The Roman Catholic Church is indeed changing its ways. Under the stewardship of Pope Francis, the usually conservative church is now rethinking its principles, especially on how they see same-sex unions. As confirmed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the pontiff expressed the intention to stop quickly condemning people involved in same sex marriages. Dolan said that the Pope, while reaffirming the church’s opposition to same-sex marriages, called on to the Church that the concept of gay unions be reviewed. The Pope said that the Church should not be quick to judge lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) right away. This is a major breakthrough as this has been the only time that a leader of the Catholic Church has shown a different stance when it comes to same-sex unions. While the Pope maintained that the Catholic Church’s teachings stay, it may be best to look at different cases and try to evaluate the same in their variety.

However, while members of the LGBT community believes that this is another great step forward for gender equality, a Christian charity organization seemed to do otherwise. World Vision reversed its earlier decision to employ Christians that are in same-sex marriages. The organization made such decision after around 2,000 sponsorships were cancelled after they heard about the company’s earlier decision.

A “Mistake”
World Vision on March 24th 2014 decided that they were changing its policy against the hiring of Christians that are in same-sex marriages. However, a few days after, the organization decided to take back its earlier decision. Richard Stearns, World Vision’s President said that the board “made a mistake” and instead “chose to revert” to their “longstanding conduct policy”. World Vision is requiring employees to sign a code-of-conduct. In the contract, employees are prohibited from engaging in premarital sex, or for married workers, committing adultery. And so, jobseekers in same sex marriages are forced to find new opportunities.

The LGBT Community Reacts
Some gay couples called this action by World Vision a clear case of employment discrimination. According to the Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits any form of discrimination on the basis of one’s sex or gender. However, instances of workplace discrimination still persists. A Los Angeles employment lawyer is urging possible victims of this and other similar schemes to come forward and file the employment discrimination claims to correct these unfair practices by employers in the country.


Source: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/26/charity-reversesdecisiontohirechristiansinsamesexmarriages.html