Church changes policy on homosexual members

Some concerned church members contacted 14 News after saying the church suddenly changed its policy on homosexuals in the congregation.

This is a story a lot of people want to talk about, but one thing's for sure, what happened at American Baptist East this weekend has many members upset.

It's very clear emotions run deep over what happened inside the church over the weekend.

"I believe that there are a lot of churches that don't condone homosexuality," said Marla Mosher, who attends American Baptist East.

The church at the corner of Washington and Burkhardt is known to have accepted several homosexual couples into its congregation, but this weekend, 14 News is told the church's leadership announced it would no longer condone homosexuality.

"I believe that there's a difference between condoning it and accepting it. It goes in the same category as divorce, for some churches, as abortion, as affairs, those sorts of things," Mosher said.

But one of the openly gay members of the church told 14 News, a paper was passed out to church members announcing the change. We're told it said current gay members could be grandfathered into the congregation, and any new gay members would be considered on a case by case basis.

That same member also tells us when one of the church's other ministers spoke out against this change, she was asked to resign. We're told the decision to make the change was made by a small select group of people, and not the church as a whole.

Mosher says she doesn't believe this should be about what she calls, "The Gay Card", but instead about the, "leadership in the church."

A church member says days ago the church took another look at its mission statement and decided the homosexual lifestyle doesn't fit in the statement.

We made several attempts to talk to officials here at the church, but as of news time, the calls were not returned.

-CNN