Baptist pastor ‘shocked’ after being fired for transgender reveal
| Fox News – A pastor in Canada was fired for “theological reasons,” her church said, after coming out as transgender in an online sermon.
The Rev. Junia “June” Joplin, who is originally from North Carolina, surprised some in June with the announcement at Lorne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga, Ontario, during a service held online due to the coronavirus lockdown.
“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,” Joplin said. “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.”
More than half of the 111-member congregation voted to terminate the contract after Joplin came out, a journey she began in 2018 by telling her spouse and sons.
“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 church where Joplin began leading in 2014 said Wednesday in a statement to CBC News.
“After a month of prayerful discernment and discussions between June and the congregation, it was determined, for theological reasons, that it is not in God’s will that June remain as our pastor.”
Joplin told Fox News she was “shocked and dismayed to hear the church point to theological reasons … ” Read more.
PREVIOUSLY:
Megachurch Pastor Commits Suicide
COVID-19 Lockdowns Trigger ‘Mental Health Disaster’
