An Anti-Gay Pastor Tak on Uganda and Rsia | The New Yorker

Contents:

• THE GEIA PASTOR WHO WELED GAY MEMBERS ON GETTG KICKED OUT OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTN
• GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY
• A GAY PASTOR EXPLAS WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY
• GAY PASTOR WALKS OUT OF CHAPLACY TRAG
• A GEIA CHURCH, KICKED OUT OF THE SBC FOR ALLOWG GAY MEMBERS, WANTS TO MAKE SURE 'EVERYBODY’S WELE'
• REFLECTNS OM A CLOSETED GAY PASTOR
• MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY
• IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?
• AN ANTI-GAY PASTOR TAK ON UGANDA AND RSIA
• RSIAN ORTHODOX HEAD CONCERNED WH PRO-GAY PROTTANT CHURCH
• RSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH RAIS FEARS OVER PRO-GAY PROTTANT CHURCH
• PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

THE GEIA PASTOR WHO WELED GAY MEMBERS ON GETTG KICKED OUT OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTN

Kimberly Stt about last week's meetg of the Uned Methodist Church's Council of Bishops and s impedg vote on whether to orda gay pastors. The Uned Methodist nomatn has over 6 ln members the Uned Stat, and they're divid over the qutn of ordag gay misters. She left the church for seven years and me back to be s first Black, female, openly gay pastor, and she jos now om Phoenix.

KIMBERLY SCOTT: Thank you, So this bate over ordag gay clergy has been gog on for a while, sce the late '60s. And then the other part was always send-gusg myself - whether or not I was supposed to be open about my sexual orientatn, whether or not I was supposed to play the game of don't ask, don't Jt so that I'm clear, is the church's official stance on homosexualy today ambiguo or is pretty clearly fed and you'd like to see changed? It clearly stat that you nnot be an openly-practicg homosexual and be ordaed the Uned Methodist Church.

GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY

It also stat that although all human begs are of sacred worth, homosexualy is patible wh Christian teachg. S., church have gone beyond what the Book of Disciple says to make the church open and accsible to gay and lbian clergy like Do you know other pastors who aren't as open as you or haven't been able to be as open as you - have ma this choice to keep this important si of their liv quiet or secret om their ngregatns? The bate around homosexualy is not somethg that most Ain and third-world untri are - really re about.

A GAY PASTOR EXPLAS WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY

Matthews Baptist Church Louisville, Kentucky—were found to be out of step wh the SBC for “affirmg homosexual behavr. Jim Conrad: In May of 2019, a man emailed me and said that he and his partner were gay, they were gog to be movg to the area om out of state, and they were lookg to provi for their three sons the kd of experienc church that they’d had growg up. My earlit church tght a tradnal perspective that homosexualy is a sful wrong.

I grew up South Florida durg the time Ana Bryant was leadg [anti-gay] protts, and I was a teenager jt wonrg why this one s was garnerg so much more attentn than others.

And I addrsed that my Father’s Day sermon the next morng—that we’ve got to stop the hate and the vlence agast the gay muny.

GAY PASTOR WALKS OUT OF CHAPLACY TRAG

She has two gay brothers, a lbian sister and a transgenr son. 2, 2010— -- The pastor of a Geia megachurch wh thoands of followers, who was twice married and is a father of four, is speakg out about his recent cisn to publicly clare he is gay. I want to tell you that is not, " Jim Swilley said a vio shot the nonnomatnal megachuch Swilley found 25 years Swilley said g out was a cisn he's stggled wh sce childhood, he ma the announcement last month not for personal reasons -- he said he hop to save 52-year-old founr of Church the Now Conyers, Ga., said he's g out to help stem the recent ti of gay suicis Ameri and won't be swayed by some hateful msag that have been wrten about him onle.

""Hearg about the kids who are mtg suici, the reactn as a gay adult is, 'I wish I uld have jt talked to them for 15 mut or five mut and told them gets better, '" Savage said. "Officials, Celebri Jo 'It Gets Better'Three weeks later, a cy uncil meetg Fort Worth, Texas, gay cy uncilman Joel Burns was moved to share his own emotnal story about how close he me to killg himself at age 13.

Unfundamentalist Christians founr John Shore recently shared a letter om a gay Christian who is stgglg wh his sexualy and fah. Among the many enuragg ments on that post was one om a gay pastor who betifully explaed his unrstandg of the Bible, Christiany, and pastor gracly agreed to let me share his ment as blog post here.

A GEIA CHURCH, KICKED OUT OF THE SBC FOR ALLOWG GAY MEMBERS, WANTS TO MAKE SURE 'EVERYBODY’S WELE'

Pl was not sayg that idolatry turns people gay; rather, he was sayg that idolatry led to participatn shameful acts of lt. As I said before, Romans 1 is not about gay Christian boys or girls, but about idolaters wh darkened unrstandg. Another passage often quoted agast is 1 Corthians 6:9, wrongly translated as “homosexuals.

REFLECTNS OM A CLOSETED GAY PASTOR

But Genis 19 no more nmns all homosexualy than Judg 19 nmns all heterosexualy.

If I ever meet a fe gay man who is Spirual and lovg and mutually attractive, and if I felt the Lord leadg me to him and him to me, I would feel ee to be his mate. “We talked about divorce and that one of the of divorce was homosexualy, ” relled Bidwell. I was actually married and my wife filed for divorce bee I was gay.

MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY

Kg and Governor McGreevey of New Jersey, who recently admted he had been volved a gay affair and announced his plans to rign. “We were talkg about anizatns for referral and one of the stunts the class brought up the ‘homosexual agenda, ’ and at that pot I was wag for this to take a negative turn, ” said Bidwell. “He said, ‘The one thg that I nnot tolerate is homosexualy, '” said Bidwell.

“He said, ‘The Bible says that ’s an abomatn and that homosexuals should be killed – and I believe that. “This self-styled relig lear adms he rri a gun and then announc to a gay stunt that gays should be killed. Support, ndone or even enurage the killg of homosexuals and lbians.

IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?

He didn’t mentn that Brockton Bat and his partner, Skyler, were gay nor that another new member was transgenr.

AN ANTI-GAY PASTOR TAK ON UGANDA AND RSIA

His church knew who they were and had spent the past two years g to terms wh the fact that cln for Towne View had to look different om what was required to rema the SBC, whose bylaws say, “Church which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavr would be emed not to be operatn wh the Conventn. For Bat, a lifelong Baptist who as a child was phed toward fah-based nversn therapy to “lerally try to pray the gay away, ” Towne View took a meangful stand. As a teenager, he had fed his fah a nservative Baptist church Stuart, Florida, when the state Legislature was workg to prohib adoptns for gay parents.

RSIAN ORTHODOX HEAD CONCERNED WH PRO-GAY PROTTANT CHURCH

He began to reexame the church's teachgs after the shootg 2016 that killed 45 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, but he adms he “wrtled wh how someone uld be gay and a believer. ”“Growg up a nservative Baptist church, the msage of homosexualy was that was sful.

”The fay began attendg, and the fall of 2019, Reynolds and McClanahan beme the first gay members approved by the church body. “When one of our church choos to affirm or endorse homosexual behavr through their fn of regenerate church membership, we have clearly e to a different unrstandg on what we believe is an sential doctre, ” Greear cisn to ot Towne View will not create a stampe of church fleeg the SBC to promote more liberal ials, Freeman said. I’m a closeted gay man.

I’m a closeted gay man, but of a different sort.

RSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH RAIS FEARS OVER PRO-GAY PROTTANT CHURCH

Gays started g phras like “g out of the closet” the 1960’s, the same when I was figurg out that I had this huge problem that I did not want, did not unrstand, and that I had no one wh whom to talk over. No one celebrated beg a queer 1967 – that’s the word they would have ed the time before the word “gay” entered my public school panns’ vobulary or my fay’s nversatns. The other people who really know me are my therapist – an atheist who saved my life --, iends a lol artistic muny where I have found some solace wrg fictn, my doctor, and a gay man my age who got divorced om his wife of almost forty years.

PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”

Thirty years ago, when pastors my nomatn first began to separate to acuntabily groups, admtg to beg gay – even if I had no sful gay act to nfs – would have end my reer and would not have remaed secret. “The gays don’t want to be held acuntable for their actns, ” I heard.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

“You don’t thk they choose to be gay? One time, on a trip, I vised a gay bar. My quiet listeng ma pla that I wasn’t the gay guy tribe eher.

” On his 39th birthday Jonathan Merrt jumped out of the closet wh both feet after years of repeated nials that he is a homosexual.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

In 2012 Azariah Southworth, a “gay evangelil, ” claimed he had a sexual enunter wh Jonathan and chid him publicly for not admtg to beg gay.

ris the fence bee of the strong anti-gay stance his relig muny ntu to take. Followg the news of Merrt’s homosexual adventure wh Southworth, Ken Silva of Apprisg Mistri penned a piece entled “Homosexualy and Jonathan Merrt” where he wrote:. Here at Apprisg Mistri I’ve told you that I believe a major evangelil figure will e out as homosexual “soon” servg to fully tonate this whole gay bate—currently rippg apart and dividg male nomatns—right wh the mastream of evangelilism self.