Coming Home: A gay Christian speaks to fundamentalists
by Jonathan Odell. Commonweal, January 15, 2010
Last year I got a call from an administrator at a Midwestern seminary with a reputation for its “take no prisoners” conservative theology. He had permission to conduct a series of seminars on hot-button issues like abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage. His plan was to bring in a succession of speakers, one to take the pro side of an issue, followed by a second to present the opposing view.
I took a deep breath. I knew what was coming next. “We want you to take the pro side on homosexuality,” he said.
“Yippee,” I thought. “I get to argue for Satan.” So I asked him, “Why me?” Why me indeed.... Several years earlier I had given a reading on the same campus. It was from my novel. But I hadn’t come out as gay then, only as a Baptist.
Years before, I made the decision that the only time I should feel obligated to reveal my sexual orientation was when there was something positive in it for me—like a quick way to get rid of a Jehovah’s Witness. I don’t owe anyone that information, especially someone with the scriptural dexterity to bless me in one breath and to condemn me to hell in the next.
“Actually,” the caller said, “I had heard you were gay before you showed up.” He told me that when the dean found out I was coming, he had done his best to cancel my reading. I had not known at the time that my gay presence was sufficient to cause a scandal. What would happen if I were to actually talk about it? Read complete article & more – Fortunate Families - Newsletters February 2010
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