Two days ago, World Vision, which employs more than 26,000 people and enjoys an annual budget of more than $2 billion, announced that they had decided to hire "gay Christians." Predictably, the Christian Right freaked out, and now World Vision has seen the error of their way and has reversed course.
"The last couple of days have been painful," president Richard Stearns told reporters this evening. "We feel pain and a broken heart for the confusion we caused for many friends who saw this policy change as a strong reversal of World Vision's commitment to biblical authority, which it was not intended to be."
"Rather than creating more unity [among Christians], we created more division, and that was not the intent," said Stearns. "Our board acknowledged that the policy change we made was a mistake … and we believe that [World Vision supporters] helped us to see that with more clarity … and we're asking you to forgive us for that mistake."
And then there's also this:
"What we are affirming today is there are certain beliefs that are so core to our Trinitarian faith that we must take a strong stand on those beliefs," said Stearns. "We cannot defer to a small minority of churches and denominations that have taken a different position."
It's worth having a read of the
story. It'll make you sad. And make you wish more so-called "Christian organizations" had stronger backbones.