Ok, not US judicial system charges, but charges nonetheless, 600 clergy and laity have brought charges against Sessions for violating United Methodist doctrine.
Realistically, nothing will come of it. The United Methodist Church technically has a legal means of expelling laity, but I don’t think it has ever been used. There’s a huge long process with many appeals and multiple reconciliation stages. Nonetheless, they are symbolic if nothing else. The UM church is so big tent, he could be a member of a conservative church that has no issue with his statement and there’s not a whole lot us leftists in the church can do about it. I think though that there’s something of value in the fact that Hillary Clinton, George W Bush and Jeff Sessions are all members of the same church, though I doubt Sessions would ever set foot in Foundry and Clinton wouldn’t ever go to Orchard.
I’m a UMC member myself; as you note, even within the U.S., there’s a range of congregations, from very liberal to very conservative. And, the church seems to be in the middle of trying to tear itself apart over the issue of acceptance of homosexuality. This isn’t going to go anywhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sessions isn’t terribly concerned about those charges.
No, he wouldn’t be. First step in charges is a meeting with your pastor and district Superintendent. If they’re OK with it, then that generally ends things, though I suppose a complainant could demand a council be formed, but the council is going to have to vote unanimously on any type of sanction and it’ll have three laypeople from the conference on it, so good luck finding 3 Alabamans that want to kick Jeff Sessions out of the church. Even after that, there’s an appeals process that works its way up to the Judicial Council, so bottom line is that this is dead before it even hit the water, but it’s a tidbit nonetheless.
Why would he be? Is there really much more to it than they tell him he’s not welcome, so he goes to the Episcopalian/Presbyterian/Baptist church down the street on Sunday mornings?
Unless a big part of his personal identity is tied up with being a Methodist, there’s not much penalty involved. It’s not like they’re excommunicating him or anything.
We can’t actually even tell you that you’re not welcome. Our Communion is open table so we can’t deny it to anyone regardless of their beliefs or where they attend or don’t attend church. We ask that they take it seriously and in hopes of bettering their relationship with God, but that’s really up to them to decide if they’re being sincere or not. We don’t have a way to police it, nor would we want to if such a way existed. If Richard Dawkins wanted to take Communion at a UM church, he’d be more than welcome. Really, the only penalty that can be levied against laity is removal of membership which means you can’t hold an office or vote for officers or delegates. The ‘nuclear option’ against Jeff Sessions from the church would be that he’d have to quit any committee that he’s on (which since his membership is in Alabama, but he lives in DC is probably zero) and he couldn’t vote for those committee members or delegates when they come up for election. Practically, he could receive the worst penalty that we could give and still be there on Sunday with no problems.
I won’t speak for the Baptists, but I doubt he would find comfort in an Episcopal or PCUSA church. The triennial Convention of the Episcopal Church meets in a few weeks and I can pretty much guarantee they are going to come out hard against this zero tolerance policy (if it is still in place). The Presiding Bishop, Rev. Michael Curry (he of the fiery royal wedding sermon) is all over the airwaves condemning it.
They will presumably form a committee to determine whether a committee should be formed. On the good side, there will be a potluck after the committee meeting.
