Posted on 06/18/2014 6:33:28 AM PDT by marshmallow
Bobby Glenn Brown and Don Roberts’ relationship was already three decades strong. On the couple’s 31st anniversary, the two Marquette County men commemorated their partnership with a commitment ceremony. Although the state of Michigan does not officially recognize same sex marriages, Saturday’s vows weren’t exchanged in a courtroom or via a municipal document. Instead, the couple pledged their continued commitment to each other in a Christian themed wedding on their back porch surrounded by friends and family.
Brown was an active parishioner at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Marquette as of Saturday, but an incident Sunday morning with Reverend Larry P. Van Damme caused him and several regular church-goers to boycott services in protest against the diocese. Less than twenty four hours after the a commitment ceremony, the couple’s tears of joy dried to heartbreak as Bobby Glenn Brown was all but blacklisted from participating in traditional Catholic ministries.
Five parishioners at St. Michaels who were present at Sunday’s services accompanied Brown in the lobby before Sunday Mass then exited the building in solidarity after Van Damme confronted him about Saturday’s “fake” wedding ceremony. Because of it, Brown said he was informed that clergy decided to restrict his participation.
Bobby Glenn was informed that not only was he no longer allowed to be a leader in ministry or worship from the pew, but he now could only observe in the windowed section in the back of the church designated for crying babies. Bobby was told he was no longer allowed to read scripture from the podium, and in what must feel especially spiteful considering Browns musical profession, clergy also banned him from singing hymns in the choir.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc10up.com ...
HOMOSEXUAL, because there's nothing GAY about it.
Commitment to what? Only pack fudge with one partner? Among male homos the actual percent who do this is something like 4%. The equivalent among Lesbians is maybe double that.
Among heterosexuals, the respective numbers practicing monogamy are 70% for men and 80% for women.
They aren't like us. They will never be like us. So why desecrate a church with another make-believe ceremony? Particularly when your local courthouse or ACLU office or a majority of old mainline Protestant sects will cater to it.
Let me see now, these men have been sodomizing each other for “three decades strong” and the church is only now—due to a ceremony— restricting their membership????
It does seem unjust. They should of been disciplined 30 years ago.
You did warn me, but I had to go look.
Having a homosexual "tendency" is not a sin. Many a man may have a "tendency"--- an unbidden appetite, a wondering eye--- to adultery, but never cheat on his wife; many a woman may have a "tendency" to anger, envy, or avarice but never act on them, let alone try to build her life around them.
What these men did in private need never have been any kind of public issue at all --- after all, nobody had surveillance cameras in their bedroom --- but they chose to make it public by having this bogus "commitment ceremony," which is an announcement that "We join ourselves in sodomitic union."
If the Church turned a blind eye to that, the Church would be accessory, enabler, accomplice.
I hope the pastors don't shrink back from their decision to admonish these men, but use it as a "teachable moment."
May the "commitment couple" publicly repent of their error, turn away from their proud sin, and (hopefully) be reconciled with God and with His Church.
So why was someone actively engaged in a homosexual lifestyle allowed to participate in ministry in the first place? I recognize that people can struggle with same-sex attraction and still be able to serve in ministry - as long as they are not submitting to that temptation. Anyone who is actively involved in sin should not be in ministry - whether that sin is homosexual activity, adultery, fornication (sex outside of marriage), drug abuse, alcohol abuse, theft, etc.
The issue is not that homosexuality is a worse sin than any other - it is that for most people caught up in it, it is a sin that defines their whole life and becomes a part of their very identity. And when people who are known mainly by the sin they practice are allowed in ministry, it brings disrepute to the Church of Christ.
It’s only a very short road to this religious freedom to determine membership being declared “unconstitutional.”
So in answer to your question of how was he allowed to be in ministry? Well no one probably knew for sure that he was engaged in a homosexual relationship until he told everyone.
I am not Catholic. But if he was in a 30-year long homosexual relationship, shouldn’t the parish priest or someone else have known about it? Who vets the people who are asked to participate in the ministry there? I know at our church, there is at least some effort to make sure anyone wanting to be involved in ministry is not living in open sin before they are allowed to participate in ministry. And we have almost 3000 members. Since we have 3 different services, there are many people I don’t know, but I know our pastoral staff checks out anyone who works in ministry.
Priests get moved around a lot. Priests are so delighted that any man does any ministry. Mostly it’s all women anymore. You are also assuming that this man has always gone to this parish. It’s always been a touchy thing. When I was single for so long, I never had a priest come up and say are you gay? That would have completely inappropriate. No I am not gay, just took me along time to find who was chosen for me. I would guess that some might have been suspicious, but it’s not an issue until you tell everyone about it.
I understand the point you were making in your post, but this was funny.
I know. I was chuckling at the irony of being happy that a “guy” was offering to minister.
I know, I get it, I do.
I suspect this has been planned and will be used to take the church to court.
Well that’s what you get when you allow the liturgy to be feminized. It is a first step in a process of sexual confusion and dysfunction.
Yep! Once they let girls be alter servers, it’s been all down hill since then.
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