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Carol Anne
Joined: 09 Apr 2005
Posts: 1739
Location: Seattle
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 Posted: 11/01/05 5:54 pm ::: Methodist Court Removes Openly Lesbian Minister |
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In a pair of decisions that bolstered conservatives, the highest court of the United Methodist Church defrocked an openly lesbian minister yesterday and reinstated a pastor who had been suspended for refusing to allow a gay man to become a member of his congregation.
In the best-known of the cases decided yesterday, the Judicial Council removed from the ministry Irene Elizabeth Stroud, who told her Philadelphia congregation in 2003 that she was a lesbian in a long-term relationship with another woman.
But church experts said the most significant decision could prove to be the little-known case of the Rev. Edward Johnson, pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church in South Hill, Va. Mr. Johnson's decision to keep an openly gay man from joining his congregation was upheld by the Judicial Council as the rightful exercise of his pastoral discretion. He had been suspended for a year without pay by fellow ministers in Virginia, but the Judicial Council ordered his regional leaders to find a new appointment for him.
At the heart of the disputes, several clerics said, is a profound conflict among Methodists over the nature of homosexuality. "Is it something you can't control," Mr. Phillips said, "or something sinful and that should be repented of?" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/national/01methodists.html |
Or, Mr. Phillips, is homosexuality just part of who you are as a human being? Oh, not you,of course!
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 16359
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: 11/01/05 6:02 pm ::: Re: Methodist Court Removes Openly Lesbian Minister |
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| Having been raised Methodist, this makes me very sad.
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Carol Anne
Joined: 09 Apr 2005
Posts: 1739
Location: Seattle
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| Posted: 11/02/05 7:20 am ::: |
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UMC Court Deals Multiple Blows to Homosexual Agenda in the Church
...Another of these cases involved a conservative Virginia clergyman, Pastor Ed Johnson, who had been suspended without pay for denying church membership to an unrepentant homosexual. Johnson was serving as senior pastor at South Hill (Virginia) UMC up until last June, when he was required to take an involuntary leave of absence.
According to United Methodist News Service reports, Johnson had been meeting with a man who wanted to transfer his membership from another denomination. However, after extensive discussion about the prospective member's homosexuality, the minister ultimately refused to receive the man into membership, saying he refused either to repent or to seek to live a different lifestyle.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/12005b.asp {italics added} |
After waiting for it all these years, I still haven't received my copy of the homosexual agenda. Could it be that there isn't one (except in the minds of homophobes)?
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