Current Events > Ontario pastor FIRED after coming out to congregation as transgender

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https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ontario-pastor-fired-after-coming-out-to-congregation-as-transgender-during-sermon-1.5034055

TORONTO -- An Ontario pastor who came out to her congregation as a transgender woman last month has been fired after the congregation voted to remove her.

Junia 'June' Joplin, who was the lead pastor at Lorne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga, Ont., came out to her congregation in an online sermon on June 14.
"I want you to hear me when I tell you that I'm not just supposed to be a pastor. I'm supposed to be a woman. My friends, my family, my name is Junia. You can call me June. I'm a transgender woman and my pronouns are she and her," Joplin said during the sermon delivered via Zoom amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joplin told CTV's Your Morning on Wednesday, that the church has since chosen to terminate her contract following a vote by its congregation members. Out of the 111 votes, 52 per cent were in favour of removing Joplin from her position as pastor.
"I believed that the vote would be close, I wasn't sure how it was going to come out and I was nervous that that might be the result," Joplin said in an interview on Wednesday.
"I had a wonderful friend who took me out to dinner just to keep my mind off what might be going on and I had a cry but I tried to almost immediately start thinking about what comes next."
The Lorne Park Baptist Church confirmed its decision to terminate Joplins employment in a statement emailed to CTV News.
"The Church has journeyed for the past month through a process of attempting to discern God's will resulting from June's announcement of June 14, 2020 that she is a transgender woman," the statement read.
"After a month of prayerful discernment and discussions between June and the congregation, it was determined, for theological reasons, that it is not in Gods will that June remain as our pastor. We wish June God's grace and peace as she departs from us."


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Wouldn't have expected any other result from "God's Church".

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"jesus loves everyone....except you. fuck you."

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Jagr_68 posted...

Wouldn't have expected any other result from "God's Church".

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pepper2012 posted...

Lorne Park Baptist Church

Fair, next.

How many times do we have to have this discussion? If you're going to buy into the religion, then you're agreeing to follow their collective rules. And guess what? Baptist aren't exactly gay-friendly. You knew that going in. Don't join Islam and then complain about not being able to eat bacon.

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The Bible is pretty clear about rules on leadership. Why is this surprising? Oh, cause no one reads it.


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puppy posted...

The Bible is pretty clear about rules on leadership. Why is this surprising? Oh, cause no one reads it.

its not surprising, but it shows that Christians are not as excepting and loving as they claim to be. And before anyone says it, the same goes for some other religions too, but this topic isn't about them.

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it was determined, for theological reasons, that it is not in Gods will that June remain as our pastor

Holy fuck, that arrogance.
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shockthemonkey posted...

What is the scripture that condemns trans people? Because trans =/= gay

According to Christians, women have to sit down and shut up.

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But what if God's will has a 3% margin of error?

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"Love and treat everyone equally" is a pretty simple message. Would think they'd be able to follow it.

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Jagr_68 posted...

Wouldn't have expected any other result from "God's Church".

I certainly didn't expect 48% to be in favor of keeping them.

TheVipaGTS posted...

its not surprising, but it shows that Christians are not as excepting and loving as they claim to be. And before anyone says it, the same goes for some other religions too, but this topic isn't about them.

Baptist*

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It was a much closer vote than I would have expected honestly. Nearly half the church was in favor of keeping her

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Funkydog posted...

"Love and treat everyone equally" is a pretty simple message. Would think they'd be able to follow it.

They'd have to be capable of love. Their idea of it is fearing God and killing anyone who might offend their all powerful god.

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Tenlaar posted...

I certainly didn't expect 48% to be in favor of keeping them.

*Her
Not them

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Fair, next.

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gunplagirl posted...

They'd have to be capable of love. Their idea of it is fearing God and killing anyone who might offend their all powerful god.

No, although they want other people to fear god (and by extension themselves) they dont fear god. If they did then they wouldnt be such massive hypocrites.

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TheVipaGTS posted...

its not surprising, but it shows that Christians are not as excepting and loving as they claim to be. And before anyone says it, the same goes for some other religions too, but this topic isn't about them.

You cannot live in unrepentant sin as a Christian. Struggling with sin is one thing, but transgenderism is an affront to God and His created order. I'm sick of this wishy-washy mindset that thinks God's primary attribute is love rather than His holiness. If you're going to give into self delusion and elevate your own feelings over God's right as creator to determine the sexual boundaries of mankind, don't be surprised when you're rightly brought under Church discipline.

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My economy!!!

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gunplagirl posted...

*Her
Not them

I'm allowed to use them whenever I want, whatever a person's gender or preferred pronouns are, thanks. Calm down with your trans authority act.

DaydreamRising posted...

You cannot live in unrepentant sin as a Christian. Struggling with sin is one thing, but transgenderism is an affront to God and His created order. I'm sick of this wishy-washy mindset that thinks God's primary attribute is love rather than His holiness. If you're going to give into self delusion and elevate your own feelings over God's right as creator to determine the sexual boundaries of mankind, don't be surprised when you're rightly brought under Church discipline.

k

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Tenlaar posted...

I'm allowed to use them whenever I want, whatever a person's gender or preferred pronouns are, thanks. Calm down with your trans authority act.

She clearly stated in her message that her pronouns are she/ her. To use they and double down stating it's intentional to do so regardless of her pronouns? That's blatant transphobia.

The only one who needs to calm down is you, so angry over someone trying to correct you.

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Vote out transpeople; protect child molesters. Sounds very normal for the church.

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Alucard188 posted...

Vote out transpeople; protect child molesters. Sounds very normal for the church.

Baptists aren't Catholic.

Tenlaar posted...

I'm allowed to use them whenever I want, whatever a person's gender or preferred pronouns are, thanks. Calm down with your trans authority act.

Weird how people who get mad suddenly are cool with they/them pronouns when they want to disparage trans people.

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Funkydog posted...

"Love and treat everyone equally" is a pretty simple message. Would think they'd be able to follow it.

Isnt that new testament? Old testament is smite everyone!

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LightHawKnight posted...

Isnt that new testament? Old testament is smite everyone!

Yeah the New Testament only applies to people I like

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gunplagirl posted...

She clearly stated in her message that her pronouns are she/ her. To use they and double down stating it's intentional to do so regardless of her pronouns? That's blatant transphobia.

The only one who needs to calm down is you, so angry over someone trying to correct you.

I am allowed to use they as a gender-neutral singular pronoun, as it's been used for like 700 years, whenever the hell I want. They has not been designated to now only be used in instances where people say that they specifically want to be called they and offensive any other time. You are going way overboard here.

Fuck religion.

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Tenlaar posted...

You are going way overboard here

Yeah, they get like that sometimes.

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Tenlaar posted...

I'm allowed to use them whenever I want, whatever a person's gender or preferred pronouns are, thanks. Calm down with your trans authority act.

Okay, Mrs. Tenlaar.

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Funkydog posted...

"Love and treat everyone equally" is a pretty simple message. Would think they'd be able to follow it.

I know, right? Like ... I'm not at all Christian, but I'm not sure how that isn't people's main takeaway from the Bible. Fuck, I only hear non-Christians acknowledge that, usually.

Too many people just want to twist religion so they can claim legitimacy in their bigotry. Fuck them.

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Tenlaar posted...

I am allowed to use they as a gender-neutral singular pronoun, as it's been used for like 700 years, whenever the hell I want. They has not been designated to now only be used in instances where people say that they specifically want to be called they and offensive any other time. You are going way overboard here.

Okay. Question, what is the pastor's gender, and what are her pronouns. I'm asking a question with very specific answers.

Here I'll even give you a template:

The pastor's gender is ______
Her pronouns are ___ and ___

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gunplagirl posted...

Here I'll even give you a template:

The pastor's gender is ______
Her pronouns are ___ and ___

I love it when the answer is in the question.

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Eevee-Trainer posted...

I love it when the answer is in the question.

He'll still get it wrong

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jborgan posted...

Okay, Mrs. Tenlaar.

I get the point you're trying to make but that's blatant and purposeful misgendering.

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jborgan posted...

Okay, Mrs. Tenlaar.

Using a gender-neutral pronoun isn't intentionally misgendering somebody, but nice try.

gunplagirl posted...

Okay. Question, what is the pastor's gender, and what are her pronouns. I'm asking a question with very specific answers.

Here I'll even give you a template:

The pastor's gender is ______
Her pronouns are ___ and ___

She is a woman, her pronouns are she and her, and it's still not offensive to refer to her with a gender-neutral pronoun. It wasn't offensive before she came out as a trans woman and went by he/him and it's still not now. Do you think that if this was a thread about an idiotic right wing man being fired from his job for being racist and somebody posted "I don't know who would want to hire them now" you would pop up and say something about how it's offensive to use a gender-neutral pronoun? I sure don't.

gunplagirl posted...

He'll still get it wrong

It's funny, you told me before that you were marking me as a good poster because of my stance on trans issues. But as soon as I tell you that you're going too far on something, I'm suddenly a complete asshole who is going to be wrong and offensive about everything, right? You really have a problem with thinking that your word is the authority and not to be questioned.

Tenlaar posted...

Using a gender-neutral pronoun isn't intentionally misgendering somebody, but nice try.

She is a woman, her pronouns are she and her, and it's still not offensive to refer to her with a gender-neutral pronoun. It wasn't offensive before she came out as a trans woman and went by he/him and it's still not now. Do you think that if this was a thread about an idiotic right wing man being fired from his job for being racist and somebody posted "I don't know who would want to hire them now" you would pop up and say something about how it's offensive to use a gender-neutral pronoun? I sure don't.

There was no need to use a gender neutral pronoun when she has explicitly stated ones. She AND her are both 3 letters, and far faster to type on the keyboard than them because of the finger movement required. :l

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Tenlaar posted...

It's funny, you told me before that you were marking me as a good poster because of my stance on trans issues. But as soon as I tell you that you're going too far on something, I'm suddenly a complete asshole who is going to be wrong and offensive about everything, right? You really have a problem with thinking that your word is the authority and not to be questioned.

Yes, you started making some terrible posts and doubled down and the trend continued. Congrats.

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religion dont play that game lol

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gunplagirl posted...

There was no need to use a gender neutral pronoun when she has explicitly stated ones.

How does that make it offensive? Am I not allowed to? Are you saying that it's offensive to use they as a gender-neutral pronoun unless somebody specifically says that they want to be called they?

gunplagirl posted...

She AND her are both 3 letters, and far faster to type on the keyboard than them because of the finger movement required. :l

This would be a fair point if they used the argument that "using they/them pronouns are easier/faster" but that wasn't said.

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People need to stop being so mean to Christians. They didn't choose to believe these things, like "trans" people. They were born this way. We need to do something about this rampant discrimination towards those different than us.

/s

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gunplagirl posted...

She clearly stated in her message that her pronouns are she/ her. To use they and double down stating it's intentional to do so regardless of her pronouns? That's blatant transphobia.

The only one who needs to calm down is you, so angry over someone trying to correct you.

You're the one whining over someone not using the pronouns you prefer to address another.

For all you know, said Pastor could easily be fine with them or they lol. Did you ask them?
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hockeybub89 posted...

People need to stop being so mean to Christians. They didn't choose to believe these things, like "trans" people. They were born this way. We need to do something about this rampant discrimination towards those different than us.

/s

LGBT really stands for Love God, Bible, Testament.

/s

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