I keep hoping he was right with that song.

They're not buying what these churches are selling.

Homophobia is the biggest reason I left Catholicism behind.

Edited for typo, oops.

or as our priest says, the English Catholics.

Mostly, Xtians are anti-semitic and homophobic. It is part-and-parcel of their dogma.

YOU may not be, and I love you for the thought, but I don't think xtianity is The Way.

Cheers!

the Episcopals would be worth a look. The parishes which insist on homophobia and/or no female priests have withdrawn from the American Church to become part of African dioceses.

In any case, Peace be with you.

The good Methodists of the FUMC in Alexandria acted Christ-like. They supported their friend, stuck true to their beliefs, and affected great change. Good on them.

The Catholic Church condemns homosexuality so vigorously and yet actively protected their own pederast priests for many decades.

and get the thread hidden.

80% walk out...pretty much the entire congregation weren't bigoted d-bags like Mantor.

has a wicked sense of ironic humor.

social-justice-oriented seminary, where at least half of the students, faculty and staff are GLBT. We've been laughing our asses off about this, especially at the idiot new pastor whose short-sighted bigotry caused it all. And he's still in denial, claiming that it had nothing to do with the church closing. LOL, yeah, you keep telling yourself that, idiot. Whatever makes you feel better and however you can spin your loss to your regional superiors, who are not going to be happy with you.

All Saints Episcopal in hugely wealthy conservative Montecito, Ca just hired a new rector who brought along her wife and their 4 year old daughter. She was hired after an exhaustive search and won the unanimous support of the committee tasked with finding the best candidate. She was greeted with open arms and all seems to be going well. That church in Indiana deserved its fate. What goes around comes around.

My Episcopal church celebrates and loves our LGBT members and their families.

lit up with rainbow lights on the day the state passed a law allowing same-sex marriage.

I used to be half of a mixed marriage. Please give Pastor Manning my warmest regards -- by flipping him off. Be sure to tell him it's from me, and that my message is that he didn't know Ann Dunham well enough to talk about her the way he does.

In actual fact, we know he's Number 2....a great big, heaping LOAD of Number 2.

I saw him call Obama a long legged mack daddy on one video. I can't believe anybody would take him serious!

whackjob right wing social conservatives.

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. . . which specializes in training organists, choral conductors and music teachers. When I was there in the early '80s, there were only three undergraduate majors: Church Music, Music Education and Performance, and within each major one had a principle instrument of either voice, organ or piano. There was, even when I entered as a freshman in 1979, a very large openly gay student body (probably approaching 50% of the student body), as well as many openly gay faculty (including the Dean). But things hadn't always been so open and accepting. The school was founded in the 1920s as a Presbyterian School (by the time I entered, the school had dropped any denominational affiliation). In the late '60s and early '70s, the Board of Trustees had been engaging of purges of gay students. They would actually have people barge into dorm rooms unannounced, and upon finding two men (or two women) in bed together, the two students would be sent packing the following morning.

In the wake of the Stonewall uprising in '69, students (and many faculty) began protesting these purges. It all came to a head at a trustees meeting sometime in the early '70s, where the diminutive (and heterosexual) head of the organ department, Dr. Joan Lippincott, addressed the trustees, saying: "Well, if you're going to start expelling gay students, I suggest you should also dismiss gay faculty as well. And if you do that, you'll have gotten rid of half of the students, three-quarters of the faculty, and all of the talent." Following her speech, the trustees took a vote to eliminate all anti-gay policies then in effect. The school has been open and accepting ever since. And Dr. Lippincott, bless her heart, was a hero to all gay students from that day forward!

was a force to be reckoned with. I'm an organist and she has a great reputation among organists.

that free enterprise system is a bitch, ain't it!

....progressive UUs who got their start in the Methodists in previous years.

It didn't have to be like this in Indiana. Good for the congregation!

dumbasses

Running churches should have prominent signs saying "Open For Business".

maybe the congregation would return.

I don't think it's too bad at all--it's a reap what you sow kind of situation.

That guy was a hater, and I'm sure that the people who left in disgust are feeling a bit of schadenfreude over this turn of events.

A religion shouldn't be hateful or discriminatory, or tolerate that kind of conduct.

I think it's a good lesson on how NOT to behave!

to do with the 'religion'. Methodists aren't know for being especially fundie or homophobic.

I'd say it had everything to do with the new pastor, and it's a shame to lose the church for that when they could just fire the pastor.

I think maybe the congregation got an up-close and personal look at the tenets of the faith, and eighty percent of them didn't like what they saw:

I'm aware that many church musicians are gay. Many churches just don't deal with it at all. The church I play at wouldn't hire a man because he was gay, and then I came along. What they don't know is that I'm an atheist.:--)

Karma! Good for the Congregation.

But they could have also stayed and thrown out the "minister" and the 20% who were not really Christians. Oops, I forgot, I am not qualified to decide if someone is Christian or not... the ones who were bigots and awful people.

I absolutely love it when people get what they deserve

Stick it to 'em, Jehovah.