I saw this shit and got so upset. The Christian Reformed Church is going to kick this Rev. out of his head position at a semenary in Massachusets for officating a gay wedding for his daughter and her partner. So this church is based out of Grand Rapids. Nothing makes me prouder than to know a church based in my home city is willing to kick out an established member of their faith simply because he loved his daughter and wanted god to bless her marriage, which is legal now in that state. A lot of Christians talk the good shit about compassion. I really dont think Jesus would turn away homosexuals. I am sure if you think he would, he would not wanna kick it with you.
NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (AP) -- The New Brunswick Theological Seminary has ousted its president and reprimanded him for officiating at his gay daughter's wedding.
The Rev. Norman Kansfield, 64, performed the ceremony in Massachusetts, which last year became the first state to sanction same-sex marriage. He could face a church trial later this year.
In a letter sent shortly before the June 19 wedding, Kansfield informed the board of his decision to officiate, and said he wasn't seeking its permission. His daughter, Anne, married her partner, Jennifer Aull.
The board voted January 28 not to renew Kansfield's contract.
"We decided that the president had put the seminary in an awkward position by performing that ceremony without giving us the benefit of offering sufficient counsel," the Rev. Larry Williams Sr., a board member, told The Star-Ledger of Newark in a story published Friday.
"It could have hurt the school if it divided people in our student body, if it divided our faculty, if it divided other people who support us," Williams said.
Kansfield said he had not done anything to hurt his denomination, the Reformed Church of America.
"People presume I have been on a crusade," he said. "In point of fact, I'm a conservative theologian. I would not do anything that goes against the church."
The Reformed Church's roots date to Dutch settlers who arrived in America 400 years ago. It is one of the more conservative denominations in the National Council of Churches.
Unlike its fellow Protestant churches -- such as Episcopalians and Methodists -- the church has not had high-profile controversies over gay rights.
But the denomination's national office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said formal complaints have been filed against Kansfield, who expects to be brought up on charges in June at the church's General Synod.
Kansfield said a trial would be the highest-profile proceeding in the church since 1962, when a seminary professor questioned whether the first parts of Genesis should be taken literally. | 
