
UMC Ministers File Complaint Against Another for Officiating Own Son’s Gay Wedding
We are surprised that the United Methodist Church would really complain about this. They are open to gay ministers in the denomination but they are known for being a stickler when it comes to specifics surrounding the issue. This is very weird. Read the report below:
On Oct. 20, the Rev. Thomas Ogletree, retired dean of Yale Divinity School and an ordained United Methodist, officiated a wedding between his son and a male partner. The wedding announcement prompted several United Methodist ministers to file a complaint against Ogletree with the local bishop.
“The arguments offered by Dr. Ogletree are rather intellectually shallow and reflect a very sophomoric approach to Scripture,” says John Lomperis, director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s United Methodist Action. “The letter and spirit of the Old and New Testaments–as well as the writings of Methodism’s founder, John Wesley–could hardly be clearer about homosexual practice.”
The United Methodist Church prohibits same-sex unions. A New York Times article brought the controversy into the national spotlight. Lomperis hopes that Bishop Martin D. McLee and the rest of the New York Conference stand by the clear principles in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, which unequivocally defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
Well, if this is true, then why do they allow gay ministers? This is no different than the boy scouts. They didn’t mind gay scoutmasters to molest young boys but now they are working on allowing gay members but still looking to have stipulations on it. What?!
“United Methodist disagreements over homosexuality and other forms of extra-marital sex,” Lomperis explains, “are driven by far more fundamental divisions between United Methodists who accept a high view of biblical authority, are loyal to United Methodist doctrine, seek to submit all areas of our lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ and play by the rules that are supposed to apply to everybody; and other, nominal United Methodists who openly reject our core doctrine, allow the winds of secular American culture to trump Scripture, and zealously embrace an ‘any means necessary’ ethos.”
This is absolutely ludicrous. Which one will it be? Will they be against homosexuality or not?
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