Church Law or God's Love?

Open hearts, open minds, and open doors?

 

Rev. Frank Schaefer, a southeastern Pennsylvania United Methodist minister who, in 2007, officiated at his son's same-sex wedding, pleaded not guilty this week to charges that he violated the Methodist Book of Discipline and broke his pastoral vows.  Rev. Schaefer could be reprimanded and lose his minister's credentials if a jury of Methodist clergy convicts him of breaking church law banning performing same-sex weddings. 

 

The complainant, a member of Schaefer's congregation, was "dismayed and shocked" when he learned of the ceremony.

 

According to Schaefer's attorney, "It's important to him to practice in his family what he preached to his congregation," he said. "He did this wedding as an act of love and not as an act of rebellion."  He told the jury his client was extending God's love to his son.

 

So, that's the gist of it, and I have been presented with another opportunity to get on the wrong side of a church.  I've managed to have a go at Islam, Catholics, and Baptists, and now the Methodists are creating controversy.  This whole situation is a prime example of the United Methodist credo of "open hearts, open minds, open doors," unless you're gay, then no God for you!  Can you be any more hypocritical than this?  And let us not forget to consider this is a church, holding court, a trial, with attorneys.  A church? 

 

Be real.  I'm sure we all remember Jesus reminding us, as he died on the cross for all of us,  to gather the lawyers unto ourselves lest the homosexual faithful dare to attempt entry into the kingdom of God.

 

If I were Rev. Schaefer, I'd tell them where to shove their trial.  His love for God is not in question any more than the love for his son.  I think the United Methodists would be better served if they rewrote their credo, "Open hearts, open minds, open doors; definitions pending."

 

According to the article I read, a pastor attending the trial stated it wasn't about gay rights.  It was about breaking church law and pastoral vows.  Bullshit!  The problem with religious clergy is they keep missing the target.  It isn't about gay rights, it is about human rights.  It isn't about violating church law or vows, it is about a poor definition of open hearts, open minds, and open doors.  It's about God's love of ALL of us, not just those that Methodist doctrine chooses for God to love.  How dare they presume to choose for God!  I'm sure they will waste no time thrusting the bible in my face to bolster their claims, but that presupposes I buy into the bible being the written word of God and not men with alternate agendas, like control.

Depending on the intelligence of the congregation, this speed bump should haunt them for some time to come.  Or, they could continue to buy into church rhetoric, in which case they might as well fall in line to grab their glass of poisoned Kool Aid.

 

This should be another wake up call to all those involved with organized religion to take a hard look at who you are worshipping with and the doctrine they are presuming to force upon you.  If you don't agree with them, leave.  As with any divorce, it really isn't worth the time in court when all you really want to do is find true love.