Woman of God

Obviously, it's not just the Catholic Church that can't get it's act together. Under the conservative or fundamental definition of the word, Christianity does not mean "Christ-like" or this just would not occur.

Yesterday's Philly Inquirer notes that Defrocked minister gets final hearing:

"For the third tempestuous time in a year, a court date is nearing for Germantown minister Beth Stroud. . . . [She is] the United Methodist pastor defrocked for violating a church ban on 'self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,' then reinstated on procedural grounds by a church appeals panel."

"Tomorrow morning, in what will be the final step in her high-profile case, the denomination's top court will convene in a Houston church to hear arguments. Its ruling is expected within several days."

"If she prevails, Stroud said yesterday, she will don her pastor's robes again and resume duties as associate pastor at First United Methodist Church of Germantown [FUMCOG]."

Should she lose, she said, she will remain a lay minister on the Germantown church staff. . . . In December, a jury of pastors convicted Stroud of 'engaging in practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings' and ordered her to be defrocked."

"In April, however, an appeals panel set aside the verdict. Its surprise ruling held that the trial court had improperly disallowed some constitutional issues and that United Methodist governing bodies needed to clarify some of the key concepts in the same-sex debate."

FUMCOG is located in my neighborhood. I understand that she is universally loved by her parishioners and considered to be the epitome of the kind of Minister that exemplifies the Churches teachings and values. A friend of ours is one of her legal advisors in this process. However, things do not look promising for the outcome of her appeal. The paper reports that:

"The council is considered solidly conservative, and it is likely to reinstate the trial court's decision to defrock Stroud, according to Mark Tooley, who directs the Methodist project for the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative advocacy group in Washington."

As Kurt Vonnegut said, "If God were alive today, he would have to be an atheist." Amen.