The New Heart Community Church in La Mirada, CA, has taken a controversial stance on the LGBT community, and the Southern Baptists kicked them out because of it.

The Southern Baptist Convention has met and voted on whether or not a Californian church should be a part of their group due to their changing views on the LGBT community. The New Heart Community Church in La Mirada has recently started teaching that the Bible does not always state that a homosexual act is a sin and now has links with members of the LGBT community.

This was a very great cause for concern within the Southern Baptist organization, as this went straight against their articles of faith, which stated that no church would be allowed to “act to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior.” As a result, the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention determined the California church is not in “friendly cooperation” with their purpose.

Eventually the situation became intolerable for the Southern Baptists, and they met in a Convention to vote on whether or not the California church should still be a member of the group. September 23, they voted unanimously to remove the Californian church from their group. There was little discussion released about the vote, and it was announced almost immediately.

The New Heart Community Church is led by pastor Danny Cortez, who became famous last year for preaching a sermon titled, “Why I Changed My Mind On Homosexuality.” After Cortez gave the sermon, his congregation decided to become a “Third Way” congregation that neither supports nor condemns homosexuality.

Many churches up and down the country of the United States of America, as well as churches around the world, have been debating and considering how they should be addressing the LGBT community. Some have warmly accepted them, and these are, predictably, the more liberal churches; others, such as the Southern Baptist congregation, are very conservative and unlikely to change their views in the foreseeable future.

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