Top Methodist Court Officially Reinstates Pastor Defrocked For Officiating Son’s Gay Wedding

[hrmjustin]

JACK JENKINS

Frank Schaefer, the United Methodist Church (UMC) minister who was defrocked by church leaders and subsequently reinstated for officiating the wedding of his gay son, has been fully restored to his position as a pastor today following an official ruling from the church’s highest court.

Schaefer, who has become a prominent figure in the Methodist LGBT rights movement, was reinstated as a pastor — complete with back-pay and benefits — in June when a lower-level appeals court within the church reversed his defrocking on a technicality. The court ruled that the original decision to strip Schaefer of his ministerial credentials unfairly penalized him for things he might do in the future (such as perform another same-sex marriage), and inappropriately “mix[ed] and match[ed]” punishments. However, the lower court’s decision was appealed to the Judicial Council, the church’s highest juridical body, which heard oral arguments on the case last week. Today the Council upheld the lower court’s ruling, finding “no errors in the application of the church law and judicial decisions.”

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/10/27/3584767/top-church-court-reinstates-pastor/

[rug]

1. Looks like this pastor is reinstated based on the lower court's reversal for technical reasons

but the underlying ruling that the service violated existing church law stands. In other words, Schaeffer is in the clear because proper procedure wasn't followed but, had it been, he would have been defrocked.

Talking about ducking an issue. Still, it's better now than it was before.

[MADem]

2. Given the "Come to our church because we 'get' you" commercials I have seen that group run,

I was a bit surprised when they did that defrocking thing in the first place--it kind of "flushed" a multi-million dollar ad campaign. Every time the ad came on, I--and others--would just SMH and say "Yeah, right! When pigs fly!"

This is a way of walking it back, but it really doesn't "fix" their main problem, which is that despite commercials, they have an intolerant streak.