ATLANTA (AP) – A disciplinary hearing ended Tuesday in the case of a gay Lutheran minister who could be defrocked for announcing he has a partner, and the hearing committee now has up to two weeks to make its decision.

When the Rev. Bradley Schmeling was chosen in 2000 to lead St. John’s, Atlanta’s oldest Lutheran church, some worried that his sexuality could threaten the church’s standing with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Last year, when Schmeling announced he had found a lifelong companion, the congregation threw them a party. But Bishop Ronald Warren of the ELCA’s Southeastern Synod asked the 44-year-old pastor to resign.

When Schmeling refused, Warren began disciplinary proceedings against him for violating church rules barring sex outside of marriage.

The hearing, which started Friday, was structured much like a trial, with testimony heard by a committee of 12 ELCA members who will decide whether Schmeling can remain an ordained minister.

If the committee rules against the pastor, he could face suspension or no longer be recognized as an ordained minister in the ELCA. The committee includes clergy and lay people, and two members were chosen by Schmeling.

The ELCA maintains it is simply following its own rules, which bar unmarried clergy – whether gay or straight – from having sex and reserve marriage for heterosexual couples.

But Schmeling and his supporters say they hope his case will make the church more accepting of pastors in same-sex relationships.

Nobody who gave testimony at the hearing is allowed to comment until a decision is reached.

LEXINGTON (AP) – Staff and faculty at the University of Kentucky have received a survey from a group critical of domestic-partner benefits, asking their opinions of possible health benefits for unmarried and same-sex partners.

A committee at the university two weeks ago voted unanimously to offer domestic-partner benefits to same-sex and opposite-sex unmarried couples. Domestic-partner benefits are already in place at the University of Louisville. Berea and Centre, both private colleges, also offer domestic-partner benefits.

The Family Trust Foundation of Kentucky, an offshoot of the national Family Foundation, sent the survey to e-mail addresses it got from the staff directory, spokesperson Martin Cothran said. The survey went to about 9,000 members of the faculty and staff.

“We thought we’d ask some relevant questions, and if they show something interesting, that’s probably something legislators need to know,” Cothran said.

Republican Lexington Rep. Stan Lee has pre-filed a bill to ban domestic-partner coverage at Kentucky’s public universities.

The survey contains 10 questions, starting with those on opinions about the domestic-partner benefits. It also has questions about whether the proposal represents the values of Kentucky citizens, or whether the respondent has felt pressured to support it.

UK research specialist Zina Merkin pointed out a question that asks people to prioritize partner benefits next to benefits for adult children or elderly relatives.

“It sets up a false dichotomy,” as though elderly relatives would get coverage if domestic partners didn’t, Merkin said.

The university responded to the survey immediately Tuesday with a blanket e-mail denying any connection to it.

“We had received a number of concerns from folks, and we were just trying to explain this was not a university-sanctioned survey,” UK spokesman Jay Blanton said.

The UK committee that studied the issue said in its report that among some 13,600 UK employees, the proposal eventually could affect about 204 opposite-sex couples and 68 same-sex couples.

JACKSON (AP) – Two former Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents have been given home arrest after pleading guilty to assaulting two gay men in a 2004 incident in Jackson.

Former agents John Forman and Greg Reynolds were sentenced Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate James C. Sumner.

Forman and Reynolds pleaded guilty last year to violating the men’s civil rights.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paige Fitzgerald of Washington, D.C., had urged Sumner to sentence each man to a year in prison on the misdemeanor charges.

Sumner sentenced Reynolds to 30 days in jail and placed him on 11 months of home confinement. Forman was given one year of probation and placed on 12 months of home confinement.

“I know the sentences do not suit the Department of Justice and the victims,” Sumner said.

He said he didn’t treat the former MBN agents any differently than others.

Sumner said the former agents are no threat to the community and are out of law enforcement.

As a condition of the plea agreement they signed last year, Forman and Reynolds agreed to resign from the MBN and not to seek or accept any law enforcement position for 18 months after sentencing.

James Buitt, then 42, and Michael Mathis, then 47, both of Bogue Chitto, filed a complaint Sept. 16, 2004, alleging abuse by MBN agents on Aug. 29, 2004, at a parking lot near Jack & Jill’s bar in Jackson because of their sexual orientation.

Buitt said he was sent to the University of Mississippi Medical Center with a broken arm and nose, and Mathis said his hand was broken.

Buitt and Mathis say they were pulled from their truck and called derogatory names, which they said suggest the abuse was a hate crime.

MBN agents filed numerous charges against Buitt and Mathis after the incident, but charges were dismissed in court, their attorney Robert Smith said.

Buitt and Mathis have a civil lawsuit filed against the former agents and MBN.

CONCORD (AP) – Critics mocked a proposed change to New Hampshire’s marriage law last Tuesday, calling the bill ludicrous, homophobic and silly as they urged legislators to toss it out.

Opponents of Fremont Republican Daniel Itse’s bill find it problematic and puzzling. They worry it breaches the divide between church and state, taking aim at liberal clerics who perform marriage and commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples.

Itse, sponsor last year and this year of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, denied that’s the point of the bill, which had a hearing Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee. He said the bill’s intention is to extend an exemption that so far has only been given to Quakers and rabbis. The exemption makes clear that Quakers and rabbis have the right to perform marriages according to their custom, even though both religions do not have ordained clergy.

Itse’s bill would change the law to allow all “religious officiates authorized by their church, religion, sect or denomination to solemnize marriages in the way usually practiced among them” – with a catch. Those ceremonies would only be allowed “provided that such marriages do not conflict with existing state law prohibiting marriage between persons of the same sex.”

He said there should be a clear distinction between civil and religious marriage, and does not believe the state should regulate religious ceremonies.

“This makes it a purely religious ceremony, and hopefully those who enter into such an arrangement will really think of it as before God and not before the governor,” Itse said outside the committee room.

Liberal ministers say they want the same thing, which is why they’re angered by the bill. Unitarian Universalist ministers told the committee the bill violates their religious freedom because they regard same-sex couples joined in ceremonies as married in the eyes of their church.

Rev. Mary Edes, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Eastern Slopes in Tamworth, said Itse’s proposal – House Bill 69 – is “ludicrous.” She urged lawmakers to reject it and focus on pressing issues of education funding, health care and the economy.

“It seems to me that House Bill 69 is wholly unconstitutional,” she said. “I believe the introduction of House Bill 69 to be motivated by homophobia and quite frankly a waste of our precious time.”

Church member Susan Bruce questioned why the bill is needed since state law already bans same-sex marriage.

“How many more new laws must be added to shore up that law before the gay haters feel secure?” she said.

Rev. Emily Burr, pastor of Mount Kearsarge Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Andover, asked how the law would be enforced.

“Will police be marching into sanctuaries, arresting ministers and rabbis?” she said.

Betsy Janeway, wife of Democratic state Sen. Harold Janeway, said lawmakers should keep the bill if they’re in need of a good laugh.

“The world is so serious right now,” she said. “This is the silliest bill I have ever heard.”

She sarcastically suggested the bill be amended to ban gays from church bingos, suppers and food pantries.

“We’re allowing gay people to church suppers,” she said. “So I think we should just amend the heck out of this bill.”

Itse was the only person to speak in favor of the bill during the 45-minute hearing. He said it also would protect religious officials from a $60 fine for marrying couples without a marriage certificate, although the bill does not contain any language about that.