Highlands Church, an evangelical congregation in Denver, is getting some major attention in the media for taking a gay-affirming stance. While Highlands isn't the first evangelical church to follow that path, it is one of a very few (if not the first) founded by a heterosexual pastor to do so.
Last month the church hosted a symposium on the issue of homosexuality that featured Justin Lee from GCN, among other speakers. No doubt the pastor, Mark Tidd, is weathering a firestorm of criticism (much of it "loving" and "concerned") from fellow evangelicals right now, so I'll just add this:
Thank you for creating a safe place for GLBT people of faith who want to worship God in an evangelical context without having to lie about who they are or pretend that they can turn themselves into something they're not.
2 comments:
I went to the same conference and I don't necessarily believe that in order to be somebody you aren't doesn't require one to attend a church that has basically endorsed gay theology and then somehow call themselves 'evangelical'. And by the way I consider myself gay and christian. The hard part is staying within an evangelical church and slowly but surely teaching and becoming more transparent to help educate and bring awareness to this issue. As far as I'm concerned, Highlands caved to the pressure- much easier to do in this day and age because eventually it's going to become more of a challenge to say one is a gay christian but choooses to remain celibate versus finding a bunch of christians who think they are being helpful by offering inappropriate sympathy and twisting the scriptures to say something it isn't.
It's important to keep expressing gratitude to our heterosexual supporters who go out on a limb, so thank YOU for noticing the positive changes out there.
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