The church asked by a local New York City restaurant to find a new
venue had previously promoted the work of Dr. Denny Burk, an
associate professor of biblical studies at Boyce College in
Louisville, Kentucky.
Hill Country Barbecue Market, which is located in New York City's
lower west side, decided against continuing a relationship with The
Gallery Church after it had received numerous complaints.
“Our intention was to provide the Church with a place to
congregate, which we thought we could do without implying a religious
affiliation between our two organizations,” Marc Glosserman, owner
of Hill Country Restaurant, told The
Blaze in an email. “Over the following weeks, based on
unanticipated community response, it became clear to us that this
would not be possible.”
The church turned to the restaurant to help accommodate its
growing congregation.
In a
blog post, pastor Freddy Wyatt wrote that the BBQ restaurant
decided against renewing its month-to-month rental contract with the
church due to “preaching a sermon about same sex attraction.”
Appearing on Fox News, Wyatt told Todd Starnes: “This particular
sermon series struck a nerve in the neighborhood. There was an
enormous amount of backlash. We don't know specifically what that
was. The restaurant said if it had only been a couple of phone calls
it would have been one thing – but it was more than that.”
In a series of tweets, Starnes blasted Hill Country Barbecue
Market.
“Does Hill Country BBQ have a problem with Christians?” he
messaged.
On April 14, The Gallery Church hosted Dr. Denny Burk, the author
of the upcoming book What is the Meaning of Sex? In his
sermon, titled Confusion, Clarity, Sexuality (Rewind): Marriage,
Burk
called gay nuptials the devil's handiwork.
“Marriage is not a personal lifestyle choice that you can just
enter into or maybe not,” Burk said. “Marriage is about the
glory of God. … Why is marriage under assault? Why are we
constantly arguing about this in culture? If you were the devil,
what would you do? If God had made an institution that was meant to
be a living parable of the gospel to the world, what would you try to
do to that parable? Wouldn't you try to tear it apart in any way
that you could? Wouldn't you make a divorce culture rife in the
culture? … Wouldn't you try to have marriage redefined? And just
torn apart. That has nothing resembling what the Bible says it is to
be. If you were the devil what would you do? I think we know what's
going on.”
In
a July 19 post, Burk argued that marriage equality had led us
“half-way down” the slippery slope “to incest and polygamy.”