The United Methodist Church announced that it has voided a vote that would have governed how congregations leave the faith over the issue of LGBTQ inclusion, citing “irregularities” in a measure that passed by just two votes in February.
In a press release released Saturday, the United Methodist Church said that an investigation uncovered that four people posed as absent delegates to cast votes at the February conference.
“Multiple pieces of evidence corroborated the conclusion that these four individuals improperly cast votes,” the press release said.
In February, Methodists met in St. Louis for a General Conference that was summoned in order to “resolve the longtime debate over the status of LGBTQ people” in the church.
The church voted on multiple measures on the issue, including the “Traditional Plan,” which passed by a vote of 438-384 and reaffirmed the church’s traditional stance on LGBTQ issues by banning same sex marriages and the ordination of gay clergy. The Traditional Plan goes into effect January 1, 2020 and is not impacted by the voided vote.
However, voting irregularities emerged over another part of a measure known as the “disaffiliation legislation,” which would have changed how congregations could choose to leave the United Methodist Church.
Following the implementation of the “Traditional Plan,” LGBTQ-inclusive Methodist churches whose gay clergy and same-sex marriages will be banned, might be looking to leave the church. The “disaffiliation legislation” would have governed how they leave the church and whether they would be able to “take their buildings with them,” according to UM News, a Methodist news service. With the process in limbo, it is not clear how these churches will go about breaking ties the the United Methodist Church.
Only this plank of the legislation had voting irregularities, and it is now up to the Council of Bishops and the Judicial Council whether the wrongly-decided plank also means that the entire disaffiliation legislation must also be voided.
Kim Simpson, chair of the Commission on the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, said, “I know there are some poised and ready [to leave the UMC] because [the Traditional Plan] goes into effect January 1.” Simpson said that if the Council of Bishops refers the disaffiliation legislation voting issue to the Judicial Council, “they could decide that it needs to be voted on again.”
According to the church’s internal rules, “any possibility that invalid ballots might affect the result of a vote renders the entire ballot null and void,” and since the disaffiliation measure passed by a wafer thin margin of two votes — 402 to 400 — the four ineligible ballots render the entire ballot null and void.
“The Commission on the General Conference is committed to protecting the integrity of the legislative process,” said Simpson. “We’ve carefully and prayerfully reviewed the results of the investigation undertaken with oversight from the task force, and we are taking the necessary steps to strengthen our procedures and restore confidence in the process.”
A gay guidance counselor is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis for discrimination, alleging it fired her from a job at a high school because she’s in a same-sex marriage.
Lynn Starkey, one of two gay guidance counselors who have accused the archdiocese of discrimination, names the church and Roncalli High School — the Catholic school where she worked for nearly 40 years until she was fired in May — in the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
Starkey alleges that the archdiocese and school discriminated against her on the basis of her sexual orientation, subjected her to a hostile work environment and retaliated against her after she filed complaints of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
She alleges that the environment at the school was also hostile toward homosexual students, faculty and staff.
“Starkey has suffered damages as a result of Defendants’ retaliatory actions, including but not limited to lost back pay, lost front pay, loss of future earning capacity, lost employer provided benefits, and emotional distress damages,” the lawsuit states.
The archdiocese told NBC News in a statement Monday that it has “a constitutional right to hire leaders who support the schools’ religious mission.”
“Catholic schools exist to communicate the Catholic faith to the next generation,” the statement said. “To accomplish their mission, Catholic schools ask all teachers, administrators, and guidance counselors to uphold the Catholic faith by word and action, both inside and outside the classroom.”
According to the archdiocese, Starkey “knowingly violated” her contract by entering into a same-sex marriage, “making clear that she disagrees with the Church’s teaching on marriage and will not be able to uphold and model it for her students.”
Starkey is the second Roncalli High School guidance counselor to raise discrimination complaints against the school and archdiocese.
Shelly Fitzgerald was placed on administrative leave from her job at the high school in 2018 after administrators became aware of her same-sex marriage.
Fitzgerald said the school gave her an ultimatum: resign or “dissolve” her marriage.
Both women filed charges of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and requested the right to sue, according to the Indianapolis Star.
Starkey was issued a Notice of Right to Sue earlier this month, her lawsuit states.
A dying Tennessee man’s final wish will not be honored. A bereaved son in Sweetwater, Tennessee says his sexual orientation is standing in the way of his father’s funeral service.
Jessie Goodman is engaged to Brandon Smitty. Goodman’s father is very ill and dying. His final wish is that his services be held at the church he first attended. But when the church leadership found out the gay couple would be involved, Goodman says things got complicated.
“As long as I was going to take part in any way, he [Goodman’s father] could not have his service there,” said Goodman. We called Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church’s Pastor Jay Scruggs to see if this was true. Pastor Scruggs had no comment, but did say he would talk with us after Jessie’s father is in the grave.
A new petition filed before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a Catholic adoption agency seeking to refuse placement into LGBT homes calls for a ruling that could enable anti-LGBT discrimination in the name of “religious freedom” — even if justices affirm in separate pending litigation LGBT protections are included under federal civil rights law.
The petition was filed Monday by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — an organization that takes up religious freedom lawsuits, such as the Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor cases — and seeks to establish a First Amendment right for Catholic Foster Services in Philadelphia to refuse to place children into LGBT families.
“Here and in cities across the country, religious foster and adoption agencies have repeatedly been forced to close their doors, and many more are under threat,” the petition says. “These questions are unavoidable, they raise issues of great consequence for children and families nationwide, and the problem will only continue to grow until these questions are resolved by this court.”
The petition presents three questions:
1. Whether free exercise plaintiffs can only succeed by proving a particular type of discrimination claim — namely that the government would allow the same conduct by someone who held different religious views — as two circuits have held, or whether courts must consider other evidence that a law is not neutral and generally applicable, as six circuits have held?
2. Whether Employment Division v. Smith should be revisited?
3. Whether a government violates the First Amendment by conditioning a religious agency’s ability to participate in the foster care system on taking actions and making statements that directly contradict the agency’s religious beliefs?
The case came about after the City of Philadelphia learned in March 2018 Catholic Social Services, which the city had hired to provide foster care services to children in the child welfare, were refusing to license same-sex couples despite a contract prohibiting these agencies from engaging in anti-LGBT discrimination.
When the city said it would terminate the contract, Catholic Social Services sued on the basis it can maintain the contract and refuse placement into LGBT homes for religious reasons under the guarantee of free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied a preliminary injunction in favor of Catholic Adoption Agencies. The Third Circuit, which declined to revisit the case “en banc” before the full court, based its decision in part on the 1990 ruling in Employment Division v. Smith, which says states are aren’t required to accommodate otherwise illegal acts in the name of religious liberty under the First Amendment.
A key component of the Becket Fund petition is reconsideration of the Smith decision. Although the petition insists Smith doesn’t support the Third Circuit decision, it says “the propensity of lower courts to read Smith so narrowly is powerful evidence that Smith has confused rather than clarified the law and should be reconsidered.”
Catholic Social Services also seeks a religious right to refuse placement into LGBT homes in a broader sense under the First Amendment — which could affect not just city contracts, but federal non-discrimination law against anti-LGBT discrimination — asserting the current situation “effectively denies CSS a license if it does not speak and act as the government prefers.
A ruling from the Supreme Court on the free exercise claim presented in third question could give justices wriggle room in separate litigation to determine anti-LGBT discrimination is a form of sex discrimination under federal law. Those cases — Bostock v. Clayton County, Zarda v. Altitude Express and EEOC v. Harris Funeral Homes — call on the Supreme Court to clarify whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employment discrimination on the basis of sex — also applies to cases of anti-LGBT discrimination.
A ruling from the Supreme Court in favor of the idea Title VII covers LGBT people would make Catholic institutions liable if they deem it necessary to fire a worker for being gay, much like Catholic schools have fired gay teachers for entering into same-sex marriages.
Conceivably, if this ruling gives pause to justices like U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and U.S. Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who are Catholic, but could be swing justice on the Title VII — they could find Title VII applies to cases of anti-LGBT discrimination, but also give Catholic institution an out from the decision in the Fulton case by finding they have a First Amendment right to discriminate.
Meanwhile, the Becket Fund is drawing the 2015 Obergefell decision in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide as evidence of the need for the court to take up the Fulton case.
“Just as no LGBT couples are prevented from marrying because a particular church does not perform same-sex weddings, no LGBT couples are prevented from fostering because a particular church cannot provide an endorsement,” the petition says. “Yet many churches will be prevented from exercising religion by caring for at-risk children, all due to a disagreement with the government about marriage. That is not the live-and-let-live world Obergefell promised.”
The Fulton case has reached the Supreme Court before. Last year, Catholic Social Services sought injunctive relief from the Supreme Court — even before the case had been fully briefed in lower courts — to refuse placement into LGBT homes as its litigation against the City of Philadelphia moved forward. The Supreme Court rebuffed this request, although U.S. Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch signaled they would have granted the injunctive relief.
Faced with the prospect of having to place children into LGBT homes — which studies are shown are just as capable of raising children as non-LGBT homes — Catholic Social Services threatens to close down services if it doesn’t get its way.
“Here, if CSS declines the contract, it will be completely excluded from Philadelphia’s foster care system,” the petition says. “It might serve families in other ways, like its residential programs or temporary care for unaccompanied minors, but it cannot support Philadelphia children through the difficult process of entering foster care, finding families who can care for them for weeks to years, and supporting those families as they care for children through the uncertainties of family reunification or adoption.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has intervened in the case and is representing the Support Center for Child Advocates and Philadelphia Family Pride.
Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU LGBT & HIV project, said adoption agencies shouldn’t be able to obtain taxpayer funds and engage in anti-LGBT discrimination under a religious litmus test at the same time.
“Catholic Social Services wants to force every state and local government to allow exactly that,” Cooper said. “With more than 400,000 children in the foster care system across the country — a quarter of whom are waiting for a family to adopt them — no family willing and able to open their hearts and home to a child should be rejected. When agencies choose to accept taxpayer dollars to provide this critically important government service to children, the needs of children must come first.”
It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court will take up the case, and if it does whether justices will a render a decision in this case in conjunction with the Title VII litigation. The Supreme Court is out of session for the summer, so this soonest justices could decide whether to take it up is during the long conference in September, which would mean decision in the case by June 2020.
The Vatican has issued a statement rejecting trans people, saying they ‘annihilate…the concept of nature’.
In a new document issued during Pride Month, the Congregation for Catholic Education has issued a crushing statement on trans issues.
The office responsible for overseeing education calls trans people experiencing ‘nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants’.
‘Male And Female He Created Them’, was released by the Vatican on 10 June without prior announcement.
It is described as an ‘aid for Catholic schoolteachers and parents’. The document is also signed by Italians Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi and Archbishop Angelo Zani.
Pope Francis has not signed the document.
However, this is the most critical statement on trans people the Vatican has given since the pontiff compared trans people to nuclear weapons.
Vatican rejects trans people in crushing statement
The biological differences between men and women are ‘constitutive of human identity,’ the office claims.
‘Efforts to go beyond the difference, such as the ideas of “intersex” or “transgender”, lead to a masculinity or feminity that is ambiguous,’ the document stated.
If someone is not cisgender, they are aiming to be ‘provocative’, according to the office.
The 31-page document also says ‘gender theory’ forces people to ‘move away from nature’.
It states: ‘In this understanding of things, the view of both sexuality identity and the family become subject to the same “liquidity” and “fluidity” that characterize other aspects of post-modern culture, often founded on nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants, or momentary desires provoked by emotional impulses and the will of the individual.’
Vatican: Doctors should ‘intervene’ on intersex children
The Vatican also calls on doctors to ‘intervene’ on intersex patients, even when parents do not agree.
Intersex groups are against medically unnecessary procedures intended to ‘normalize’ infants at birth. Many of these procedures may impact a person’s quality of life.
The only saving grace of the document is that it praises educational programs that combat ‘unjust discrimination’.
‘Harmful tool’
A New Ways Ministry spokesperson described the document as a ‘harmful tool’.
They said it will be used to ‘oppress and harm not only transgender people, but lesbian, gay, bisexual people too.’
”The document associates sexual and gender minorities with libertine sexuality, a gross misrepresentation of the lives of LGBT people which perpetuates and encourages hatred, bigotry, and violence against them,’ they said.
‘The document… will confuse those who sincerely struggle with questions of gender identity and sexual orientation. Such confusion leads to self-harm, addiction, and even suicide. The misinformation the document contains will cause families to reject their children, and it will increase alienation of LGBT people from the Church.
‘The only truth that the document reveals is that the Vatican remains ill-equipped to discuss gender and sexuality in the modern world.
‘By ignoring new scientific understandings of gender identity, and by refusing to engage in dialogue with LGBT people about their lived experiences of self-understanding and faith, the Vatican remains in the dark ages, promoting a false teaching that relies on myth, rumor, and falsehoods.’
A new analysis has found that three-quarters of lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans believe in God, but many don’t identify as part of an organised religion.
The finding comes from a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the 2014 Religious Landscape Study.
According to the survey data, 77 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults in America say that they believe in God, compared to 89 percent to straight adults.
But despite three-quarters of gay adults believing in God, only 59 percent of LGB respondents identify as a Christian or another non-Christian faith, compared to 78 percent for heterosexuals.
Although lesbian, gay and bisexual people are twice as likely to identify as atheist or agnostic, the most popular religious identify among LGBT adults is ‘nothing in particular’.
Just 16 percent of gay and lesbian adults adults attend a weekly church service, compared to 36 percent of straight respondents.
LGB adults are also less likely to pray or believe religion is “very important.”
Transgender people are excluded from the analysis as the original 2014 survey did not collect data about gender identity.
LGB people less likely to embrace organised religion
Of course, there are many reasons why LGB people, even those who believe in God, may feel uncomfortable as part of an organised religion.
Few of the largest Christian denominations in the US permit same-sex unions, though some groups including the Episcopal Church have embraced equal marriage
Attempts to push forward reforms in other groups have been divisive, with anger earlier this year when United Methodist Church members voted against allowing congregations to conduct same-sex weddings and hire openly LGBT+ clergy.
He said: “I plead with our religious leaders across the world to stand up for equality together. True equality – not empty words of love – but statements and actions that show our LGBTQ youth that they are ‘sinless’ and perfect just as they are.
“Until these changes are made within the doctrines of orthodox faith, we will continue to see increased rates of suicidality and depression/anxiety amongst our LGBTQ youth.”
Reynolds added: “Until the leaders of all orthodox faiths denounce conversion therapy and accept our LGBTQ youth into full fellowship I believe we will continue to see a great exodus from all orthodox faith.
“We are not a generation that will stand for intolerance, homophobia or racism.
“And to those that say the simple answer is for our youth to just leave religion – it isn’t that simple.
“Many of these LGBTQ youth will be kicked out of the home and put into a more dangerous situation if they denounce the faith of their family.
“Also many find peace in their faith. they love it. it brings them comfort in a sad and oftentimes scary world.”
A recent survey has found 0% of American Muslims identify as gay or lesbian.
The ISPU research interviewed 804 American Muslims.
They found not one identified as gay or lesbian.
Around 4% identified as bisexual and 2% said they were ‘something else’. Another 2% refused to answer the question’.D
There are, of course, LGBTI people who identify as Muslim in the United States.
CNN interviewed members of progressive mosques, like Masjid al-Rabia.
The mosque is intended to be women-centered, anti-racist, LGBTI affirming, and welcoming to many Islamic traditions.
Muslims for Progressive Values have eight ‘inclusive communities’ in the United STates.
Berkeley’s Qal-bu Maryam Women’s Mosque, described as the ‘first all-inclusive’ place of worship, opened in 2017.
Liberal Muslims say a future also looks good for LGBTI people of the Islam faith.‘
Dalia Mogahed, director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, said there is a ‘huge division’ right now.
‘There are a lot of different opinions and, frankly, there is a lack of space to discuss it,’ she said.
‘When you have a community that is so under the microscope and being subjected to litmus tests for civility and tolerance, people become afraid and self-censoring.’
And when asked about the 0% statistic, Mogahed said it can be read a different way.
If 92% of American Muslims identified as straight, she said, then the remaining 8% may be lesbian or gay, even if they’re reluctant say so.
‘The fact that there is a segment of Muslims who identify as something other than straight means that, even though they may not be acting on that inclination or orientation, they have negotiated a space where they can still be Muslim,’ Mogahed said.
‘There is enough space within the theology to be able to do that.’
Anti-gay preacher James David Manning faces abuse allegations
The preacher is under scrutiny after an investigation by Huffington Post revealedallegations of abuse at the private fundamentalist school attached to the church, also run by Manning.
One former ATLAH High School student, Tamar, alleged that Manning had sexually harassed her and touching her inappropriately.
Aged 18, Tamar secretly recorded a conversation with Manning in which the preacher makes sexual comments and states he had feelings for her when she started at the school.
He says: “You got an incredible body… In fact, like on Wednesday night you came, and you had on a black blouse and black stockings and a gray or something skirt. All I could think about was, ‘Wow, I sure would like to remove those stockings and that blouse,’ and just look at your body.”
Another former student told the outlet that he was locked in a basement for three days by Manning as a punishment for having sex with a girl.
Other students said that homophobia was rife at the school, with Manning frequently railing against evil “faggots.” Others likened Manning’s grip over Atlah congregants to a cult leader.
Four attendees at Atlah church also alleged that Manning encouraged them to “defecate in a bag and leave it at gay-owned businesses.”
The private religious school has been operating for years despite its “registration pending” status with New York state.
A spokesperson for the New York Department of Education told Huffington Post: “The Department takes all allegations of misconduct against certified educators extremely seriously.”
“[We] would encourage anyone that believes they may have been the victim of misconduct to contact us with the appropriate complaint information.”
Anti-gay preacher blames ‘LGBTQ mafia’ for abuse allegations
Manning did not comment on the allegations.
However, in a Twitter storm he claimed: “THE LGBTQ MAFIA IS SPREADING LIES ATTEMPTING A HIT JOB ON OUR CHURCH. THEY WANT HARLEM TO BE WHITE AND HOMOSEXUAL.
“THEY SAY HATE ALL WHO PREACH AGAINST THEIR SEXUAL RACISM. IT WILL BE A COLD DAY IN HELL BEFORE THEY TAKE ME OR ATLAH CHURCH DOWN.”
He added: The LGBQT have attacked The Lord’s House And The Lord’s Servant.
“This attack will fail like a pervert news reporter boarding a bus with a student math protractor. He will fall on the needle and die the death when I stand and preach The Word.”
A new campaign has launched, calling on the Church of England to end its ban on same-sex weddings.
The Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England launched on Friday (April 12), seeking an end to rules that ban same-sex weddings in Church parishes, and an end to rules that target gay vicars for getting married.
The campaign, led by several members of the clergy, launches exactly five years after hospital chaplain Jeremy Pemberton defied the Church’s rules to marry his same-sex partner, which led to the removal of his permission to officiate.
Church of England clergy: It is time to embrace same-sex marriage
Revd Andrew Foreshew-Cain, said: “We congratulate Jeremy and Laurence on their wedding anniversary, and rejoice with the many same-gender couples who have made lifelong, faithful commitments to each other in marriage in recent years.
“The Church of England has spent too many years saying it is sorry for the way that it treats LGBT+ people, whilst continuing its own injustice towards us in marriage and ministry. It is time for what is done to match what is said.”
Revd Canon Rosie Harper, member of church’s General Synod, added: “Marriage ‘enriches society and strengthens community’, as the C of E wedding service says, and the Church should be open to all loving couples who want to make that commitment, regardless of their sexuality.
“I welcome this campaign and look for the day when I can welcome gay and lesbian couples to my church for their wedding day.”
Revd Dr Nicholas Bundock, of St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury, added: “It is time for the Church of England to start to heal the hurt and pain it has caused to LGBT+ people and to welcome and bless their faithful, loving relationships in church.
“Marriage is a gift of God to all people.”
Gay Church of England weddings would require change in UK law
Permitting same-sex marriage in Church of England parishes would require a change in the law, as the 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act explicitly barred the Church of England and the Church in Wales from conducting same-sex marriages as part of a ‘quadruple lock’ to appease religious opponents of same-sex marriage.
Several other churches within the Anglican Communion, including the US Episcopal Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church, have embraced same-sex unions, while the Anglican Church of Canada is also in the process of making reforms.
However, the Church of England has been more resistant to change.
Top leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have reversed a policy that prevented minor children of same-sex married couples from joining the church and participating in its sacred rituals since 2015.
Many conservative churches oppose same-sex relationships and have done so with increased intensity since the second half of the 20th century. In the case of Latter-day Saints, the reasons for opposing same-sex marriage are based in their theology of a “real family,” as willed by God.
However, as a scholar of gender and sexuality in Mormonism, I argue that the 2015 decision to bar children of same-sex parents from the church was tied to the conservative fight against same-sex marriage that was finding an increasing acceptance at the time in courts and elsewhere.
Mormon theology
Mormon theology is based on a divine heterosexual archetype that sets the pattern for all intimate human relationships.
Latter-day Saints hold an ideal that heaven is a domestic paradise where families will live together in eternal harmony. In Latter-day Saints’ view of God, there is a divine Father in Heaven, but also a Mother in Heaven, who are believed to be the heterosexual parents of human spirits.
When the policy was adopted in 2015, the church deemed same-sex married Latter-day Saints as “apostate” and excommunicated them. This involved removing their names from the records of the church and nullifying any previous rituals.
‘Protecting children’
In order to explain why the children were also deserving of official sanction, the church said it was an effort to “protect” them.
One senior church leader claimed that it was an act of “love” and “kindness” to prevent the children of same-sex families from participating and joining the church. One church leader, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, said, “We don’t want the child to have to deal with issues that might arise where the parents feel one way and the expectations of the Church are very different.”
In the religious practice of Latter-day Saints, a child’s name on church records initiates visits to their home and an expectation of attending church-sponsored activities. Christofferson claimed, that it would not be “an appropriate thing” for a child living with a same-sex couple.
The church even issued an official statement about not wanting to subject children to teachings that their same-sex married parents were “apostates.”
Mormons and politics
What I argue is that the roots of rhetoric of the focus on family goes back to the emergence of the anti-gay politics of religious conservatives starting in the 1970s.
At the time, several preachers and anti-gay activists such as Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye and others increasingly spoke out against the gay rights movement as a threat to “family values” that would undermine society. Latter-day Saints joined this opposition.
These conservatives, advocating for “family values,” opposed same-sex marriage. These efforts often relied on claims that same-sex marriage would harm children belonging to same-sex families as well as those children who interacted with them.
In 1977, evangelical activist Anita Bryant launched a national campaign against the gay rights movement, specifically to keep gays and lesbians out of schools, and successfully rallied conservatives to this cause.
Bryant’s campaign was a simple slogan, “Save Our Children,” which depicted gay men and lesbians as pedophiles recruiting young people into “perversion.” Her campaign also suggested that “our children” belonged only to heterosexual people.
In the 1990s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints backed campaigns and mobilized members and money to deny same-sex couples the right to create legally protected families.
The policy on children was a response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier that year that legalized same-sex marriage.
What’s not changed
When it was first announced, the policy was deeply unpopular among the rank and file. The truth is that many members of the church increasingly support same-sex marriage.
A Public Religion Research Institute survey found that 55% of Mormons opposed same-sex marriage in 2016. But this number was rapidly declining. In 2015, the same survey had found 66% of Mormons opposing same sex marriages. In one year, it noted, there was an 11-point drop in opposition, with a corresponding 11-point increase in support.
In light of this trend, it was no surprise to see the unpopular policy reversed.
The reversal of the 2015 policy, however, does not change the status of same-sex relationships in the church. These relationships are still forbidden and subject couples to potential excommunication. Only their children can once again participate fully in the church without sanction.
In my view, the church faces a real conceptual problem when it comes to imagining same-sex families as “real families” that may include children. How can it support the children of same-sex families when its teachings claim that they are “counterfeit and alternative lifestyles” and not part of the family organization willed by God?