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| 11:00 service and panel discussion will be live-streamed. |
A witness for the prosecution argued that, according to the historic Methodist Articles of Religion, the penalty should be so severe as to create fear within other pastors. (Read about this testimony here.)
No doubt there are many clergy raising families who would think twice if the consequence of providing pastoral care to their LGBTQ members in the same way they provide it to their straight members is to lose their livelihood.
When your credentials are taken from you, your income stops.
So we invited a love offering for Frank and his family both to support Frank through his loss of income and as a witness that God's people will not let faithful pastors starve.
The Foundry congregation gave more than $19,000 in our offering baskets Dec. 22 when Frank preached here.
Others from 20 different states have contributed another $10,000 plus through the Foundry website or by mail.
Total contributions to the love offering have now passed $30,000 to reach a total of $30,264.03.
Thank you!
You help our pastors do ministry without fear!
Wow That is GREAT!
ReplyDeleteThis was one of the issues that I felt that people needed to get behind Frank. Thus showing their theology. I remember on saying ones theology is found in ones billfold
I am happy that Pastor Frank has financial support during this low time in his career.
ReplyDeleteI am happy that Foundry Church supported Pastor Frank and was the leader in securing the financial contributions he needs.
However, I am not happy with the way you have classified and categorized an idea that UMC clergy are denied and deprived of the ability to "provide pastoral care to their LGBT members". That is just plainly false. The list of tasks, or acts, which encompass "pastoral care" is long. UMC Clergy are able to provide just about all those tasks or acts to any member of their congregation regardless of sexual orientation. In fact, the UMC Book of Discipline specifically indicates that the church and its clergy shall pastor to all persons, regardless of their sexual orientation because all people are God's children with infinite worth.
For over 25 years, my UMC and my pastors have taught that we should all hate the sin, but love the sinner. From this perspective, and in this spirit, I profess my love for each and every homosexual sinner who I have ever met just as I profess my love for each and every heterosexual sinner I have met. Similarly, I hate the sins committed by those heterosexuals and I hate the sins committed by those homosexuals. God's grace is sex-neutral and sexual orientation neutral.