Tag Archives: Coming out

San Francisco Congregation Banned For Gay Pastor, Rejoins Church

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After nearly two decades of separation sparked by its inclusion of a gay pastor, a San Francisco congregation has finally rejoined the Lutheran Church.

On Sunday, First United Lutheran Church voted to rejoin the church nearly three years after receiving an apology and an invitation to reunite, according to the Examiner.

The reunion follows a 17-year split between the congregation and the Lutheran church after the congregation ordained–and refused to abandon–an openly gay pastor. The congregation was suspended in 1990, and formally expelled in 1995. Another San Francisco congregation, St. Francis Lutheran Church, was also cut loose for its protection of two lesbian pastors in the same year.

Finally in 2009, The Lutheran Church voted to admit gay and lesbian pastors into the clergy, issuing an apology and an invitation to reunite to both of the San Francisco congregations.

“There’s been an acknowledgment that these two congregations were forward-thinking and committed to their ministry,” said Bishop Mark Holmerud to the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. “They took a stand, paid the consequences, and our church has finally seen the wisdom of our opening the rosters to all committed gay and lesbian couples. And we’re all the better for it.”

via First United Lutheran Church, San Francisco Congregation Banned For Gay Pastor, Rejoins Church.

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‘Jesus in Drag’: Straight Christian ‘Comes Out’ for New Book

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Immersion based reporting has exploded in recent years with authors like A.J. Jacobs, but for one new author the immersion experience took him on an unprecedented journey, and it all began with two words: “I’m Gay.” In his new book, “Jesus in Drag,” Timothy Kurek dared to go where no conservative Christian has ever gone before, attempting to test years of teaching within the conservative denomination of his youth. The book releases Oct. 11.

Timothy, just how far did you go for the research of this book? Who did you “come out” to and what was their response?

I came out to everybody! My friends, family, everyone. When it all began I wasn’t even doing it for a book. I just knew that I needed to understand, as realistically as possible, how the label of gay might change my life. The social experiment itself demanded all or nothing. I knew I’d have to fully engage in order to understand, so there were only a few people that knew what I was doing.

Every coming out story I’ve ever read or heard share one common trait: fear. Fear of the reactions and the great what-ifs. With that in mind, it was essential that I experience the same realistic fear and apprehension that comes with making the declaration that I was a gay man. In all of my life I’ve never been more nervous, or physically and emotionally shaken than I was standing in front of my family when I came out.

-full report at  Huffington Post

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Content Section DC Comics’ New Gay Green Lantern & Marvel’s First Same Sex Marriage

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Watching Ryan Reynolds dish out one-liners as The Green Lantern’s womanizing superhero, Hal Jordan, might make a gay Green Lantern somewhat hard to imagine. But with Earth 2, a new series in DC Comics’ The New 52, which re-imagines some of DC’s most iconic characters, the green-ring bearer is officially out of the closet. Alan Scott, the first superhero to bear the name “Green Lantern” (not to be confused with the Reynolds-portrayed Hal Jordan), will be re-introduced as an openly gay man in Issue 2 of Earth 2, released next Wednesday.

“One of the things that comic-book writers want to do is inject as much realism as possible into their comics,” Earth 2 writer James Robinson told The Daily Beast. “Obviously, we have gay people in life, so we have gay people in comics.”

-full report at Daily Beast

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