A lesbian minister, who officiated at more than a dozen same-sex weddings during the brief window gay marriage was legal in California, goes to trial Thursday before a Presbyterian court, charged with violating her denomination’s constitution.
The case of the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr has gained national attention because “what is being tested is the definition of marriage” in the Presbyterian faith, said the Rev. Carmen Fowler, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative organization that opposes same-sex marriage.
Spahr’s trial, which will be held in Napa, begins less than three weeks after a federal court judge ruled that California’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. And it underscores the awkward position in which changing civil law places many clergy members.
Hmmm. TEC came up with “unique polity.” ELCA some stuff ’bout “bound conscience.” What will this crowd invent?
No doubt predestination will play a role.
And the Elect, too. I’m concerned that the PCUSA has too few of them among its leadership.
In PCUSA the buzz word is “scrupling,” as in “I have a scruple about following the scriptures or the constitution of the church, so I’ll ignore them.”
Scrofulus, scrofuling, would be more like it.
He: Do you like scrupling?
She: I don’t know. How do you scruple? L