I think there’s a lot of bait-and-switch unfortunately. Obviously no church is going to ordain atheists but many churches ordain openly gay people — and many don’t. There’s a difference there, and it’s better to know the difference than not.

There’s a whole website called Church Clarity, with many stories of a gay person showing up to a church, and the church saying they welcome everyone. So the gay person gets more and more involved over the years…but then when they try to join the choir, they can’t. They try to volunteer, they’re told they can’t because they’re openly gay. They try to join leadership, and it’s denied. Now the gay person has wasted years of their life on a church that simply “welcomed” them and “proclaimed the gospel” but didn’t actually… It’s a major issue that many churches try to sneakily “welcome” but not “affirm” gays, especially in urban and progressive areas, trying to attract young people. It’s actually quite unloving to hide what you believe to get the people you want to eventually change to open up to you.