Leaders at a church in Georgia showed exactly what kind of people they are after threatening to denounce a member in front of the entire congregation after she started dating another woman.
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Krystal Cox has attended Woodstock Church of Christ for nearly five years. When she first joined the church, she was married to a man. But after she and her husband divorced, Cox started dating Tayler Jacques, and when the church eventually realized that one of their members was LGBTQ, they decided it was their responsibility to shun and shame her into repentance.
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Four elders of the church—Eric Dotson, Rick Reynolds, Gary Kyle, and Don Williams—signed their names to a letter mailed to Cox in early April.
In it, they insisted it was their “responsibility to watch out for the souls of each member of this congregation” and that “our Lord considered it vital that no one can be involved in homosexuality and be in a pleasing relationship with God.”
If Cox would not break off her relationship and repent by the end of the month, they said, they would stand up in front of the entire church and denounce her as a sinner. Moreover, if she doesn’t do as they demand, they threatened that “Christians must not interact with” her any longer except to continue telling her to “seek forgiveness.”
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Christians in the United States are split when it comes to the LGBTQ community—some believe their God loves everyone just the way they are, others believe it isn’t their place to judge, but far too many, like these men in Georgia, believe shaming people out of “sin” is the way to go.
But denouncing Cox in front of everyone and making a show out of officially removing her from membership, essentially ostracizing her from the entire congregation, goes beyond the half-hearted defense of just following one interpretation of Biblical standards. Instead, these actions are pointedly cruel and clearly intended to not only shame Cox, but scare others who may have the audacity to consider that they may fall outside of heteronormative expectations.
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And it’s a perfect example of the hypocrisy that exists in the Christian church at large when it comes to homosexuality vs other things they consider “sin”—despite Biblical claims that all sins are equal. If they were treated as such, there’s no doubt that many more people would be getting shunned by Woodstock Church of Christ, and yet only Cox has had a target painted on her back.
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But the ghoulishness of it all ultimately made Cox’s decision easier for her. She will not be returning to Woodstock, opting to choose love and being true to herself over caving to arbitrary threats handed out by men who have deemed themselves leaders but act like petulant children.
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“I feel like it’s not wrong,” she told CBS46. “I look at my relationship and how much love I have with her and think, how can people think this is so wrong?”
*First Published: April 20, 2021, 6:40 am
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