Christian Parents Memorialize Gay Son

[cbayer]

http://www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2013/09/19/watch-christian-parents-memorialize-gay-son

Rob and Linda Robertson regret pushing their son to become straight, and they want LGBT people to know heaven won't be complete without them.

BY TRUDY RING SEPTEMBER 19 2013 7:46 PM ET



Rob and Linda Robertson, evangelical Christians whose gay son died of a drug overdose, have contributed a moving video to the Not All Like That Christians Project.

The story of the Robertsons and their son Ryan became well-known after they posted a video on Facebook in January, titled “Just Because He Breathes: Learning to Truly Love Our Gay Son.” The Seattle couple had encouraged Ryan to try to become straight through prayer, but this strategy resulted in him abandoning his family and his faith.

During the period of estrangement, he became addicted to drugs, and his parents realized they had been sending him a wrong and hurtful message about being gay. When he reconnected with them, they welcomed him without reservation as he tried to get clean. For several months, he stayed off drugs, and he and his parents were able to rebuild their relationship, this time with his mother and father accepting him completely. But making what his mother calls the “classic mistake of the recovering addict,” Ryan started seeing friends who were still using drugs, and he decided to shoot heroin one more time, leading to the fatal overdose.

“What we had wished for, prayed for, hoped for — that we would not have a gay son — came true. But not at all in the way we had envisioned,” Linda Robertson says in the video for Not All Like That, a new Internet video campaign that gives LGBT-affirming Christians a platform to speak out.

more at link, including their NALT video

[LuvNewcastle]

1. The NALT project is wonderful, and it has the potential to do a lot of good.

I hope a lot of Christians join it.

[cbayer]

2. Agree - kudos to Dan Savage (again).

It's not yet getting the kind of attention I would have hoped for, but I am going to try and snag them when I can and post them here.