Posted on 10/27/2014 7:18:54 PM PDT by Steelfish
October 27, 2014 Methodist Pastor Who Performed Same-Sex Wedding Keeps Ordination
KAREN PULFER FOCHT
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - A Methodist pastor who was disciplined after he officiated at the wedding of his gay son will be allowed to remain an ordained minister.
The Judicial Council of the second-largest U.S. Protestant denomination ruled Monday that a Pennsylvania church jury was wrong to defrock Frank Schaefer last year after he would not promise never to perform another same-sex wedding.
The council ruled on technical grounds and did not express support for gay marriage in general. Its decision is final.
Reached by phone after the decision, Schaefer called it "amazing."
He said he was pleased, "not just for myself, but for everyone in the LGBTQ community and the church. This is a positive decision that keeps the dialogue going. They didn't bar a person who is an outspoken activist and who has said that, if asked, he would perform another gay marriage."
Although the United Methodist Church has welcomed gay and lesbian members, the church's Book of Discipline rejects sex outside of heterosexual marriage as "incompatible with Christian teaching."
Since his church trial, Schaefer has become a gay rights activist, galvanizing other Methodists who support full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church.
Following his Wednesday hearing before the Judicial Council, Schaefer said he had no regrets for his actions.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The Methodists are circling the drain.
The Methodist Church has been pretty well lost for some time. Going down pretty much the same drain as the Episcopal Church. Sad.
Methodists are a breakaway from Episcopalians.
So he keeps his ordination, but did he keep his orientation?
I was baptized Methodist, and was training for diaconal ministry when I was led by God and a former Baptist missionary to the LCMS. In the 70s and 80s before I left, even then it seemed obvious to me that what was happening to the Presbyterians and the Lutherans was going to happen to the Methodists, they would split in two with one going heterodox and the other remaining orthodox. The surprise to me is that it never happened, but I think I exemplify the reason: enough of the orthodox have left that the resultant UMC is becoming a Wesleyan version of the UCC, ELCA, PCUSA, just this side of Unitarian Universalist.
One by one all mainstream Christianity churches are going to be perverted...protestant and Catholic. It began long ago when they rejected the holy days of the Lord Jesus Christ and implemented their own and the lawlessness continues and gets worse and worse. This is the falling away.
I agree.
These are human institutions and they will fail.
It is the individual believers who can be saved
If a church describes itself as “mainline Protestant”, that’s code for “pretend-Christians more interested in advancing the agenda of Soetoro than the agenda of Christ”.
Lutherans too.
Never the Catholic Church! That’s a guarantee given by Christ Himself.
And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
All the other “Christian” Churches are in disarray and state of rot. Just try out the nonsense of the Bible televangelists from Graham to Osteen to Jimmy Swaggart to Tammy Faye Baker to Paul Crouch to Robert Tilton. There is no common credo, They preach their own “individual” beliefs of the Bible and before long they are all in the same mudslide.
And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
All the other “Christian” Churches are in disarray and state of rot. Just try out the nonsense of the Bible televangelists from Graham to Osteen to Jimmy Swaggart to Tammy Faye Baker to Paul Crouch to Robert Tilton. There is no common credo, They preach their own “individual” beliefs of the Bible and before long they are all in the same mudslide.
Well put, Steelfish.
Does ANYone remember televangelist Doctor EEEEUUUUgen Scott? He always wore a different hat, sunglasses and smoked a cigar. He was interesting to listen to and my husband and I were fascinated by him. He knew his Scripture backwards and forwards.
I appreciated that knowledge of the Bible.
He used to SHOUT: SEND ME YOUR FILTHY LUCRE!!!!
We only saw his wife from the rear. She was Filippino I think and she had REALLY long, black hair and wore 6" high heels. Even WITH her high heels she still looked eye-to-eye to a chair.
BUT she always wore a FULL-LENGTH ermine coat. Wow. Was it gorgeous. A TON of lil ermines gave their lives for her outstanding coat.
Dr/ Scott gave one of the most powerful sermons on the disciples. He would give it every year. His explanation of ‘He came out of that tomb’ is still inspirational. I think it is still available online. I may even have a link to it ... BRB.
The split is already being discussed in our (conservative) Methodist church.
More anti-God nonsense from another PROTESTANT faith.
Sorry, can’t find the link. One of the most powerful renditions he gave was the last time before his death, when he knew he was facing the end.
If you find the video, please ping me. Thanks.
As opposed to the homosexual priest who performs the wedding.
When the Catholic church clears out its homosexual, pederast priesthood, get back to us.
Otherwise, the hypocrisy of the Catholic church is duly noted.
Personal impeccability vs. doctrinal affirmation. I'm sure we're all confused about the equivalence of the two.
get back to us.
Get back to us when the protestant contingent ceases arguing from scriptural silence the moral ambiguity of artificial contraception. Protestants: slaughtering the unborn since 1930. There place in Hell will be richly deserved.
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