Defrocked Methodist pastor: Church treats gays as second-class Christians

A Pennsylvania pastor, defrocked Thursday for officiating his son’s gay wedding six years ago, has filed to appeal the United Methodist Church’s decision, he told Al Jazeera.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer, 52, of Lebanon, Pa., hopes church officials will reassess their views on gays, whom he says are treated like “second-class Christians” in the Methodist community.  

“They don’t have the right to be ordained or marry. We say, you can come and worship, but for these things, you are excluded,” Schaefer said.

Schaefer had been suspended for 30 days when local Church officials convened to ask if he would continue to perform gay marriages.

“I said to them that I would do that, because I find the prohibition of same-sex marriage to be discriminatory,” he said.

United Methodist Church spokesman John Coleman told Al Jazeera that legal action against Schaefer was an “undesirable” solution, and that despite the church’s stance on homosexuality, a number of gay marriages had already been performed by Methodist ministers who did not face backlash from their respective communities.

“Every effort was made to avoid trial,” Coleman said, explaining that officials hoped to reach an agreement with Schaefer that would allow him to retain his title as reverend, but stop him from performing gay marriages in the future.

Coleman acknowledged that there have likely been other gay marriages performed within the Methodist Church, although there were “probably not that many.”

“Unless it rises to the point of someone bringing a charge,” the rituals go unpunished. Coleman did say there are a couple of cases against reverends in Seattle and New York State who performed gay marriages and were the target of complaints by community members.

While the church may turn a blind eye to marriages performed in places where they are supported by local congregants, the church still “doesn’t allow for gay, lesbian or transsexual person to be ordained, serve or become candidates for the ministry,” said Coleman.

“Generally speaking, the United Methodists Church believes … that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” he added. “That’s the phrase that’s been around for a while, and that has caused so much consternation.”

Schaefer, who has already filed to appeal Thursday’s decision, said he feels it is his responsibility to open the church to gay members. Already "there is a movement afoot," he said.

“I feel called to be an advocate for the (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community in our church, which is quite large,” Schaefer said, before adding that “exclusionary policies” are “harming and hurting our LGBT brothers and sister in the church … They are destroying our church right now.”

Schaefer said that after the Board of Ordained Ministry ruled that he would be defrocked, a number of church officials approached him in prayer – many of whom expressed support for his efforts to make the church review its stance on homosexuality.  

Schaefer said he had considered leaving the church, but that doing so would be difficult for him and his family.

"It’s a very hard thing to do," he said. "I have served this church for 20 years. All my children have been baptized. Being a United Methodist minister is the only way I know how to be a minister.”

Schaefer’s son Tim, now 30, has expressed pride in his father’s actions and the defrocked minister has stressed that his son is in no way to blame for his current predicament.

“On the other hand, I’m sure he doesn’t say it, but I’m sure he must feel some sort of misgiving for having gotten me into trouble. I try to tell him, ‘Don’t feel guilty. It was an act of love,’” Schaefer said.

“The motivation was pure love for my son. You can’t go wrong with that. That’s not a crime in my book.”