Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Senator Pat Miller Succeeds In Defrocking Lesbian Minister

Senator Pat Miller may not have been at the Irvington Halloween Fest this weekend, but she was fast at work as Executive Director of the Confessing Movement ending the career of a lesbian minister in the United Methodist Church. Nurse Ratched succeeded in getting Reverend Irene Elizabeth Stroud defrocked as a minister within the church this past weekend. One of the primary missions of Senator Miller’s Confessing Movement is to use church-styled inquisitions to defrock any ministers who practice or teach acceptance of homosexuality.

Rev. Stroud’s unforgivable sin was admitting to the church and her parishioners that she was a lesbian in a committed relationship with a partner. Rev. Stroud was charged with engaging in practices incompatible with the teachings of Christianity as a result of her confession. A trial court jury within the church voted 7-6 to defrock Rev. Stroud. She appealed the decision, which the Northeast Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals reversed by a vote of 8-1. The appellate decision was appealed to the church’s Judicial Council, which reversed the appellate decision and reinstated the defrocking of Rev. Stroud.  

AOL News reported that Rev. Stroud felt compelled to come out to the church and her parishioners in 2003 because she felt she was being held back in her faith by not sharing the complete truth about her life. "I thought I was prepared for anything, but still the news came as a blow," Stroud said in a phone interview. "It's a sad day for me and for my family and for my congregation and, I think, a sad day for the United Methodist Church." "There's really no question that the United Methodist Church practices discrimination. That's been made abundantly clear," she said.

Score another one for Nurse Ratched. What a bitch.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not only did "...the highest court of the United Methodist Church defrocked an openly lesbian minister yesterday." It also "reinstated a pastor who had been suspended for refusing to allow a gay man to become a member of his congregation."
www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/national/01methodists.html?th&emc=th

Mike said...
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