Gay and Evangelical, Seeking Paths of Acceptance (slow but sure)

[rodeodance]

Nice article. good to see some sanity about this issue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/us/12evangelical.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print


December 12, 2006
Gay and Evangelical, Seeking Paths of Acceptance
By NEELA BANERJEE

RALEIGH, N.C. — Justin Lee believes that the Virgin birth was real, that there is a heaven and a hell, that salvation comes through Christ alone and that he, the 29-year-old son of Southern Baptists, is an evangelical Christian.

Just as he is certain about the tenets of his faith, Mr. Lee also knows he is gay, that he did not choose it and cannot change it.

To many people, Mr. Lee is a walking contradiction, and most evangelicals and gay people alike consider Christians like him horribly deluded about their faith. “I’ve gotten hate mail from both sides,” said Mr. Lee, who runs gaychristian.net, a Web site with 4,700 registered users that mostly attracts gay evangelicals.

The difficulty some evangelicals have in coping with same-sex attraction was thrown into relief on Sunday when the pastor of a Denver megachurch, the Rev. Paul Barnes, resigned after confessing to having sex with men. Mr. Barnes said he had often cried himself to sleep, begging God to end his attraction to men.

His departure followed by only a few weeks that of the Rev. Ted Haggard, then the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and the pastor of a Colorado Springs megachurch, after a male prostitute said Mr. Haggard had had a relationship with him for three years.

[BR_Parkway]

1. Bout time some of this got into the mainstream, so that people could

see that it's only a small faction that believes any one particular thing.

[JohnnyLib2]

2. bottom line

"Just as he is certain about the tenets of his faith, Mr. Lee also knows he is gay, that he did not choose it and cannot change it."

This seems like such a truism, yet many, many "Mr. Lees" are faced with slowly, painfully, trying to say this to their own families and beyond.

Here's hoping that, eventually, some religious and political leaders will simply state this fact.