Does The GOP Actually WANT To Be Known As The Party Of Bigotry And Hatred?

The Republican Party civil war over LGBT equality isn't just tearing the Cheney family apart. The bitter rear guard bigotry is making the whole party Establishment look pathetic and prehistoric. By preventing a vote on the ENDA bill that passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support, Boehner is once again bringing his party into further national disrepute-- although it doesn't seem likely that a congressional 9% approval rating is going to get much worse.

Still identifying Republicans with the bad guys in every argument before the public is probably not the best way to implement the GOP autopsy report that called for all that outreach and welcoming earlier this year. In Pennsylvania people will assume instantly that all the hate-mongers and bigots in this tragic story are Republicans.

Supporters held signs and sang hymns on Monday outside of a church trial in southeastern Pennsylvania for a United Methodist pastor who could be defrocked for officiating at his son's same-sex wedding.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon could face punishment ranging from a reprimand to suspension to losing his minister's credentials if a jury composed of fellow Methodist clergy convicts him of breaking his pastoral vows by presiding over the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts.

Jury selection began Monday morning at a Methodist retreat in Spring City, about 60 miles east of Lebanon.

Several dozen of Schaefer's supporters had lined up outside the camp's gymnasium, where the trial is taking place, wearing rainbow stoles, holding signs and singing hymns.

"I'm in support of the church becoming a new church that welcomes everyone," said Bunnie Bryant, 64, of West Chester, who was holding a sign that said: "Law or love? Jesus chose love." She continued, "I question the church's law trumping a father's love."

But a pastor who's also attending the trial says Schaefer's trial isn't about gay rights, but rather his breaking of church law and his pastoral vows.

The Rev. Judy Kehler-Shirey, a retired Methodist minister who has attended Schaefer's church, said she personally disagrees with the church's policy on gay marriage but would not officiate a same-sex wedding.

"I have a vow that is connected to all the other United Methodist pastors internationally. We have a covenant to follow the (Book of) Discipline whether we agree with it or not," she said. "That has to take priority."

The nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination accepts gay and lesbian members, but it rejects the practice of homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching."

Frank Schaefer has said he informed his superiors in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference that he planned to officiate his son's wedding, and again after the ceremony, which took place at a restaurant near Boston. He said he faced no discipline until April-- about a month before the church's six-year statute of limitations was set to expire-- when one of his congregants filed a complaint.

Schaefer could have avoided a trial if he had agreed to never again perform a same-gender wedding, but he declined because three of his four children are gay.

A Methodist trial resembles a secular trial in many ways, with counsel representing each side, a judge and jury, opening statements and closing arguments, and testimony and evidence. Schaefer can appeal a conviction, but neither the church nor the person who brought the charge may appeal an acquittal.

Lebanon straddles the border between Charlie Dent's 15th congressional district and Jim Gerlach's 6th. Both are moderate R+2 districts and Obama beat McCain in both of them. The DCCC isn't challenging either this cycle, although the most recent polling of PA-06 shows Gerlach extremely vulnerable to a strong challenger. We reached out to both Gerlach and Dent for a comment. Neither had anything to say about the persecution of the minister in their area. We were able to reach another area legislator, Montgomery County state Senator Daylin Leach and he didn't mince any words: "I think its sad that this church chose archaic, irrational bigotry over the love and compassion they purport to stand for. They have told this family, and countless others that they are not worthy of participating in the basic rituals and structures of life. I'm not theologian, but it seems to me that any God which makes sense disapproves of bigotry and discrimination far more than two men in love who want to commit their lives to each other." Please check out Daylin's video up top and consider helping him in his bid for an open congressional seat this cycle. You can contribute here through ActBlue.