Monday, December 06, 2004

UMC: No Gaiety With The Laity

From Pughtown, Pennsylvania - motto: "Get A Whiff Of Pughtown!" - comes the story of the now former Reverend Irene Elizabeth Stroud, a tale both ribald and riddled with double entendre.

Last week, the United Methodist Church defrocked Stroud as an associate pastor after she confessed that she is a practicing homosexual, and it got me thinking.

Does practice ever make perfect? How much practice does one really need for that type of activity? Would she have been punished had she declared herself a perfect homosexual?

And this defrocking business. Wasn't that the problem in the first place? She was defrocked because of what she and her partner did after de-frocking one another!

And when the church says Stroud may continue her work as a lay employee, aren't they just encouraging the same behavior?

This is what happens when you start asking questions. That's why I don't recommend it.

5 comments:

Clarissa said...

What about an eye for an eye? Crime and punishment are the same act, but happen to different individuals.

SG said...

You are bad!
So before we are married (if we are good girls and boys) are we non-practicing hetrosexuals? Wow and I always just thought of myself as plain ole "single".
And really does pratice ever make perfect?

Donna G said...

Maybe not perfect, but pretty darn good!

Clarissa said...

You changed your post! Oh, well, I'll just let people wonder.
Wondering just now what the definition is for "laypeople".

Grant Boone said...

Good catch, Clarissa. I did edit my post, in part because of your first good catch. I'm always tinkering with every syllable to make each sentence sound the way I want. So when I read your comment, I thought of another and - I thought - better way to say the same thing. Thanks!

By the way, make sure you check out my new post on "The Spin Cycle." You can't make this stuff up!