Gospel For Gays

My coming out story

This is my coming out story. It is about me telling my mother what was already hanging in the air, in all those moments when I just remained reticent to those questions “Don’t you like girls?” or statements “One day, I want you to give me grandchildren”. I told her one night, when I did not keep silent, but I talked back until the air was dripping with truth and all came down, the truth. I will now proceed to tell you this story, but it will not be chronologically. Instead, I will move back and forth, in and out of different parts of the process, just like how Jesus makes loves to me.

Coming home

A few months ago, Jonathan Odell got a call from an evangelical college in the United States inviting him to participate in a forum on homosexuality. Jon is a writer, consultant, keynote speaker, a Christian – and a gay man.

“We want you to take the pro side on homosexuality,” the caller said.

“Yippee,” Jonathan thought: ‘I get to argue for Satan.’

My story of finding love

I was raised in Massachusetts. I went to church at a local Advent Christian Church. When I was fifteen years old I committed my life to Jesus Christ and was baptized. However, I also had sexual attraction for men. When I first told my Pastor, he told me that being gay was wrong. He told me that men were not created to be in a sexual relationship, only a man and a woman were created for that. So, I believed him for the longest time.

I am the work of his hands

“From that point on, after a short period of intense reflection and prayer I received a consolation from the Lord that I was the work of his hands, and that nothing he had created was damaged or tainted with shame. Like a sign that a teacher during high school had hanging in his classroom proclaimed, “GOD DON’T MAKE NO JUNK!” And ever since then, I’ve decided to officially agree to disagree with the leaders of the church on the issue of homosexuality and the legalization of same-sex marriage….”

Turning sixty-five

So I feel particularly lucky tonight, in not being bound by ancient grievances and bygone dysfunctions; in knowing that those things can, lightly and happily, be left behind.

Six Days That Changed My Life

In telling this story, I am not motivated by any sense of spiritual pride or sense of being somehow “special”. On the contrary, I am rather embarrassed to be telling it at all, it is so far removed from my earlier religious comfort zone, and so close to the demonstrative practices I used to deplore. If anyone else had told me something similar about themselves, I would have been hard pressed to believe it myself.

Experience contradicts church teaching

…My early attempts to live in accordance with official teaching on sex led me away from the church and into an entirely inappropriate and destructive marriage; ignoring official teaching has led back in, and into a deeper interaction with spirituality, theology, and church history than I would ever have dreamed possible for me.

My Own Story

Some people don’t know they’re gay until an incident blows open a door in mid life. Not me. I knew I was gay when I was twelve, although we didn’t use that word in those days. So did my parents, who sent me to a shrink to chase the demon away, without ever saying why I had to go and stare in silence at his Argyle socks while he questioned me about mum and dad.

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