Methodist pastors who have increasingly defied a church ban on marrying gays were dealt a setback Wednesday when a colleague was found guilty in a church trial of marrying a lesbian couple in 2009.
A 13-person jury of clergy peers unanimously convicted The Rev. Amy DeLong of Osceola. The jury found the 44-year-old not guilty of a second charge of being a “self-avowed practicing homosexual.” That vote was 12-1.
After the verdicts were announced Wednesday afternoon, church officials began hearing a second round of testimony to help jurors recommend a penalty that could range from suspension to defrocking. At least five DeLong supporters were scheduled to testify.
Lame on passing on the first count. She [url=http://umnsfieldjournal.blogspot.com/2011/06/2-pm-edt-june-22-delong-testifies.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+UmnsFieldJournal+(UMNS+Field+Journal)]admitted[/url] that she was in violation of the Book of Discipline:
[blockquote]She did testify that she has called herself “a self-avowed practicing homosexual” because that is what The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book, calls her.[/blockquote]
[blockquote] (AP) Methodist jury Finds Wisconsin pastor guilty of violating Church order in same gender marriage [/blockquote]
Where did this headline come from? It is not the headline at the linked USA Today page:
[blockquote]Clergy finds Wis. pastor guilty of marrying gays [/blockquote]
Languages are gendered. Humans are sexed. Marriage sounds in procreation, not communication.
From online Merriam-Webster: b : the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex
1gen·der noun ˈjen-dər
Definition of GENDER
1a : a subclass within a grammatical class (as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms b : membership of a word or a grammatical form in such a subclass c : an inflectional form showing membership in such a subclass
2a : sex
Examples of GENDER
Please state your name, birth date, and gender.
The adjective and noun must agree in number and gender.
Some languages do not use genders.
Origin of GENDER
Middle English gendre, from Anglo-French genre, gendre, from Latin gener-, genus birth, race, kind, gender — more at kin
First Known Use: 14th century
Sorry if I offend, but use of language should adhere to the rules rather than to the “notions” of the theologically or politically biased.
No. 1: It’s hard to know what the jury had in mind in its decision on the first count. But it looks as if a Methodist minister can be a practicing homosexual and not incur a penalty for it–because of not being in violation because of it. What else could not guilty mean here?
“The jury found the 44-year-old not guilty of a second charge of being a ‘self-avowed practicing homosexual.’ That vote was 12-1.” Yes, we know the facts stipulated to. It must be that the facts were not felt to warrant a guilty verdict and penalty.
It will be interesting to see if there’s any UMC comment on that part–as opposed to comment by someone who doesn’t really know: i.e., me.
This was a common occurrence in the PCUSA in the 90’s. A “minister” would marry a homosexual couple, go on trial and be found guilty. The court would admonish the minister not to do it again.
Then the court would issue a public statement saying that they had no choice but to find the minister guilty but they really wished that the denomination would change their constitution to allow such marriages so the court wouldn’t have to do such yucky intolerant things again.
Each time it was a win for the liberals. They got a martyr who could go back to their same church bragging how oppressed they were. A few more conservatives would leave the denomination in disgust. And the tipping point was reached just this year as finally enough conservatives left that the liberals in the PCUSA were able to amend their constitution to allow homosexual clergy.
With regard to the first count, supposedly the prosecution was forced to prove a sexual relationship in order for a conviction, and did not.
There are some documents available at umc.org. I’ll admit to being a bit lost in the peculiarities of a UMC trial, but if one has read through legal documents before one can follow each party’s maneuvering.