The leaders of a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the US have urged Indiana to veto a contentious religious freedom bill, citing concerns of discrimination.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has said it may pull out from holding its General Assembly in Indianapolis in 2017. Church leaders wrote to Governor Mike Pence on Wednesday asking him to reconsider signing the bill into law, which he is expected to do today.
"The recent passage in the state legislature of the RFRA [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] bill is distressing to us," the leaders wrote.
"Purportedly a matter of religious freedom, we find RFRA contrary to the values of our faith – as well as to our national and Hoosier values. Our nation and state are strong when we welcome people of many backgrounds and points of view. The free and robust exchange of ideas is part of what makes our democracy great."
The letter states that members of the denomination have a wide-range of views, "but we share a value for an open Lord's Table".
"Our members and assembly-goers are of different races and ethnicities, ages, genders and sexual orientations. They have in common that they love Jesus and seek to follow him. We are particularly distressed at the thought that, should RFRA be signed into law, some of our members and friends might not be welcome in Indiana businesses – might experience legally sanctioned bias and rejection once so common on the basis of race."
If "they love Jesus and seek to follow him" as they claim, they're certainly not following him very closely. Jesus never suggested that his followers practice sinful homosexual acts that are clearly forbidden by his father, aka God. If the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah's homosexual populations didn't make God's law in re homosexual acts clear enough, the drowning of millions of debauched antediluvians in what is often called Noah's flood should.
See ch 1 vv 24-27 of Paul's epistle to the Christians in Rome for more information about the real reasons why God destroyed the ancient world and it's people with a universal flood. I know, I know, a universal flood isn't what most of today's denominational seminaries teach and their graduate pastors preach. But it's what God's Word teaches, and He was there and they weren't.