A United Methodist minister in Pennsylvania plans to defy a church order to surrender his credentials for performing a same-sex wedding.
The Rev. Frank Schaefer says he cannot uphold the church’s Book of Discipline because he finds it discriminatory. The Methodist church accepts gay and lesbian members but rejects the practice of homosexuality as “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
So now we shall see if the Methodist Church will follow through on defrocking Schaefer.
“because he finds it discriminatory.”
If you want it to be up to you, then by all means start yet another independent congregation. If you don’t want to submit to the order of your church, then why are you there?
[blockquote]If he is defrocked, Schaefer said he might join another denomination, noting the Episcopal and United Church of Christ branches have approached him.[/blockquote]
Perhaps, dispensing with the normally-required Anglican Studies year, since he is already behaving badly. He could quickly become a TEC bishop.
Ahab found the prohibition of marrying pagan women and worshiping the Baals discriminatory. How’d that work out for ya, Ahab?
It’s one thing to plant your flag and declare yourself for “justice”. Even if yoy are wrong, I can respect your integrity. However, along with that declaration comes consequences. To evade those consequences lacks integrity.
Along the lines of Charles52, I am often amazed at the number of those who cloak themselves in the mantle of “prophetic ministry” but are so unwilling to share in the suffering of the good servant . . .
Perhaps the money-changers in the Temple found the actions of Jesus discriminatory.
Let me call attention to another disturbing aspect of this article. Note the stance taken by the local UMC bishop, a woman, who regards the traditional, biblical stance on marriage in the UMC Book of Discipline as “discriminatory” and who openly declares that she is determined to avoid expensive and divisive church trials as much as possible. That is, she hates to enforce the ban and openly sympathizes with the “progressive” side in this matter. IOW, even if Frank Shaeffer is ousted, she wants other liberal UMC clergy to remain in their posts, and will do all in her power to protect them from a similar fate.
Did anyone else find it ironic that the minister’s name is Frank Shaeffer? For those of us with evangelical roots, it tends to bring back memories of the late evangelical firebrand Francis Shaeffer, founder of L’Abri in Switzerland, and author of a landmark conservative Christian manifesto in the Culture War, [b]How Shall We Then Live?[/b] .
Civil Disobedience is one thing. It’s an honorable tradition, as long as you’re willing to pay the price involved. But playing the Victim Card is a very different matter. There is no honor or integrity in that, as commenters #5 and 6 above have already suggested.
David Handy+
Forty years ago, I heard the Shaeffer family (including the now-apostate Franky) present a combination live and video seminar of How Then Shall We Live. Even then, I want on the same theological train as Dr. Shaeffer, but it was really excellent. It really helped me connect Christianity to lifestyle. What a concept!