Church Clarity (Ep. 34)

PAAC Podcast

Jul 8

Written By

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"Mosaic" is a large and trendy church in Los Angeles. Justin Beiber has been seen there. Its pastor, Erwin Mcmanus, has gotten a lot of attention for his hipster streetwear and sneaker game, as well as his ability to attract millennials. Mosaic also claims to be a church that is "welcoming" to queer believers. They say "anyone and everyone is welcoming at Mosiac," and that many people of varied sexual orientation attend. And yet, behind the scenes, this Southern Baptist church is deeply ambiguous, if not hostile, in its LGBTQ policies. Several people have confirmed that while LGBTQ+ people are welcome to "attend," they cannot volunteer or be seen on stage, and are relegated to serving in roles such as "cleaning bathrooms and floors." In 2015, when asked about Mosiac's stance on homosexuality, Pastor Mcmanus replied, “Our position is, you have to be for each other.”

This is precisely the kind of ambiguity that Church Clarity, and its co-founder Sarah Ngu are fighting against. Church Clarity is a crowd sourced database with the mission of making churches more transparent as to their policies when it comes to LGBTQ+ affirmation and women in leadership. Ngu believes that deliberate ambiguity causes real harm to people who attend a church, discover the truth about its policies, and end up feeling betrayed and deceived. In today's episode, we talk to Sarah about Church Clarity, how the idea got started, what it's like to operate day to day, and bigger picture questions about evangelical churches and transparency. Thank you Sarah for coming on the podcast! And thank you everyone for listening!

Church Clarity: https://www.churchclarity.org/

Music:

Peyruis - Grapevine

JayJen - Happy Moments

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