The suspension of a popular evangelical university chaplain has highlighted tensions over same-sex marriage in a growing Protestant denomination that forbids it but also takes pride in its willingness to allow congregants to hold opinions contrary to church doctrine.

The Rev. Judy Peterson, ordained in the Evangelical Covenant Church and pastor at its flagship North Park University in Chicago, presided at the wedding of two men in April. That act resulted in her suspension and then a petition drive calling on ECC leaders to place a moratorium on their guidelines forbidding clergy to officiate at same-sex weddings. The petition had more than 4,270 signatures as of Thursday (Jan. 11).

Members of the ECC — which has more than 850 churches in North America, with about 225,000 weekly attenders — have grappled with the issue much as have other Protestant denominations. Other ECC pastors also face disciplinary action for taking part in the nuptials of gay couples or affirming them in other ways.

But some congregants hope the church’s tradition of tolerance for those who take issue with its official stances could lead toward a more amicable resolution in the ECC on an issue that has split other churches.

Peterson, in a statement released by Mission Friends for Inclusion, an LGBTQ-affirming network of ECC members, wrote that in officiating at the…

For most pastors, the beginning of a new year is filled with the promise of youth programs, baptisms, and marriages. Instead, Pastor Andrew Brunson — Presbyterian cleric in Turkey, American citizen, and pawn in an international game of hostage diplomacy — is spending it in a Turkish jail. Since he was detained in October 2016, his life has been arbitrarily suspended.

Representing the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, we met with Brunson in Kiriklar Prison on Oct. 5, near the city of Izmir. Only relatives or embassy officials are allowed to visit. We are the only other Americans to have seen him.

We were in Istanbul when we were granted permission to visit. Within 24 hours we flew to Izmir, spent a restless night at a local hotel and, before the sun came up the next day, we headed to Kiriklar. Dressed plainly, as instructed, we walked into the prison, placed our shoes in plastic baskets and walked through a metal detector. The painted cinderblock walls of the unexpectedly clean entrance featured bizarrely cheery art motifs.

In the visitors’ area, plastic beaded necklaces made by inmates were for sale. Nearby, a prison guard sat at a desk, inspecting grocery bags filled with clothes he received from inmates’ relatives. During the winter, it gets cold in Kiriklar, and prisoners depend on their relatives for clothing.

After inspection, we were escorted into a…