Concern Over Church Sign in Garden City

A sign outside a church in Garden City has one woman outraged. Dana Smith contacted News 3 saying she passed by the sign and was surprised by what it said.

The sign outside the Church of Christ says, "Homosexuals, drunks, adulterers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." The sign is citing 1st Corinthians.

Smith said she took offense to it immediately and felt it has a negative connotation. She thinks people living with these issues may not be welcome in the church.

"I want to say they show prejudice as far as I'm concerned.  I'm not a religious fanatic, but I do believe we are all God's children and should all be welcome in the church and if I read that said and I was a homosexual, an adulterer, or an alcoholic, I wouldn't feel welcome there... It is in Bible, but it's not the whole passage.  My firm belief is that everybody deserves to be in the kingdom of God and doesn't take exception," said Smith.

Evangelist Larry Wright said their sign has never been a source of controversy before. "Some of our members here, what they do is they sign up on a sheet and they sign up for a month and they basically will pick out scriptures and put up on the board," he said.

Wright acknowledges the verse in I Corinthians is longer than they posted

"Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor coveteous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God," read Wright from the Bible.

He said they're just trying to spread the word of god and didn't have enough room on the sign.
 
"Upset and mad, that's not the point of it," he said. "We want them to look at what is there, that's God's message to them as to all of us."

He also says he knows people will disagree and not accept it, but that he still must present it.

But gay rights activists said the sign is like a slap in the face.

"We've been promoting this sense of tolerance and equality and unity within the Savannah community and then it's like, 'Bam!' One of our local churches is going to come right out spoken with it," said Cody Patterson, executive director of Act Out Savannah.

Patterson said other translations don't include "homosexuals" in the verse, and he wishes they had posted the rest of it.

"The church is supposed to be there to spread God's word to other people, but if you're going to ostracize people and shame them away from your church, then are you really spreading the message of God?"

He hopes they'll take the sign down.

"They managed to offend people. So now the ball is in their court. Of course, they have the ability to change that sign," said Patterson.