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Friday, 21 February 2014
When Satan's gay devils in Babylon USA infest church ministers : Gay Baptist minister sues for right to wed:U.S. Methodist pastor charged by church for presiding over his son’s same-sex wedding
Bojangles Blanchard, an ordained Baptist minister in Louisville,
Ky., says denying same-sex couples the benefits of marriage treats them
as second-class citizens.
By Bob Allen
A Kentucky Baptist minister and gay-rights activist filed a lawsuit
Feb. 14 claiming the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is
unconstitutional.
Bojangles BlanchardMaurice
“Bojangles” Blanchard — who with his partner, Dominique James, was
fined 1 cent for trespassing in November for refusing to leave a county
clerk’s office after being told they could not apply for a marriage
license — asked U.S. District Judge John Heyburn to build on his finding two days earlier that Kentucky must recognize same-sex unions performed legally in other states.
Blanchard leads the True Colors Ministry, founded in 2011 at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., as an outreach ministry to members of the LGBTQ community.
He and James and another couple denied marriage licenses by the
county clerk in Louisville claim denying them rights available to others
violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says that no citizen can be denied equal protection under the law.
“The Commonwealth of Kentucky refused, and continued to refuse, to
issue a marriage license to the Blanchard plaintiffs solely because they
are a same-sex couple,” the lawsuit claims. By preventing same-sex
couples from getting married, it says, state law “deprives them of
numerous legal protections that are available to opposite-sex couples in
Kentucky by virtue of their marriages.”
Judge Heyburn ruled
Feb. 12 that the state’s ban on recognizing same-sex unions performed
elsewhere violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection
under the law by treating gays and lesbians “differently in a way that
demeans them.”
“Many Kentuckians believe in ‘traditional marriage,’” Heyburn said in
the ruling. “Many believe what their ministers and scriptures tell
them: that a marriage is a sacrament instituted between God and a man
and a woman for society’s benefit. They may be confused — even angry
— when a decision such as this one seems to call into question that
view. These concerns are understandable and deserve an answer.”
Heyburn said religious beliefs and traditions “are vital to the
fabric of society,” but once the government defines marriage and
attaches benefits to that definition “it must do so constitutionally.”
“[The state] cannot impose a traditional or faith-based limitation
upon a public right without a sufficient justification for it,” he said.
“Assigning a religious or traditional rationale for a law does not make
it constitutional when that law discriminates against a class of people
without other reasons.”
“The beauty of our Constitution is that it accommodates our
individual faith’s definition of marriage while preventing the
government from unlawfully treating us differently,” he wrote. “This is
hardly surprising since it was written by people who came to America to
find both freedom of religion and freedom from it.”
The judge also addressed concerns including whether churches must now
marry same-sex couples. “No court can require churches or other
religious institutions to marry same-sex couples or any other couple,
for that matter,” he said. “This is part of our constitutional guarantee
of freedom of religion. That decision will always be based on religious
doctrine.”
According to their lawsuit, Blanchard and James have been together as
a couple for 10 years. They had a religious marriage ceremony in 2006.
On Martin Luther King Day in 2013, they sought a marriage license,
defying a 2004 amendment to the state constitution limiting legal
marriages to those “between one man and one woman.” Blanchard described
the protest beforehand as an act of “nonviolent resistance to bring
about social change,” and tweeted “Praise God for the opportunity to
witness to inclusive love” from the Louisville Metro Jail House
following their arrest on a trespassing charge.
Their trial was originally set for August but got postponed to November because lawyers could not agree on an impartial jury before the pool of those summoned for jury duty was depleted.
Blanchard and James rejected a plea bargain in which the charges
would have been dismissed in return for both serving five hours of
service at the charity of their choice, opting instead to face their
charge of third-degree trespassing and a maximum fine of $250.
The jury found them guilty of trespassing, but set the fine at 1 cent. The presiding judge waived the 1 cent fine because of the brief time they spent in jail.
Blanchard called it “a great moral victory” that indicated the jurors understood what the couple was trying to say.
Former Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer (right) was defrocked in December for officiating at his Tim’s same-sex marriage.
Photograph by: Uncredited
, The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The United Methodist Church has formally charged another clergyman for presiding at the same-sex wedding of his son.
The
Rev. Thomas Ogletree will be tried March 10 for violating church law
against officiating at gay unions, his spokeswoman, Dorothee Benz,
announced Friday. It's the second high-profile United Methodist trial in
recent months over same-sex relationships. In December, pastor Frank
Schaefer of central Pennsylvania was defrocked after he officiated at
his son's gay wedding. The church considers homosexuality "incompatible
with Christian teaching."
Ogletree is a theologian, a former Yale
Divinity School dean and a retired elder in the church's New York
district, or Annual Conference. Some clergy had filed a complaint after
his son's 2012 wedding announcement appeared in The New York Times.
Ogletree,
80, said he could not refuse his son's request to preside at the
wedding, which was held in New York, where gay marriage is legally
recognized.
"It is a shame that the church is choosing to
prosecute me for this act of love, which is entirely in keeping with my
ordination vows to 'seek peace, justice, and freedom for all people' and
with Methodism's historic commitment to inclusive ministry embodied in
its slogan 'open hearts, open minds, open doors,"' Ogletree said in a
statement. He received notice of the trial in the mail Thursday, Benz
said.
The United Methodist Church is the second-largest Protestant group in the U.S. and claims 12.5 million members worldwide.
Bishop
Martin McLee, who leads the New York Annual Conference, asked for
prayers for all involved and noted church procedures allow for a
negotiated settlement even after a trial starts. "It is my hope and
prayer that a just resolution can be arrived at and a trial can be
avoided," McLee said in a statement.
The Rev. Randall Paige of
Christ Church UMC in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., who led the clergy
who filed the complaint, said, "we take no joy" in the charges against
Ogletree. Paige said they would have dropped the complaint if Ogletree
had promised never to officiate at a same-gender wedding again.
"Had he agreed to this request, there would have been no need for a trial," Paige wrote in an email.
Separately,
Schaefer had also been asked to make a similar pledge, which would have
allowed him to keep his clergy credentials, but he refused to say he
would never again officiate at a same-sex wedding.
Like other
mainline Protestant groups, Methodists have been debating for decades
over whether the Bible condemns or condones same-gender relationships.
However, other mainline groups, such as the Episcopal Church and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have in recent years taken key
steps toward accepting same-sex couples. The top Methodist policy-making
body, General Conference, has repeatedly rejected changing church law
on homosexuality, including in their most recent vote at a 2012 meeting.
In
the last few years, as gay marriage has gained legal recognition by
U.S. states, Methodists advocating for gays and lesbians have
intensified their protests, hosting gay weddings in Methodist churches
or officiating the ceremonies elsewhere.
Two other similar cases
are pending within the Methodist church. The Rev. Stephen Heiss of the
Upper New York Annual Conference is expected to face a church trial for
presiding at same-sex marriages, including officiating at his daughter's
2002 wedding. The Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, of the New York Annual
Conference, is facing a formal complaint that she is a "self-avowed
practicing" lesbian, or lives openly with a same-sex partner, which is
barred by church law.
Ogletree's trial will be held at First United Methodist Church in Stamford, Conn.
