The
Metropolitan Community Church of our Redeemer in Augusta, Georgia, is a church that welcomes
everyone to attend their services.
The Metropolitan Community Church of Our Redeemer is a Christian Community extending God’s inclusive love by affirming hope, healing, and spiritual growth through worship, discipleship, outreach, and fellowship.
Love is our greatest moral value and resisting exclusion is a primary focus of our ministry. We want to continue to be the conduits of a faith where everyone is included in the family of God and where all parts of our being are welcomed at God’s table.
The pastor of the church, Pastor Rick Sosbe and his now husband, Michael Rhen, were the first gay couple to get their license to marry in Augusta after the Supreme Court handed down their ruling last month. They were married four days later.
This morning, Pastor Sosbe and the entire congregation were treated to an appalling sight. Across the front door of the building vandals had scrawled "burn" and quoted Leviticus 18:22, which says "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." This was followed by the word "lies."
Pastor Sosbe's response was quoted by the Augusta Chronicle:
“I was angry. I was very sad and I thought, ‘Just why?’ To me, it seems so interesting that they’re saying on there that you’ll burn – in other words saying ‘You’ll burn in hell,’ I’m sure – and quoting scripture. Is that what Christianity – right-wing, fundamentalist Christianity – has come to?”
Yes, Pastor Sosbe, I'm afraid this is what right-wing, fundamentalist Christianity has come to. It actually arrived there quite some time ago.
Update: And we have your back.