I understand World Vision’s original decision to hire Christians in same-sex marriages had nothing to do with the threat of a lawsuit. After all, WV President Richard Stearns told Christianity Today, “There is no lawsuit threatening us.”
But that doesn’t mean that the decision’s reversal in the face of widespread evangelical outrage won’t lead in that direction. Here’s how it could happen.
World Vision is headquartered between Seattle and Tacoma in Washington State, where same-sex marriage has been legal since December 2012. Washington also has a robust law protecting LGBT people against discrimination. Earlier this month, the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle was sued under the law by Mark Zmuda, who was fired from his position as vice-principal of one of its parochial schools after it was discovered that he was married to a another man.
In a post-flip-flop interview yesterday with RNS’ Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Stearns said he expected that some of his organization’s 1,100 employees had same-sex sexual orientation and indicated that he had no objection to that. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, some of them are going to marry their partners and the word will get out. And World Vision will have to fire them.
Well they might now, thanks to your idea Mark. Part of my problem with this story is how some conservative from the inside outed the policy change for power reasons and now the same tactic is being pushed from the progressive side. Putting the proverbial gun to each other’s heads is such a beautiful witness of Christian love. These are ugly times.