop, and got my haircut there.

33 posted on 07/12/2014 3:47:25 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney (Book: Resistance to Tyranny. Buy from Amazon.)
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To: NYer
I can understand the pain of someone who suffers from same-sex attraction. However, the fact that they're attracted to someone of the same sex doesn't mean they have to follow up on that attraction, any more than a male who finds a woman attractive has to follow up on it. The attraction is one thing; the homosexual act is something beyond the attraction.
34 posted on 07/12/2014 3:51:33 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney (Book: Resistance to Tyranny. Buy from Amazon.)
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To: goodwithagun

All the lesbians I know were molested as children.


35 posted on 07/12/2014 3:52:37 PM PDT by Politicalkiddo (The more helpless the victim, the more hideous the assault.)
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To: NYer

>>How does religious doctrine on homosexuality respond to
>>the longings for spirituality and community from
>>congregants and family members who are gay?

Let’s restate it this way:

“How does God respond to the longings for spirituality
and community from any sinner?” Ans: Christ, not “whatever
works for them.”

or,

“How does God respond to the longings for spirituality
and community from MANBLA (Man Boy Love Association)
members?” Ans: He makes them feel at ease with their
choices?


36 posted on 07/12/2014 3:52:53 PM PDT by WKTimpco
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To: NYer

Because we have allowed government to define “marriage” for its own purposes (such as taxation and regulation of estates), we have allowed government to define marriage as a social institution. That was fine as long as people in control of government were generally supportive of God’s original definition of marriage. However we have entered a time when a growing number of people in control of government want to redefine marriage for their own purposes, which in part is contrary to God’s definition.

Marriage is now far more a matter of politics and ideology than of private religious beliefs.

Therefore, for the sake of marriage as God defines it, it is time to remove from government the power to define who is married and who is not. Then gays could form whatever relationships they please but they could not force those who disagree to be enablers for those relationships. And we would not have schools that must teach that homosexual “marriages” are just as legitimate as heterosexual ones. Nor would we have owners of wedding photography services being threatened with arrest and being convicted of a crime for merely declining to artfully photograph a “marriage” they find morally repugnant.


37 posted on 07/12/2014 3:55:59 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: tflabo
Must be an intense addiction to break.

Addictions are all tough to break - but what is horrific about the homosexuality addiction is that now society is telling them that it is perfectly OK - and even 'cool'. At least those that are caught in the addiction of drugs, or philandering, or pornography still have the rods of shame and disapproval to help them to realize that they are going in the wrong way, and that they need to pull out of the abyss. But the Sodomites are all being patted on the back as they sink deeper and deeper into sin. It is really horrible what the Media, Society, and now even 'wolves in Sheep clothing' - masquerading as pastors - are doing to these people.

The Sodomites need help and prayers - not people encouraging them to wallow in the mire of sin...

Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

38 posted on 07/12/2014 3:57:17 PM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: CaptainPhilFan

I will. Thanks Friend


39 posted on 07/12/2014 3:58:51 PM PDT by Shimmer1 (If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.)
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To: theBuckwheat
Because we have allowed government to define “marriage” for its own purposes ...

Government, however, acts at the behest of the people it governs. Consider the Mormon Church which once endorsed polygamy even though it was illegal. In 1890, hey disavowed it. Today, the concept is more popular with reality programs like "Sister Wives". The taboo is gone and there are those who now argue that polygamy should be allowed.

40 posted on 07/12/2014 4:09:20 PM PDT by NYer ("You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears." James 4:14)
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