On the state of the church

Recently the discussion surrounding homosexuality and the church's views was jumpstarted again, thanks to a local talk show. What I can surmise is that some political figures and other extremists from within the Evangelical Lutheran church voiced some anti-homosexual views, which has now resulted in a mass-exodus of people from the church. My own position is that the state cannot under any circumstance discriminate against any group of people based on their gender, religion, sexual preference, or other such criteria. But if a closed group of people, such as a church, decides that they want to adhere to some set of rules but don't break laws or take away the individual's freedom, they're free to do whatever they please. But that's just my view.

The more interesting aspect is that apparently the logic behind the mass-exodus is that people want the church to change its policies. The problem here is that the main fuss was the result of what a politician who holds no position of authority within the church said, and thus it cannot really be interpreted as an official position of the church. I'm not entirely certain, not having seen the program, whether there were any official representatives present and if so whether or not they took any strong stances. But if we assume that the outflow of people consists of disgruntled church members who want to push through a point and get the church to change, then that is precisely the wrong course of action to take. Walking away from the situation does not improve it. Instead it merely takes you out of the situation and indicates that you have given up and don't really think you can make any difference. But still the people are quite vocally complaining about the stances of the church, despite the fact that they walked out...

Now, I'm not really a religious person nor do I really care very much about what the church thinks or what its policies are, as long as they don't severely impede and limit my freedom to act as an individual person. But if I cared and wanted to change the church, somehow I get the feeling that I should actually then try to change the group from within using the mechanisms afforded to me by the agreements made by the members. But if everyone who was disgusted by the comments of certain individuals merely walk out, then by logic wouldn't that leave only the extremists in the church and ultimately result in a tighter-knit group of people who then can freely foster their prejudices and avoid having to change their mindset?