Twin Cities Presbyterians Reinstate Ordination of Gay Man

The decision follows several high profile events regarding Christian leadership and gay and lesbian people. Several weeks ago, a lesbian was ordained as part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and a debate over Catholicism and the place for gay and lesbian people and their friends and families continues to rage in the editorial pages of Twin Cities newspapers in response to harsh words by Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Capetz' ordination is yet another huge event in the dialogue involving faith and the LGBT community in Minnesota.

Capetz was ordained in 1991, but voluntary set aside his ordination in 2000 because of his disagreement with the standard of celibacy for unmarried clergy. In 2007, Capetz told the church that he disagreed with that standard and filed what is called a "scruple," essentially a conscientious objection to that standard, and asked for his ordination to be reinstated.

In a statement to the church, Capetz laid out his reasoning for the reinstatement of his ordination.

"In the 30 plus years since then, I have never heard a sermon that offered wisdom as to how a gay man should live his life in a faithful Christian manner," he wrote. "All I have heard is silence – or, when there was something other than silence, the words have been condemning. If I asked how I was to live my life in a morally responsible way as a Christian, I was told that celibacy was my only option – a life of permanent renunciation of any embodied expression of sexual desire and love."

But that was nothing but a counsel of despair," he said.

Because the church doesn't allow for one class of people the option to exchange vows, the church was enforcing celibacy on an entire population. That, Capetz says, is contrary to the beliefs behind the Reformation.

“If there was one thing the Protestant Reformation stood for, it was the abolition of celibacy for religious reasons,” he said. "Once I understood why Luther, Calvin, and the other Protestant Reformers categorically rejected vows of celibacy as incompatible with what they believed was the essential tenet of Reformed faith, namely justification by faith alone, I found the key to making sense of my own plight as a gay Protestant," he wrote.

The Twin Cities Presbytery agreed with Capetz by an overwhelming vote. Capetz told the Presbyterian Outlook [registration required], “I’m happy with the outcome.” While he will continue in his teaching capacities for the time being, he is open to being called where he is needed. “I’m really looking forward to being actively involved,” he said. “I realize I’ve missed it.”