West Virginia: Lutheran Church Edits Sign In Anti-Gay Protest

The St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Charleston, West Virginia has blocked out the word “Lutheran” from their sign after the national denomination elected to allow openly gay clergy.

“I asked that be done because I’m ashamed,” the church’s pastor, Richard Mahan, told the congregation later Sunday morning. “I’m ashamed of what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has done to a church I’ve loved for 40 years.” Last week, leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church voted to remove a ban on gay clergy and also to recognize gay marriage within the church. Mahan, pastor of the local Lutheran church along Corridor G, attended the conference in Minneapolis and spoke out against the change in policy. His message was widely received because he was interviewed by The New York Times and later quoted by The Associated Press in an article that ran worldwide. Mahan’s entire Sunday sermon concerned the homosexual issue, and what the church should do. “We welcome the sinner, but we do not welcome the sin,” he told the congregation. “All are welcome, but the sin is not.

Mahan was given a standing ovation by his congregation after his anti-gay sermon.