Nine Michigan pastors in trouble for involvement in gay pastor’s marriage

Remember Benjamin Hutchison, the openly gay Methodist pastor who exchanged vows with his partner after he was forced to resign from his job? Well, nine more pastors are in trouble with the Methodist church leaders because they participated in the Hutchisons’ marriage ceremony.

Reverend Michael Tupper, who signed the Hutchisons’ marriage license, turned in the names of nine pastors who pronounced Hutchison and his partner “husband and husband” to the church’s local district superintendent, reported Michigan channel M Live.

Thirty pastors were present at Hutchison’s wedding, and about 15 pastors said the words that landed them in hot water. The Methodist church doctrine dictates that pastors cannot officiate gay weddings, which Tupper said those at the ceremony knew.

“Folks were aware that it violated the book of discipline by saying those words,” he told M Live.

The pastors concerned are set to meet with church leaders over the complaints that have been filed against them. In a worst-case scenario, they could go to a church trial and be stripped of their credentials if found guilty.

This isn’t the first time Tupper got in trouble with church leaders; last year, he featured in a complaint for signing his daughter’s marriage license when she wed her girlfriend.

Tupper said he had asked his fellow pastors to participate in the Hutchisons’ wedding as an act of protest, an act of witness” and stands by what he did.

“We’re in trouble with our church and with those in authority over us in the denomination, but I don’t feel like I’m in trouble with God,” Tupper told the New York Daily News.