by A Tennessee man, who is gay, says that a church will not hold a funeral service for his father because of his sexuality. Now, local residents are criticizing the church for its “sinful” discrimination.
“They’re punishing my dad for a lifestyle choice that I’ve made. It’s not me laying up there in a casket, it’s him,” Jessie Goodman told Chattanooga, Tenn. news station WTVC.
Goodman’s 71-year-old father is ill and his family believes he only has a few days to live. The family requested to withhold Goodman’s father identity to protect his privacy.
Before passing on, Goodman told WTVC that his father expressed only two final wishes. He wanted to have his funeral service at Lee's Chapel Baptist Church, the first church he ever attended, and to have his son sing a Christian song called “The Anchor Holds.”
Goodman, who is a hairstylist, told the news station he was making arrangements for the service at the Sweetwater, Tenn. chapel when the church leadership discovered that Goodman was engaged to a man named Brandon Smitty.
Now Goodman says Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church is refusing to host his father’s funeral service because his sexual orientation goes against the pastor and some of its congregants’ beliefs.
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