Conventions Returning To Indy After RFRA Fix

An Indianapolis-based church denomination has reconsidered plans to move its 2017 conference from the city in protest of Indiana’s Religious Freedom law, after the law was amended.  

On Monday, the board of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, decided to keep its annual assembly in Indianapolis, two weeks after voting to seek another venue.  The denomination’s General Minister and President, Sharon Watkins, says the amendments to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act made a difference.

"We were pleasantly surprised by how they did address the concerns that we had with RFRA and that this law cannot be used to open the door to the kind of discrimination that we feared," says Watkins.

The Disciples of Christ, a mainline protestant Christian denomination that has headquarters in Indy, was one of the first groups to ask Gov. Mike Pence not to sign the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and threatened to move its convention, which is expected to generate nearly $6 million in revenue for the city.

Chris Gahl, VP of marketing and communication for Visit Indy says they’ve been working overtime to let concerned organizations, like the Disciples, know about the RFRA fix.

"We’ve been on the phone every day to work with them and courting them back to reassure them that Indianapolis welcomes all," says Gahl

Gahl says the only other convention that cancelled because of the law, the AFSCME Women’s Conference, has also announced plans to return to Indy.