Organization board leaders said in a letter to supporters Wednesday that they had made a mistake by changing its policy.
“We are brokenhearted over the pain and confusion we have caused many of our friends, who saw this decision as a reversal of our strong commitment to Biblical authority,” the board said in the letter.
The reversal came amid many prominent church leaders denounced World Vision’s new policy, including Franklin Graham. World Vision’s president, Richard Stearns, had said the move was not “symbolic not of compromise but of [Christian] unity.”
Graham and other leaders were quick to oppose such lines of reasoning as against scripture. “World Vision maintains their decision is based on unifying the church — which I find offensive — as if supporting sin and sinful behavior can unite the Church,” Franklin wrote on his Facebook page.
Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist president and one of the most read bloggers on the net, wrote a scathing rebuke of the World Vision policy.
In addition, the Assemblies of God had called for its members to shift their support to other charities.
Stearns said the board of the non-profit had been praying about the decision for years. But in the letter to supporters Wednesday leaders admitted they had not sought enough counsel from their Christian partners.
“As a result, we made a change to our conduct policy that was not consistent with our Statement of Faith and our commitment to the sanctity of marriage,” they said.
“While World Vision U.S. stands firmly on the biblical view of marriage, we strongly affirm that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are created by God and are to be loved and treated with dignity and respect,” they said.
A fifth of the World Vision funding comes from the federal government.