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Compiled By GayToday
 The Rev Creech: Vicitim of a modern-day, medieval-style ecclesiastical witch trial |
Grand Island, Nebraska--The Rev. Jimmy Creech was found guilty and defrocked
yesterday in a medieval-style ecclesiastical trial after having conducted a "Holy Union"
ceremony for a committed gay male couple.
The heterosexually-inclined minister, who bravely stood up against his
denomination's entrenched bigotry, was stripped of his clerical credentials following
a church prosecutor's recommendation that he lose them.
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The still defiant minister said: ``I'm not surprised, but I'm really quite
disappointed…I'm mostly disappointed that it was a unanimous decision… The church
has said it will use its power – legal power, spiritual power and financial power – to enforce bigotry.
It is a sad day. It is a scandalous day for the United Methodist Church…
``I believe the law that prohibits pastors from celebrating holy
unions with gay and lesbian couples is an unjust and immoral law,'' he
said. ``This whole judicial process--this trial in particular--has been
corrupted, contaminated. The trial is illicit.''
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Earlier, seventy-four spirited supporters of the avant garde minister—including
members of Rev. Mel White's Soulforce group--were arrested and charged with trespassing after
locking arms and singing hymns in front of Trinity United Methodist
Church where the trial would later take place.
A Baptist parson, Rev. Fred Phelps of 'GodHatesFags' fame, held up signs critical of Creech
and his sympathizers.
Steve Yates, a secular humanist, said he believed that the Rev. Creech had simply "outgrown his creed."
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Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
Brave Minister With Principles on Trial in Nebraska
A Spirited Victory for the United Methodist Church
The Decrlaration of the Free
Related Sites:
United Methodist Church
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"The orthodox mummies," he noted, "always throw out their brightest and their best,
clergymen who really care about human welfare. The Rev. Creech is a modern heretic
who'll be remembered when all of his lame-brained accusers have been long forgotten."
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