(RNS) — As whe evangelil nomatns double down on their opposn to equaly, many younger evangelils, gay and straight, are votg wh their feet.
Contents:
- COMG OUT AS A GAY EVANGELIL CHRISTIAN - LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH REFLECTN BY PAM GOLD
- HOW A GAY ST. LOUIS PASTOR TRIGGERED A WAR WH THE PRBYTERIAN CHURCH AMERI
- WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
- TOP 5 ANTI-GAY MISTERS ACCED OF BEG HOMOSEXUAL
- MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY
- GAY AND EVANGELIL, SEEKG PATHS OF ACCEPTANCE
- CAN YOU BE GAY-VANGELIL?
- EVANGELIL GROUP WANTS GAYS REMOVED OM ANTI-LYNCHG BILL
- FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE
COMG OUT AS A GAY EVANGELIL CHRISTIAN - LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH REFLECTN BY PAM GOLD
For nearly 20 years, Greg Johnson has served as a pastor to the ngregatn of Memorial Prbyterian Church St. Louis, which is part of the Prbyterian Church Ameri. Last year, the PCA attempted to ban clergy for intifyg as gay. * gay evangelist *
FOR LGBT+ History Month, Pam Gold, former Co-Convenor of the Evangelil Fellowship of Lbian & Gay Christians (EFLGC), and founr of two Open Table muni, shar her story of g out and beg an Evangelil gay out.
HOW A GAY ST. LOUIS PASTOR TRIGGERED A WAR WH THE PRBYTERIAN CHURCH AMERI
Bishop Eddie Long is not the first preacher who ranted agast homosexualy, who turn was acced of beg gay. There have been several others, all who have been acced of rryg out homosexual affairs the bedroom, while ragg agast gays the pulp. Here are 5 misters who preached agast homosexualy public yet were acced of dulgg homosexualy private. * gay evangelist *
I knew what others had said about ‘gays’ as I was growg up, but I uld fight no more, I prayed ‘please God if this is real then brg someone to speak to me’ my surprise the next week I got chattg to a patient (I’m an optometrist) and she me out to me - she said she felt that I need to hear . I ntacted an anisatn lled LGCM (Lbian & Gay Christian Movement, now OneBodyOneFah) and I was sent a bundle of urage my heart and hope for somethg new I went along to a gay Christian group Manchter, where I was the only woman! Neverthels, they put me touch wh a uple of women and, through them, I went along to Metropolan Communy Church (MCC), also known as ‘the gay church’ first urageo steps set me on the path to disvery of beg an ‘out and proud’ lbian Christian wh a ep and meangful relatnship wh God.
WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
* gay evangelist *
Then there was the time that he said the September 11th attacks happened bee God was angry at Ameri's acceptance of, among others, "the abortnists, and the femists, and the gays and the lbians who are actively tryg to make that an alternative liftyle. Angley has prevly been acced of operatg a cult where followers are tght that enough prayer n heal HIV and "childls men are enuraged to have vasectomi and Angley — who preach vehemently agast the 's' of homosexualy — is himself a gay man who personally exam the genals of the male parishners before and after their surgeri.
Greg Johnson scrib himself as a “gay atheist teenager” who fell for J — and found himself at the center of evangelil Christiany’s ternal battl over nearly 20 years, Johnson has pastored Memorial Prbyterian Church St.
TOP 5 ANTI-GAY MISTERS ACCED OF BEG HOMOSEXUAL
In early March, evangelil Pastor Stan Mchell announced to his ngregatn, GracePot Church Nashville, that he fully affirmed gay members. Growg numbers of evangelil pastors the Uned Stat are g out favor of full acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and their sir and relatnships, albe wh the nf of tradnal, monogamo, chaste, and lifelong marriag (which are strict nf ed). * gay evangelist *
When he me out to his church, he said he received a standg ovatn and shouts of “We love you, Greg” om sce Johnson went public wh his orientatn Christiany Today, pastors his nomatn, the Prbyterian Church Ameri, have tried to banish clergy who intify as gay, even if they m to celibacy.
As Stott wrote Issu Facg Christians Today back 1982, “In every discsn about homosexualy we mt be rigoro differentiatg between this ‘beg’ and ‘dog, ’ that is, between a person’s inty and activy, sexual preference and sexual practice, nstutn and nduct. In the Uned Stat, as the 1969 Stonewall rts New York announced the birth of the gay rights movement, orthodox Prottants were already askg what posive visn Scripture giv for people who are gay. In a statement, the lears clared, “We repent of the cripplg ‘homophobia’ … which has loured the attus toward homosexual people of all too many of , and ll our fellow Christians to siar repentance.
Schaeffer foraw signifint cultural chang when, 1978, an Orthodox Prbyterian Church ngregatn San Francis found self sued for releasg a gay employee who had vlated the church’s of nduct. Church historian Richard Lovelace’s 1978 book Homosexualy and the Church garnered hearty endorsements om evangelil lumari Ken Kantzer (a former CT edor), Elisabeth Ellt, Chuck Colson, Harold Ockenga, and Carl F.
MAJOR EVANGELIL FIGURE OUT AS GAY
First, would require profsg Christians who are gay to have the urage both to avow [acknowledge] their orientatn openly and to obey the Bible’s clear junctn to turn away om the active homosexual life-style. The church’s sponsorship of openly avowed but repentant homosexuals learship posns would be a profound wns to the world ncerng the power of the Gospel to ee the church om homophobia and the homosexual om guilt and bondage. Yet this was the Christian visn of Lovelace and Henry, Ockenga and Ellt, Kantzer and Colson, Lewis and Graham, Schaeffer and Stott, and a young gay evangelil Anglin who felt too aaid to e his own name, even though he was still a virg.
GAY AND EVANGELIL, SEEKG PATHS OF ACCEPTANCE
As I watch evangelil church and nomatns fumble their way through discsns of sexual orientatn and inty, often enforcg the language and tegori of a failed ex-gay movement, we’re missg the real battle: The surroundg culture has nvced the world that Christians hate gay people. They are already send-gusg their fah bee they hear all around them that Christians hate gay people, and they n’t pot to anyone their ngregatn who is gay, is fahful, and is loved and accepted as such.
He was on the board for the Natnal Associatn for Rearch & Therapy of Homosexualy, which tri to fd ways to “cure” homosexualy and ttified as a state wns favor of Florida’s gay adoptn ban trial. In ntrast wh most male Prottant nomatns where LGBTQ members are routely ordaed and their marriag solemnized church (the Uned Methodist Church beg the exceptn), whe evangelil nomatns such as the Southern Baptist Conventn, the Prbyterian Church Ameri, the Anglin Church North Ameri and dozens of others have risted offerg gay people equaly. Ellt Rossomme, a 26-year-old gay man who had been attendg a nonnomatnal evangelil church while studyg for a graduate gree chemistry at the Universy of California, Berkeley, ma the break two years ago.
CAN YOU BE GAY-VANGELIL?
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.
It is troublg to hear Jonathan Merrt jtify his cisn to live as a gay man (a chosen inty and activy) ma out of whole cloth that has nothg to do wh the Lord J’s view of homosexualy that is the Bible. He knows this but perhaps, like so many other lud homosexuals and heterosexuals who dulge sexual activy out of marriage, he has chosen to put the tth asi and embrace a liftyle of his own choosg.
EVANGELIL GROUP WANTS GAYS REMOVED OM ANTI-LYNCHG BILL
He n believe what he wants to, but what this tells me is that this profsg follower of J Christ, who brags that he’s “raisg a glass to my full and plete self—a gay man” is actually thumbg his nose at his Creator. Do not be ceived: neher the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God.
From the two pots, follows that adoptg a homosexual inty is also a s, sce such an inty entails at least a tac approval of homosexual sir (Si B), if not also of homosexual practic (Si A). Lee, who ns, a Web se wh 4, 700 registered ers that mostly attracts gay difficulty some evangelils have pg wh same-sex attractn was thrown to relief on Sunday when the pastor of a Denver megachurch, the Rev.
FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE
Gay evangelils seem to have few paths rved out for them: they n leave relign behd; they n turn to theologilly liberal ngregatns that often differ om the tradn they grew up ; or they n enter programs to try to change their behavr, even their orientatn, through prayer and support. And like other Christians who are tryg to broan the fn of evangelil to clu other, though ls charged, ncerns like the environment and AIDS, gay evangelils are tryg to expand the unrstandg of evangelil to clu them, too.
” But for most evangelils, gay men and lbians nnot tly be nsired Christian, let alone Keane for The New York Tim “If by gay evangelil is meant someone who claims both to abi by the thory of Scripture and to engage a self-affirmg manner homosexual unns, then the ncept gay evangelil is a ntradictn, ” Robert A. Yet those ngregatns whose preachg is faiar do not wele gay members, those evangelils Zuber, 49, and Mart Fowler, 55, remember stg on the curb outsi Lakeview Baptist Church Grand Prairie, Tex., almost 20 years ago, Sunday after Sunday, readg the Bible together, after the pastor told them they were not wele si.