Frank Schaefer was defrocked late last year after the United
Methodist Church (UMC) found him guilty of disobeying church law.
His violation: performing his son’s gay wedding in 2007. Schaefer
appealed that decision, and on Tuesday a nine-person church panel
ruled that his credentials will be
reinstated.
Schaefer was originally suspended for 30 days but was defrocked
after he refused to promise never to officiate a same-sex wedding
in the future. The appeals panel concluded that the convicting
jury’s punishment was illegal under church law: “revoking his
credentials cannot be squared with the well-established principle
that our clergy can only be punished for what they have been
convicted of doing in the past, not for what they may or may not do
in the future.”
He will get back pay to when his suspension ended in
December.
The UMC Book of
Discipline, which contains the church’s laws and
doctrines, forbids celebrations of same-sex marriages and asserts
that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian
teaching.”
Reason TV’s recent documentary on Schaefer and the controversary
of gay marriage within the UMC was first published on May 16,
2014:
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