Pastor Faces Church Trial for Performing Gay Son’s Wedding

Three of his four kids are gay

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A Methodist pastor in southeastern Pennsylvania will face a church trial on Nov. 18 for breaking church law by officiating his son’s 2007 wedding to another man.

The United Methodist church accepts gay congregants but rejects same-sex marriage, and church literature calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching,” the Associated Press reports. But Rev. Frank Schaefer officiated his son’s wedding anyway, “because I love him so much and didn’t want to deny him that joy.”

Schaefer faces anything from a reprimand to defrocking at his Monday trial. He could have avoided trial by promising not to perform any more same-sex weddings, but he declined because three of his four kids are gay.

[Associated Press]