(AP / Ed S. Warren)
The other day, I reported that World Vision, one of the largest non-denominational Christian charities in the world, which focuses on serving the most impoverished children, had decided that, because the Christian church is no longer of one voice on the issue, they would be willing to hire married Christian people in same sex marriages. These are changes that are inevitable in the church, but the Religious Right still was able to muster up enough hatred and condemnation to bully the charity into reversing course. Their message was simple — God hates fags more than he loves any of those impoverished kids. Yes, Fred Phelps’ spirit is alive and well in Franklin Graham, Peter LaBarbera, Linda Harvey, Bryan Fischer, Matt Barber, Tony Perkins, Tim Wildmon and all the others who rallied the troops to stop sponsoring poor children in Africa, South America and everywhere else, due to God Hates Fags. Yes, they were willing to take the risk that the very real kids they sponsor might starve and die, all because some relief worker might go home at night to his husband.
From the Christian magazine, World:
“The board acknowledged it made a mistake and chose to revert to our longstanding policy requiring sexual abstinence for all single employees and faithfulness within the Biblical covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. … We are brokenhearted over the pain and confusion we have caused many of our friends, who saw this decision as a reversal of our strong commitment to Biblical authority.”
Board member Stephen Hayner, president of Columbia Theological Seminary, replied to an email inquiry from WORLD this afternoon concerning the outcry from evangelicals over the original decision: “The Board of World Vision is just concluding a meeting and will be releasing a statement shortly reversing the decision that was made. It was never the intention of the Board to undermine our firm commitment to the authority of the Scripture.”
Over the past two days, many major Christian leaders, churches, and evangelical bloggers had responded with shock and dismay over the group’s decision to embrace the unbiblical practice, and some Christians had wondered whether they could continue supporting the group’s popular child sponsorship program.
Our opposition will be crowing about this for weeks. The second comment in the linked article speaks volumes about the mindset of those who fight against LGBT equality in this country:
This is VERY good news. I was just discussing this with a friend yesterday who had decided, along with her husband, to stop sponsoring the children they had. Now they won’t have to, praise God.
Yes, praise God that your friends won’t have to abandon the impoverished children they’ve been supporting because they hate fags so much.
Shameful.
