Nine Justices Rule Against Gays

No, it's not James Dobson's dream SCOTUS. Rather, it's the Judicial Council of the Methodist church, which issued several important anti-gay decisions yesterday, a "clean sweep for conservatives" and "the latest in a series of defeats for liberals in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination who have sought to be more welcoming toward gay men and lesbians."

Among the rulings, the court defrocked an out lesbian minister and reinstated a Virginia pastor who barred a gay man from his church. (Overturning a 448-114 disciplinary vote by the state's ministers.) It's a real shame that the tradition in which Jamie and I both grew up in seems so determined to step backward on these issues.