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EXTRA - Schmeling Verdict
Abstract: The disciplinary committee has published it's report report is published, with a nod to Franz Bibfeldt.
In a work worthy of theologian Franz Bibfeldt, the Disciplinary Hearing Committee (DHC) announced it's decision to defrock Pr. Bradley Schmeling in six months (August 15, 2007).
Bibfeldt is the theologian of Both/And and/or Either/Or, and this is clearly the state in which the DHC found itself as it both enforced and called into question the ELCA policy that requires celibacy of gay clergy. The full text of the DHC report can be found at goodsoil.org.
Several things are noteworthy about the DHC report:
An officially constituted ELCA committee has formally called into question the constitutionality of the demonination's policy.
This trial was not 'an open and shut' case. The ELCA spent well over $100,000 on the trial and has only a qualified verdict to show for that effort. Future cases will be even harder to prosecute.
Members of the DHC seem to have felt considerable empathy with Pr. Schmeling and acknowledged the tragedy of a policy that persecutes clergy in committed same-sex relationships.
