Large Nashville evangelical church endorses homosexuality

It took more than two years of intense, "at times, devastating," discussion, Pastor Stan Mitchell said. But, at the end of it, a decision was made to break from evangelical Christian tradition and to support gay marriage.

During those conversations, described in a Jan. 11 sermon to his congregation, Mitchell heard stories of joy and stories of unspeakable pain. Close friends accused him of betrayal. Others, though, flocked to GracePointe Church, the evangelical Christian congregation he helped found in Williamson County.

They were drawn there, he said, because they were "grateful to have found a place like ours, willing to engage in vital conversations in spite of their difficulty."

Before those conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity, GracePointe had denied non-heterosexual "brothers and sisters" full membership privileges.

Now, Mitchell said, speaking in the sermon that was posted on the church's website, GracePointe will extend those full privileges — including child dedication, leadership opportunities and marriage — to gay congregants, "with the same expectations of faithfulness, sobriety, holiness, fidelity … and willingness as expected of all."

Since then, Mitchell said on Friday afternoon, his primary focus has been helping the congregation of about 1,800 through what he described as a deeply destabilizing, if exciting, time.

He added that he hopes to honor members of the congregation, who he said, "did the good work."

The move falls in line with growing acceptance of gay marriage, said Ellen T. Armour, director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality at Vanderbilt.

"It's indicative ... (of) the larger transformation that's been happening in the U.S.," she said. "It's been happening for a while with Christians in general."

Recently, the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee voted to support gay marriage.

And although Tennessee's ban on gay marriage is still in place, same-sex marriage is or will soon be legal in most of the country. The Supreme Court is set to take up the issue later this year.

Even within the evangelical Christian community, which tends to be more socially conservative, Armour said, GracePointe's announcement reflects a trend.

Still, as a large congregation in Williamson County, which has a strongly conservative reputation, GracePointe's move "certainly seems like a real sea change."

Pew Research data shows that although white evangelical Protestants are less likely to favor same-sex marriage than other Christian denominations, the percentage of those that do has grown since the early 2000s, from 13 percent in 2001 to 21 percent in 2014.

Armour attributed that, in part, to generational shifts — also borne out by Pew data — as younger Christians increasingly accept lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and find themselves at odds with churches that don't.

Another factor, she said, could be the large influx of transplants from all over the country.

In any case, Armour said, it's tough to know what's going on "beneath the surface" of any church.

"Navigating those waters is tough for any congregation," she said.

Mitchell led into his Jan. 11 announcement, which was first reported by Time.com, by emphasizing the importance of conversation from a philosophical and practical perspective, as a lens through which to view community and to build faith.

In the sermon, he said, "This community (a little more than two years ago) joined not only culture at large but many subcommunities in the religious community and even the Christian Church" in a conversation about sexual orientation and gender identity.

Mitchell, his voice breaking at times in the sermon video, told congregants that the church gained some new members and lost some as the result of the decision to consider its stance on sexual orientation.

Some members, he said, "could bear the pain of partial inclusion no longer," while others "so deeply believed they knew God's heart on this matter … as being opposed to any expression of human adult sexuality other than theirs."

Those talks, he said, have "not yielded this result unanimously or exhaustively, but sufficiently."

After he announced the change, applause erupted from the audience.

"As loudly as I hear claps of hands, I hear even more loudly the hands that are not clapping, and I love you and you love me," Mitchell said. "And you are no hater. I know you too well."

Friday morning, GracePointe member August James of Arrington said the moment inspired chills.

"I was so excited," she said, as she prepared for a sample clothing sale she was hosting at the church.

She said that while she did see three or four congregants leave after the announcement, the vast majority applauded. Mitchell said that about 670 total were at the service.

James said that after living in the Los Angeles area for some time, she and her husband of almost three decades moved back to their native Tennessee to raise their son, now in the first grade.
"We thought we'd never find a church that's loving and progressive in the Southeast," she said, adding that it was important for her family to join a Christian church with a strong scriptural basis.

Though James acknowledged that the new policy wouldn't "be right for everyone," she said it was great to know that her church had shifted toward inclusion.

"At this church, we've definitely been straddling the fence for a while," she said. "It was, 'Welcome, but,' always with a 'but.'

"Now, it's just, 'Welcome.'" Tennessean