This past November, the City of De Pere passed an ordinance that adds trangender as a protected class as it pertains discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. The ordinance was presented as a way to make De Pere a more inclusive community. The ordinance goes into effect today, March 1, 2018.
As a ministry committed to loving and caring for all our neighbors in Jesus’ name, we at Hope can affirm that people should be treated fairly and equitably. As creatures, we live under the care of a Creator who loves and provides for all of His creation (Matthew 5:45), and as those who bear His image, we reflect His love as we care for one another: feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, welcoming the stranger, serving the homeless, and carrying out our daily callings to bless those around us. We pray that God will strengthen us to be faithful for such a task!
Moreover, we confess that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So while we fully affirm and stand for God’s design as revealed in the Bible regarding our personhood and sexuality – “male and female He created them…” (Genesis 1:27) – we also freely confess that we all are subject to sin and its effects in our lives, prone to various temptations and shortcomings. The church is not a collection of the morally pure – it is the community of broken and sinful individuals who have been saved by grace through faith in the perfect, finished work of Christ (Ephesians 2:1-9). Our doors and our hearts are open to all who want to hear the message of this saving love of God.
While we affirm the desire to show love and compassion to all who share our community, leaders of five area churches (including Hope) and Lakeshore Communications, Inc. (operators of the Christian radio station Q90FM) share a concern that the language of the new ordinance does not provide sufficient protections for Christian ministries to exercise employment decisions and facility usage decisions in a manner consistent with our biblical confession of faith. The ordinance, as it stands, does provide some protections for religious liberty in its language. However, the legal counsel we’ve received through the Pacific Justice Institute suggests that the language, in its present form, is not explicit enough to ensure that churches and other Christian ministries would be protected from complaints.
In light of these concerns, Hope’s leadership has agreed, in partnership with St. Mark Lutheran Church, Destiny Church, Crosspoint Church, Christ the Rock Church, and Lakeshore Communications, to file a lawsuit with the City of De Pere that seeks to provide more explicit religious liberty protections for churches and Christian ministries in the wording of the ordinance – ultimately, that our ministries would be exempted from employment or public accommodation practices that are inconsistent with our biblical confession of faith. We pray that this matter will be settled in a God-pleasing and harmonious way that blesses both our neighbors in the De Pere community and our ministries as we proclaim and display the love of God in Jesus, who came from the Father full of grace and truth (John 1:14).