In a post made to X on March 5th,2025, a pastor can be heard welcoming trans ideologues to his church. He lists a number of woke policies and welcomes the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an ultra-woke activist group, to serve as guards. The clip garnered a massive backlash on social media, with many users objecting to the sacrifice of hosting this event in a church.
“Let me just say about this space again, it’s a safe space no matter who you are, how you self-identify or how you self-express, I like to say there’s no right or wrong way to be trans,” he began. “There’s no right or wrong way to self-express, and so no matter who you’ve come from or if you grew up in a faith community or not, it doesn’t make any difference to us.”
“You are welcome here this evening in the behind the sanctuary, and for those coming in, there is extra seating out in the fellowship area. There are restrooms. It’s been the long-standing policy of New Life, Metropolitan Community Church, that you are free to use whatever restroom with whatever gender you self-identify,” he added while standing in front of a pride flag.
“The restrooms are, however, marked all gender tonight, so they’re in either corner in the fellowship area. There are also quiet rooms there, if for whatever reason you need to just step away,” he added. “And we know that coming together to for this event in particular has a lot of emotions packed for a lot of us, and so don’t hesitate. We have counselors that are there, Angela Callahan and Jessica Gurley.”
“They were raising their hands right here in the center, so they’re more than willing to step in and talk with you during that time,” the pastor said. “You notice that on the table and we let me also say, I’m delighted that to welcome here with us as part of our volunteers, the sisters of perpetual indulgence, and you may have heard from them across the country, but we’re delighted that there’s a chapter right here in Hampton Roads.
“And so standing honor guard with us, and for those of you who were here last year, the flag that’s here is you’ll be invited at the end of today’s ceremony, ” he concluded. “The heresy is appalling. Disgusting and demonic. A mockery of Christ’s Church,” one user noted. “These are the kind of devils that give protestants a bad name. There needs to be a public shunning,” added another commenter.
“The only reason “church” is added to the end of that title is because they need to formalize their advocacy. They aren’t even pretending that Christ has anything to do with their worship. It’s progressive politics with church ascetics plain and simple,” reacted one user. “They apparently worship a butterfly in that ‘church.'” joked another in response.
Watch the clip here:
Rev Mark R. Byrd urges members and congregants to check out their “safe space” church with their “all-gender” bathrooms, while shouting out visiting guests the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence pic.twitter.com/dMFTkjim5e
— Protestia (@Protestia) March 5, 2025
“New Life MCC is a mainline Christian church that is neither Catholic nor Protestant, but made up of folks coming from many different denominational and ecumenical backgrounds. Our faith practices reflect the diverse and ALL inclusive nature of our members,” their website reads. “New Life MCC is part of the worldwide Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) a Christian movement that was started by the Rev. Elder Troy Perry in Los Angeles, California in 1968, just a year before the Stonewall Riots in NYC. Today there are some 300 MCC churches in 22 countries worldwide.”
Featured image from embedded video