A Lutheran Pastor in Pennsylvania came out to his flock and then resigned before they could fire him. Of course, the God Fearin’ bigots are to blame for his departure.
Meet the Rev. David Wagner in his early days.
Wagner said he grew up in Minnesota in a conservative community that never allowed for differences. By age 11 or 12, he recalled that he knew he was “different.” [The kid who ate worms and tortured small animals was different too, is that OK?]It wasn’t the kind of thing you admitted, so he decided to repress his emerging attraction to males.
Wagner also had a deep love of God and a desire to preach the Gospel to others [Whose Gospel? Jesus’ gospel?]. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College south of Minneapolis-St. Paul. That’s where he decided to enter the ministry and where he was ordained 34 years ago.
He also married and had two children, whom he dotes on. Twenty-five years after his marriage and just before he took over at God’s Love, he finally admitted to his wife that he was gay. He moved to Newtown alone, but said he has remained close to his former wife and his children[Aww, isn’t that nice?].
Ok, so he lied to his wife for years and then left her, but never you mind. He is the hero of the piece. So what happened next?
Wagner, now the former pastor of the Lutheran Church of God’s Love in Newtown Township, said he’s still reeling from the ordeal that began after he confessed that he was gay and had been living with a companion for five years.
…
The majority of his flock supported him, but what he called a core of opponents mounted a telephone campaign against him, trying to schedule a formal congregation meeting. That meeting would have required a two-thirds vote of support for Wagner to keep his job, he said.
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“I believe I could have gotten the votes I needed to stay, but I felt the divisiveness that occurred was harmful to the church and that’s when I decided to resign,” Wagner said.
Yes, yes…the divisiveness. He would have won, you see. But for the good of the people…please stop. But even thought he was so concerned about divisiveness, he decided to get in their faces out last time.
Wagner left with dignity, but not quietly.
At his last service on Christmas Eve at God’s Love, he introduced his partner, Tom Piccoli, 54, a medical physicist, along with Piccoli’s former wife and other family members. Wagner’s extended family received enthusiastic applause, he said.
But the gay lover was still a little upset.
“Why didn’t they fight for him? Why didn’t they speak out? They kept telling him he was the best pastor they ever had,” he said. “I’m appalled at what happened. I think it was reprehensible, unconscionable.
“How bigoted some of these people are to listen to the word of God and Jesus, then stay silent,” Piccoli added.
Umm… maybe they actually listened to the word of God and Jesus. Clearly the Rev. Wagner did not.
January 15, 2008 at 4:02 am
“The kid who ate worms and tortured small animals was different too, is that OK?”
Sure, but I got over it. What’s THIS guy’s problem???
January 15, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I agree with you that this is all utterly absurd, both from the point of view of natural reason and from that of Christian revelation. No doubt about that!
But we should also remember the “Nolite judicare”, which is a precept of Our Lord Jesus Christ (“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned”: Luke VI, 37).
To condemn an error and a sin (considered objectively) is our strict duty. But we’re not entitled to offend the sinner: “in omnibus caritas”, charity in everything!
I’m pretty sure that your intentions were very good. But I didn’t like your comment about an 11-or-12-year-old boy who is discovering his homosexuality, because I’m sure that it is always VERY painful – and, what is more, it’s just the beginning of a whole life of suffering. This is a cross, indeed!
Please pray for me.
January 15, 2008 at 12:22 pm
the fact that he picked Christmas Eve services to introduce his gay lover says it all.
January 15, 2008 at 3:01 pm
If his wife has actually managed to forgive him, she’s probably well on the road to sainthood.
Especially since she’s left alone to raise two traumatized children.
But, of course, the man who chose lust over responsibility is the hero here…
Because, of course, SOCIETY FORCED him to get married and have two kids, rather than just live a chaste life.
I know lots of straight men who are unmarried and not priests and yet live chaste lives. So why is the same too much to expect from a homosexual man? He’s still a MAN, first and foremost….
His poor, poor, wife…..
March 13, 2008 at 4:22 am
“the man who chose lust over responsibility” – the man loves his partner, that’s not lust.
“The kid who ate worms and tortured small animals was different too, is that OK?” Equivocating torturing animals and discovering feeling attracted to the same gender. It must be a ‘pro-life stance’: love the fetus, hate the child.
What a great set of ethics you people have. Gay people are in your own midst as well. Do you offer any, well, at least say understanding for what it means to be gay and Christian? Or is even that too much to ask?
I’m sure it’s easier to rattle on about the evils of homosexuality. It makes you feel good about yourself. I like all this self-indulgence about your orthodoxy.
Praise the Lord you’re not as evil as gays and lesbians. Lucky you!
March 13, 2008 at 10:38 am
“What a great set of ethics you people have. Gay people are in your own midst as well. Do you offer any, well, at least say understanding for what it means to be gay and Christian? Or is even that too much to ask? “
Shall I take a moment to describe the act of sodomy to you? To the others here? Are you so sure the romance would not be lost on them?
There is no one in this forum who is without sin. We have our own sins more than those of others. We are outraged by sins that “cry to heaven for vengeance.” There are four of them. Murder is one, sodomy another, also oppression of the poor and defrauding a man of his just wage. This cry for vengeance is mentioned in scripture.
I am, in all likelihood, the worst sinner here. I’m not afraid to use my name. If you had any guts at all, you’d use yours in taking us to task.
The man in question left his wife, his children, to indulge his own desires. Pray tell us, oh anonymous wise one, where is the love in that???