Are culture war 'victories' worth the casualties?
(CNN) -- In the midst of all the shouting over Indiana's new religious-freedom law, which many fear will lead to increased discrimination against LGBT people, culture warriors marked the grim anniversary of another conservative "victory," one that left more than 10,000 needy children without their pledged financial support.
A year ago this week, I rose each morning with red, puffy eyes and heavy sense of exhaustion. I hadn't slept soundly since March 26, a day many of my friends and readers mark as the last day they wanted anything to do with organized Christianity.
It all started when World Vision, a humanitarian organization I had long supported and promoted, announced a change to its hiring policy allowing people in same-sex marriages to work in its U.S. offices.
In response, conservative evangelicals rallied, and within 72 hours, more than 10,000 children had lost their financial support from canceled World Vision sponsorships.
Ten-thousand children.
In addition, funding for schools, hospitals, water projects, and medical care was threatened as churches vowed to cut off support to an organization that hired LGBT people.
As one of my readers, Anthony, recalls, "Our church leadership vowed that they would pull all support, including over $2 million to build two hospitals in Zambia."
To try and stem some of the bleeding, I joined with other World Vision bloggers to encourage my readers to sponsor children or make one-time donations to the organization. We had raised several thousand dollars and multiple sponsorships -- many coming from gay and lesbian couples -- when the CEO of World Vision announced the charity would reverse its decision and return to its old policies discriminating against gay and lesbian employees.
It had worked. Using wells and hospitals and child sponsorships as bargaining chips in the culture wars had actually worked.
Never in my life had I been so angry at my own faith tradition.
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Are culture war 'victories' worth the casualties?