Pl-Anthony Turner, a gay semary graduate, has a ep mment to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. "I will not leave Adventism," he says. "I won't hand over to people who operate out of fear and bigotry."
Contents:
A GAY MAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE ADVENTIST CHURCH
The Adventist Church’s official statement on Homosexualy, adopted 1999 and revised 2012, says that the church is “opposed to homosexual practic and relatnships. ” The Church Manual also nmns “homosexual and lbian practic, ” though the statements—and the church’s Workg Policy—do not explicly addrs bisexualy or prohib intifyg as non-heterosexual. In s Media Reference Gui, the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn (GLAAD), a US-based non-ernmental anizatn, intifi “liftyle” as a term to avoid when discsg LGBTQ issu.
“We ll on lol Adventist ngregatns to provi sanctuary and wele to gay, lbian, and transgenred people, their iends and fai, ” SDA Kship said a statement. The book advis parents ncerng how to rpond to their gay children orr to reta close ti to them, how to exprs acceptance and avoid alienatg language, how to wele their partners and LGBT iends to their hom.
While travelg the world dog rearch on ternatnal Adventism, I asked pastors and admistrators wherever I went how many homosexual members they had, and tried to fd opportuni to meet and terview gay members personally. Ined, he was aware of many homosexuals who had been Adventists — all had exed the church, eher bee had disfellowshipped them or bee they had realized was a hostile environment.
SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS
One gay uple Buenos Air, Argenta, had grown up one of the largt ngregatns there, but had disfellowshipped them after disverg their homosexualy. When I asked another gay former pastor, who had fled to the US after he was disvered and fired, about the impact of growg up as gay and lbian Adventists Uganda, he replied, “It is the most difficult thg you uld ever thk of — they tell you that you are already nmned, gog to hell. Blais Ruguri, a Ugandan, had livered a speech at an Adventist church Uganda which he had clared that Adventists “fully” supported the ernment’s “Anti-Homosexualy Bill.