In 2008, Douglass Boulevard Christian Church (DBCC) decided to designate itself an Open and Affirming Community of Faith, signifying its “commitment to full acceptance of all people, regardless of race, gender, age, or sexual orientation,” and this decision keeps it in line with those values, church leaders said. The church will continue to perform religious wedding ceremonies but will no longer sign official licenses, according to an official release on its web site:

“[O]ur membership is committed to treating homosexuals and heterosexuals equally. Our congregation believes it is unfair to provide different services and benefits to heterosexual couples than we can provide to gay and lesbian couples,” said associate minister Rev. Ryan Kemp-Pappan.

In an interview with ThinkProgress, the church’s senior minister, Rev. Derek Penwell, said the decision came after more than a year of discussion among church leaders, who decided to pitch it to church members last Sunday. The church has a “small percentage” of openly gay members, he said, but a large number of its visitors come from the gay and lesbian community. And while DBCC has participated in community outreach programs with the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, the Louisville Fairness Campaign, and the Kentucky ACLU, Penwell said the decision is based in Biblical scripture:

“The church, over the course of time, has come to a fuller understanding on a variety of issues that even just a few years before would have seemed inconceivable. [Churches] made the same arguments about interracial marriage or about precluding women in church leadership, based on certain areas of scripture. The interpretation of those scriptures made sense at the time and in a certain context, but in a modern American context, don’t make the same sense. … It’s not like we’re going to the Bible and saying, ‘We don’t like it, we’re going to ignore it.’” [...]

“At some point, we’re going to look back on this and wonder why it was that big of a deal.“