A transgender Canadian male pastor has filed a discrimination lawsuit against his previous church for terminating him after admitting that he intended to live as a woman.
According to WND, when the Rev. Junia Joplin was recruited by the Lorne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga, Ontario, in 2014, he still identified as a man in his everyday life. But in a webcast sermon last year, he disclosed that he intended to spend his life as Junia.
His lawsuit alleges that, despite some support from members of the congregation, the church unjustly removed Joplin from his role as pastor, reports CBC News.
Joplin's lawsuit claims that he had been subjected to an "unfair process" in which he was interrogated in numerous "virtual town halls" and that the church decided in July 2020 to terminate his job.
The lawsuit then demands almost $200,000 as compensation and claims that Joplin's dismissal violated Canada's Human Rights Code, which prohibits job discrimination based on sexual or gender identity.
In response to Joplin's claims, Lorne Park Baptist Church said on Wednesday that when confronted with Joplin's confession of his gender identity, they went through a "process of attempting to discern God's will," which they claim they did in a "careful and thoughtful manner."
CBC reports that the church's executive board chair, David Huctwith, said in a statement that "In the end, the congregation voted to terminate her employment as lead pastor of the church, with the majority of the votes to terminate made for theological reasons."
He added that the church had also given Joplin what they considered reasonable severance pay.
In an interview last week, Joplin said that the entire event had struck him with "anxiety" about "church life."
He told the CBC: "Those were very much my first steps into social transition. That's a hard place to be...But for that to happen within that context of a caring community - I think one of the toughest things for me was knowing that I'm going through one of the most consequential and difficult seasons that I'll ever go through in my life, and I'm pretty much isolated from my faith community, from the place that I would most naturally go to for support."
He said that he believes his case would make Canada more accepting and safe for transgender individuals. He added that he does not want other LGBTQs to experience the same pain of joining religious groups that do not unconditionally and unambiguously accept them.
The Western Journal weighed in, noting that no country that claims to preserve religious freedom could ever support a church's right to fire a pastor they feel is unable to carry out its purpose of preaching the Gospel and ministering to the congregation.
It went on to say that no Christian church should be barred from dismissing a leader merely because they believe he or she is unsuitable for the position.
While Mr. Joplin deserves Christ's love as much as any other, he simply could not lead a Christian church by adopting another gender identity that's contrary to both nature and the Bible.
