Posted on 06/26/2014 7:13:13 PM PDT by kingattax
In a reversal, an apostate Pennsylvania pastor who was defrocked last year for violating United Methodist law after he officiated at his son’s so-called same-sex wedding has been reinstated.
Frank Schaefer learned Tuesday (June 24) his ministerial credentials will be restored after the United Methodist’s Northeastern Jurisdictional Committee on Appeals voted 8-1 in his favor.
The committee, which held a hearing June 20 near Baltimore, found that “errors of Church law” had been used in imposing the penalty against Schaefer.
“I was wrongfully punished for standing with those who are discriminated against,” Schaefer said in a statement. “Today’s decision is a sign that the church is starting to listen.”
(Excerpt) Read more at christiannews.net ...
I knew he went “over the cliff”regarding his father, but I had lost track of him. What a waste and a shame!
Mike S. Adams summed up the UMC very well 7 years ago-
This is a different Frank Schaeffer. This UMC “pastor” is no relation to the great Presbyterian theologian.
Actually, I believe that I was incorrect and that he is not.
He is,however, insane. I was reading on his Reddit thread,http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1zjtiw/i_am_frank_schaefer_the_methodist_minister_who/,
where he says, “ 3 of my 4 children are gay”. Don’t need to know much more about this guy.
What is ole Frankie Schaeffer doing these days? The last I heard, I believe he was involved with the Russian Orthodox Church.
xzins, are you a member of the UMC?
He’s become a liberal apostate. I think he’s trying to be a clone of Ron Reagan, Jr.
No, first the Episscopalians, then everyone else.
Catholicism is our only hope and that’s starting to fall too.
“I was wrongfully punished for standing with those who are discriminated against,” Schaefer said in a statement
Nothing wrong with discriminating towards perverts.....
Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, then Baptists will fall to this same perversion. Love the people, show and read the Bible to them, preach the word to them, if they don’t learn its an abomination, shake the dust off your feet, and dismiss any leadership that teaches otherwise. PENTECOSTAL churches still preach its an abomination and its not sugar coated either , and is sin no matter how much they “Love” each other. They Pentecostal churches will be the churches that will be shut down and attacked by the government and liberals
I am an ordained elder (minister) in the UMC.
This link is a good explanation of where we are at this moment:
http://juicyecumenism.com/2014/06/22/the-coming-methodist-split/
It’s not Frankie Schaeffer
It is not the same guy
I found some information on Francis Schaeffer’s son ... now called Frank Schaeffer ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Schaeffer
Sadly, there are even some churches claiming to be Pentecostal who have fallen into this apostasy - google “affirming pentecostal churches” to see what I mean...
Fortunately the Assemblies of God are still preaching the Word of God, calling sin for what it is (in ALL of its forms) and leading people to salvation - not trying to tell them that sin is suddenly okay because it is now popular with the public...
Thanks for the info. So if the churches cannot perform same sex marriages, how was this guy able to get his minister credentials restored and with back pay?
The bottom line is: (1) there is no authority above the level of bishop, and (2) there is a corrupt hierarchy in that region of the US. They had a sham hearing and let the guy off regardless of the rules. With no authority above bishop there is no one to call them to account.
Our denominational supreme court (Judicial Council) could hear the case and decide their exhoneration was contrary to the church constitution and force them to return to the original ruling.
Thanks for the info, Star. As you can see, Francis Shaeffer’s son and this Methodist minister are not the same person.
I see. Thank you.
Methodism is divided into regions and over each region is a bishop. We call the regions “conferences”. Ohio has 2 regions, east and west. East Ohio has a bishop and West Ohio has a bishop. There is no over-bishop to control them if they get out of line, and once assigned, they are there a minimum of 4 years unless there is a trial that removes them. They mention in this article a committee that found the ruling to remove Frank Schaeffer out of order. Each of our conferences is banded together into groups of about half a dozen, and this is called a jurisdiction. There is, however, no one over it. They can form committees to rule on questions put to them. Since the US northeast is one of our most liberal regions, the committee members selected by their liberal bishops were all liberals. IOW, fox overseeing the hen house.
My conference, West Ohio, has had a mighty struggle between liberals and conservatives for decades with the bishops and their bureaucracies and favored pastors being liberal and the people in the pews being conservative...for the most part. For years our delegation every 4 years to the denominational rules writing and oversight body, the “General Conference” have been more evangelical conservative than not. We have contributed to the denominations rules remaining conservative.
The southern US conferences have also been, for the most part, conservative. Gravitating against the liberals is the rule that gives delegates to a region based on their numbers of members in their churches. The liberal churches have declined and the conservative churches have grown. The churches in Africa are conservative and they have exploded and not just grown. So, the VOTERS elected to the general conferences have tended to be conservative by slim but growing margins. Therefore, the rules we have tend to be conservative.
Bishops, however, are not just virtually untouchable, but they also are not chosen by this General Conference. They are chosen by these “jurisdictions”, and for whatever reason America is geographically liberal in the northeast the west and the great lakes. It gets more conservative as you go south. Remember, though, that the Africans do not influence these votes. What results is the election of liberal bishops because the ministers only who select them also tend toward moderate to liberal.
I know this is all very involved, but any denomination has an involved church governance. Ours is especially so. On top of that at any trial, the Methodist Church has rules of evidence and rights of the accused that are almost mirror images of the American judicial system. In other words, it’s pretty much impossible to convict anyone of anything without witnesses or confessions on the part of the accused.
Did I thoroughly confuse you? I hope not. :>)
The bottom line is that Africa is causing United Methodism to trend conservative.
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