God Told Me To Hate You

An Evangelical Minister's Escape From the Clerical Closet

This book is a memoir, an expose, and a journey … but an indictment as well. Millions of people around the world have a secret. It is basically the same despite gender or nationality tribe or tongue. It is a scientific fact that about a tenth of the world's male population are born “different”. About the same percentage of those born left-handed, millions are simply born “sexually left handed”. Some adapt easily and well, others struggle. Multitudes are not allowed to adapt. They have to hide, conceal and pretend. This is the story of one of those who learned to pretend. The primary reason that homosexual men (and women) are forced to subordinate their inborn natures and sexualities is due to one thing overwhelmingly: Religion. It is often said of Catholic boys who have no interest in “girls” … that they marry the church. Protestant youths and young adults suffer no such co-erosion. Instead, they are required to marry, produce copies of themselves, and live exemplary lives that enshrine true American Christian Values. This is Tom's story, now over fifty years in the making. “I guess I was lucky in one way. I was not a biological Christian (one born into a Fundamentalist family), but a convert. After fifteen years in the movement, as it grew into a hideous political movement and an extension of the Republican Party, I had to bail. Most bio-Christians simply have no other place to go. They have no other options. But I did. I made my way into the gay world, the gay universe, and was welcomed. I poured all my evangelistic zeal that I learned from the church into a more worthy and “real” endeavor, gay activism.” | read more»