The Trial (Again) of the Rev. Janie Spahr...or Ground Hog Day

I saw this on mlp.org, and then in the Advocate.com: the Rev. Janie Spahr is facing church court again because she married couples who happened to be in the same sex in CA before Proposition 8 was passed.

This from the Advocate.com:

For the second time in less than five years, a retired Presbyterian minister faces prosecution by her church for same-sex marriages that she performed in California, with the new twist that the latest marriages were legal.

According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Francisco married 16 gay and lesbian couples in 2008 during the five-month period that same-sex marriages could legally be performed in California.

Spahr, 67, was acquitted by her church's highest tribunal in 2008 for officiating over same-sex marriages when they were not yet legal in California.

“JoAn Blackstone, who is the prosecutor, said the distinction is immaterial,” the Press Democrat reports. “The marriages may well have been legal under state law, she said, but were ‘expressly prohibited’ by the same ruling that acquitted Spahr in 2008.”

Having met Janie briefly, I am sure that she knew what she was doing when she wed these people.

But really?

In a few years, marriage between two consenting adults will be the law of the land. And churches will slowly adapt to what the Spirit is doing around the world in making it possible for people who love each other to be wed. The homophobia of this country in general, and the church in particular, is in its sunset years.

Recent poll: half of the first year class of students at UNC-Chapel Hill think that equal rights in marriage is just fine. Each year this poll has been taken, it keeps on increasing in terms of the number of students who believe this is true.

What a waste of time and money.

Meanwhile, the people of the Congo, Haiti, and even this country die of starvation, are homeless, hungry, looking for jobs, while others will throw good money at a lost cause.

Pace,

B