A Michigan church under fire for teaching its young girls the principles of biblical sexuality is getting some support from a prominent pro-family group.

Two Democratic state representatives – Darrin Camilleri (Brownstown Township) and Adam Zemke (Ann Arbor) – are demanding that the Michigan attorney general launch an investigation into Metro City Church of Riverview, Michigan, and FORGE Ministries after the pastor and church offered “Unashamed Identity Workshop.” The purpose of the six-week workshop is to provide a safe place for teenage girls (ages 12-16) to learn what the Bible teaches about sexuality.

Family Research Council Action has now come alongside the church and Pastor Jeremy Schossau, launching a petition campaign to “help pastors stand against government overreach.” FRC Action says it is “totalitarian in nature” for the lawmakers to “dictate what a local church must teach regarding its theology.”

Randy Wilson, FRC’s national field director for church ministries, says the lawmakers are also pushing legislation to prevent churches from offering such workshops.

“House Bill 5550 is the government reaching into the church to control and direct their activities,” Wilson said recently on American Family Radio. “It’s just outrageous what they have done – and so we are standing, alerting pastors [and those who are in Districts 55 and 23] and encouraging them to call their representatives… [to] call in and say to back out.”

Wilson

Wilson says it is the churches’ place to minister to a broken society.

“And that’s what this is all about,” he continued. “Pastor Jeremy was confronted with a growing need in his church: girls and boys being bullied in their school systems to join [and] to experiment with this gay activity – and Pastor Jeremy then started this workshop.”

According to Wilson, it’s not really a workshop but rather a small group where participants can talk about these issues and be provided information.

Some news outlets and observers have described or compared the church’s activity to what some call “conversion therapy.” But Wilson says that’s not the case at all.

“I’ve talked with some senators and representatives in the statehouse and they’re saying that this [bill] is going nowhere. But the point of the matter is they have thought about it [and] they have acted on it,” said Wilson. “Pastor Jeremy didn’t ask for this fight; this fight came to him because he was just responding to a need in his church.”

According to the News-Herald, protesters have stationed themselves outside the church since the workshop began – and pledge to be there until it’s over.

Representatives Camilleri and Zemke did not respond to OneNewsNow’s request for comment.