Hey there fellow learners! Let me take you back in time.
Depending on who you ask, between 3,000–10,000 children served by World Vision lost their sponsors in 48 hours between March 14th-March 16th, 2014.
What happened, you ask, horrified.
Were their sponsors raptured?
Did they die on a bus trip to an evangelical conference about humility, grace, and gentleness?
No.
The children lost because anti-lgbtq Christians retaliated in rage against World Vision USA.
Why?
Because the organization brought their hiring policies into integrity. See, WV-USA decided to allow people in legal same sex marriages to be hired. Just like married heterosexuals. That way, the hiring requirements for everyone were the same. Celibate if you’re single, sex inside a committed marriage otherwise.
From an article:
“According to an interview with Christianity Today, World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns explained the organization was not endorsing gay marriage. Instead, gay marriage would join a series of issues — like divorce, remarriage, baptism, female priests — that many Christian churches disagree on.” (Interview here)
The Daily Beast marveled at what they saw as naivete, and had this to say about the backlash:
“Other notable figures made it clear that the entire Christian faith, and perhaps even Western Civilization itself, is threatened by World Vision and others who profess to be Christian and tolerate gay relationships. Many urged Christians to stop their monthly financial support of third-world children through World Vision (even if it means breaking off relationships between sponsor and child) and supporting alternative organizations who do not employ “unrepentant homosexuals.” (Daily Beast article here)
It wasn’t all raging bigots. Several lgbtqia+ Christians and allies sponsored children as WV-USA made this big step. From this article by Rachel Held Evans (RIP woman of valor), who teamed up with bloggers to step into the breach:
“To try and stem some of the bleeding, I joined with other World Vision bloggers to encourage my readers to sponsor children or make one-time donations to the organization. We had raised several thousand dollars and multiple sponsorships – many coming from gay and lesbian couples – when the CEO of World Vision announced the charity would reverse its decision and return to its old policies discriminating against gay and lesbian employees. It had worked. Using wells and hospitals and child sponsorships as bargaining chips in the culture wars had actually worked.” (article here.)
In the end, no one on the church left wanted to match the money of the far right. For the far left of the church, everything is an “agree to disagree” issue. Being “church nice” is almost doctrinal. Meanwhile, the rest of us lose.
Bloggers and others around the world begged people not to give up their sponsored child. Called it out for what it was. An overreaction. Unchristlike. Western Indulgence.
“Have our doctrinal battles landed us here, with the world watching the wealthy believers decide whether or not they support children aided by gay couples? It’s the grossest display of our indulgence and gluttony that we can sit here with bellies filled and all the Bible studies spread before us and decide to break off a relationship with a child who’s come to depend on us, whose next belly filling is our spiritual whim.” (Source here)
“The bottom line is, there are, at last count, 10,000 kids who lost sponsorship because of this, and I think many who chose to drop their support of World Vision are not coming back because of what they perceive as indecision (although World Vision President Richard Sterns reported that some people called to ask if they could have their kid back, as if the children were an item they’d returned to the store and then decided to buy again).” (Source here)
*sigh* and 48 hours later, World Vision USA caved. They retracted their new policy of equity and went back to toeing the line. And not just going back to the old policy. Crawling back in a letter crying and begging to be forgiven by the very people who had been slapping and verbally abusing them for the last two days. It’s too depressing to write about. I’m just going to link to a couple of articles.
In the end, this was a lost opportunity for the so-called “open and affirming” church movement. There was no reason for World Vision USA to have lost any sponsors. If even half the members of every O&A church had sponsored a child, we could have doubled what the right wing took away. It would have been a witness:
Other Christians wanting to open up to LGBTQIA+ people could see they wouldn’t be alone.
Right wing groups would get the message that their days of winning by threats were ending.
LGBTQIA+ people would see churches committed to doing more than just showing up to Pride once a year.
Instead, all World Vision USA, other Christian groups watching, and LGBTQIA+ communities learned is that the church left is too comfortable in neutral. “Church nice” is cozy. And they just can’t be bothered.
But it looks like WV is getting bit in the butt now. It’s 2024, and they’re on the 3rd round of an LGBTQ discrimination lawsuit filed by a lesbian after she got a job offer withdrawn. (Source here) Parts of this decision are most likely based on Union Gospel Mission v. Woods. This is a case where a bisexual Christian man was told not to apply for a paid position as a legal aid lawyer. UGM says they have a religious accommodation exemption and don’t have to hire LGBTQ people. State of Washington holds that’s for employees and volunteers who do client facing ministerial jobs/volunteer work. UGM says every position is ministerial.
World Vision is trying the same bit. But the judge reversed himself and disagreed.
“Applying the ministerial exception to the principally administrative customer service representative position would expand the exception beyond its intended scope, erasing any distinction between roles with mere religious components and those with ‘key’ ministerial responsibilities,” he wrote. He concluded: “On reconsideration, the court agreed that Ms. McMahon suffered an adverse employment action based on a facially discriminatory employer policy.” (source)
When this happened in 2014, it tore me up for so many reasons. Watching the far right treat children as disposable was filthy. But in the end, I still lay the blame for this at the feet of the church left and the so-called open and affirming movement. People who follow Jesus did what they could, while the church left and O&A folks ignored WV-USA getting whipped in the courtyard. A transformational moment bled into business as usual.
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