The pastor of an Atlanta 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.
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WAS REV PL JON GAY
Y, he was Gay, I went to school wh him, and was raised. 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.
Last week, the General Conference of the Uned Methodist Church voted to pass the “Tradnal Plan, ” a policy that lls for more strgent rercement of the church’s ban agast same-sex marriage and gay LGBTQ Amerins and their supporters outsi of the Methodist church protted the move, which appealed to tradn to effectively double down on the nomatn’s claratn that “we don’t want you. In the subsequent efforts to formulate church teachg, homosexualy has been a regular, and ntroversial, issue for procs for makg the cisns mirrors the Amerin polil procs. They and other Gli clergy joed gay and transgenr activists opposg enmic police harassment and arrt, and they were among the clergy signatori to a 1965 “Brief of Injtic” that cried the legal and social opprsn of gays and Williams and Wake helped spearhead this pro-LGBTQ Methodist movement, was not limed to nventnally liberal ci like San Francis and New York.
GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY
Ined, the support of clergy and ngregatns was often even more important nservative ecumenil Prottant journal Christian Century published a remarkable article 1969 about Methodist volvement a meetg of gay and lbian anizatns Kansas Cy.
At issue was a statement of nomatnal support for gay and lbian civil rights, which was proposed as part of a new Statement of Social Prcipl. The text of the document, as origally drafted, clud support for homosexual civil rights as part of a list of issu — cludg crimalizatn of abortn, a belief genr equaly and support for nscient objectors to war — that showsed the nomatn’s progrsive was homosexualy that triggered the strongt opposn durg the floor bate at the General Conference.