Christian woman told to repent her ‘homosexual lifestyle’ or be banned from church
Georgia hairdresser Krystal Cox was told by elders at the Woodstock Church of Christ that she must repent her “homosexual lifestyle” or face being banned from the church. (YouTube/CBS46 Atlanta)
A Georgia hairdresser has been told that she must repent her “homosexual lifestyle” or face being banned and excommunicated from her local church.
Krystal Cox, owner of the Hair Bar Salon in Woodstock, Georgia, said she was sent a letter by elders of the Woodstock Church of Christ that they were concerned with the “condition of [her] soul” after she started dating a woman.
Cox told local news station CBS 46 that she had been attending the church in Woodstock – which is about 30 miles north of Atlanta – for around five years.
The letter, which Cox posted on Instagram, gave her a deadline of 30 April to repent her “sinful behaviour”. Miss it, and the church would have “no alternative but to withdraw our fellowship” with Cox and “no longer treat you as a sister in Christ”.
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According to the letter, four church elders previously wrote to her in December 2020 requesting that she come speak to elders about her “situation”.
The elders received no response to the original correspondence, the second letter stated, prompting the church to send her this latest ultimatum. It said: “Please understand this is an effort to encourage you in a Godly sorrow leading to repentance.”
Cox told CBS 46 that she was “enraged” when she opened the letter asking her to repent for her “homosexual” relationship and questioned why she was “getting picked on”.
“Why am I getting called out when everyone has sins?” Cox said. “The fact that they’re going to point it out and release my personal business to the entire congregation of the church and tell them that I can no longer come there – I just don’t feel like that’s right.”
Cox said she had decided not to return to the church after receiving the letter. She told CBS 46 that she had decided to start dating another woman after divorcing her ex-husband, and she had a loving relationship with her new partner.
“I feel like it’s not wrong,” she said. “I look at my relationship and how much love I have with her and think, how can people think this is so wrong?”
She added that she doesn’t want “anything bad to come of this” and didn’t want “people to be saying ugly things to them and sending them ugly stuff”.
The Woodstock Church of Christ has removed its Facebook page and closed its website after Cox published her letter.
