[KY] State forbids pastors calling homosexuality 'sinful'

The state of Kentucky has begun imposing a religious test on volunteer pastor counselors in its youth division, insisting that they refrain from calling homosexuality “sinful” and dismissing those who cannot bend their religious faith to accommodate the state requirements.

The policy was uncovered by Liberty Counsel, which has sent a letter to Bob Hayter, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, demanding that the state religious test be dropped and that a dismissed counselor be reinstated.

“Liberty Counsel writes regarding the blatantly unconstitutional revocation of volunteer prison minister status of ordained Christian minister David Wells, who has provided voluntary spiritual counseling and mentorship to juvenile inmates under the control of the Department of Juvenile Justice. … This revocation was issued by Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center on the basis of the April 4, 2014, DJJ Policy 912, which mandates full DJJ support of homosexuality and transvestism.

“With no evidence of any violation of DJJ policy on Mr. Wells’ part, his volunteer status was revoked by the Warren RJDC superintendent because he could not sign a state-mandated statement that homosexuality was not ‘sinful,’ among other things,” the letter said.

The policy states that DJJ staff, volunteers and others “shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

’m a Buddhist not a Christian but I think this is worth shooting people over.

Don;t worry, this is going exactly where we all think it’s going...so...that’s coming too because I sure as hell ain’t laying down for it.

The gun to get out is the gospel gun.

If Christians demonstrated for the truth that we all need healing in Christ and Christ furnishes it (i.e. we aren’t setting ourselves up as any particular holier than thou folk) then they’d soon get noticed.

That title is misleading. It suggests, out of context, that the state has told pastors they must not denounce homosexuality from the pulpit.

In reality, the state has just told them to tone it down when working inside government-funded institutions, not churches.

We can debate whether that’s right or wrong, but the headline writer did a bad job and leaves a wrong impression.

Thanks. You probably live a lot closer than I do.

It had been my opinion that the state was more reserved on issues like this.

As their ruling indicates, not as much as I had thought. Your comments seem to verify that.

I’m sure the nation of Islam will be happy to step up.

I agree that Christians should either stop their involvement, or challenge the state in court.

In this age and with our SCOTUS, it would probably be a waste of time.

This is what a Left of center SCOTUS achieves for our nation. It ain’t pretty, and we’re just getting started with the really really ugly.

I think churches are months from serious government pressure and outright persecution.

Someone mind telling us what the heck is going on down there in Kentucky? I always thought of Kentucky as a conservative bastion, but the more I read about the state the more I'm convinced that it is more in the image of it's senior senator McConnell, "Conservative in Name Only."

??????

government can’t so order. Constitution. this is USA, still.
hopefully still USA, anyway.
we have 19 months to survive yet...
pray for America!

ps: pastors, priests, rabbis need to be welcoming and ‘pastoral’ (sensitive, caring, etc)
....they just cannot be ordered by government to rewrite the Bible or to preach ‘another gospel’ is all

I remember preaching (literally) against Christians voting for Clinton/Gore, and got chastised because members of the congregation applauded "separation of church and state" even though they didn't know what it meant.

Now, these liberal pigs they elected, all of them, are moving in the direction of attempting to erase the absolute nature of Christianity. You can't serve two masters. It just doesn't work.

How can the state argue with the following syllogism:

1) Sin is any want of conformity or transgression of the law of God.

2)The law of God forbids any human sexual activity that is not between a man and woman who are married to each other.

Conclusion: Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, and incest are all sins.

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