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(Church) Jury Convicts Pa. Methodist Pastor for Gay Wedding
Source: Associated Press
Jury Convicts Pa. Methodist Pastor for Gay Wedding
SPRING CITY, Pa. November 18, 2013 (AP)
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press
A United Methodist minister was convicted Monday in a Pennsylvania church trial of breaking church law by officiating at his son's same-sex marriage, a case that rekindled debate over the policy of the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination.
The Rev. Frank Schaefer testified that he tried to follow God's command to minister to all, even if he disobeyed the Methodist Book of Discipline.
Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pa., said he could have avoided the trial by agreeing to avoid any more same-sex ceremonies. But he declined, noting that three of his four children are gay.
The charges over the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts came just a month shy of the church's six-year statute of limitations, after a congregant complained.
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SPRING CITY, Pa. November 18, 2013 (AP)
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press
A United Methodist minister was convicted Monday in a Pennsylvania church trial of breaking church law by officiating at his son's same-sex marriage, a case that rekindled debate over the policy of the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination.
The Rev. Frank Schaefer testified that he tried to follow God's command to minister to all, even if he disobeyed the Methodist Book of Discipline.
Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pa., said he could have avoided the trial by agreeing to avoid any more same-sex ceremonies. But he declined, noting that three of his four children are gay.
The charges over the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts came just a month shy of the church's six-year statute of limitations, after a congregant complained.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/united-methodists-pa-pastor-gay-marriage-20926043
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