{"id":301,"date":"2014-11-14T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T17:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/11\/id-rather-go-to-hell-for-telling-the-truth.html"},"modified":"2014-11-14T17:40:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T17:40:00","slug":"id-rather-go-to-hell-for-telling-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/11\/id-rather-go-to-hell-for-telling-the-truth.html","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019d Rather Go to Hell for Telling the Truth’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Rev. Dr. Daniel Meeter asked me to repeat those words as we walked and talked in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Rev. Meeter was my field education supervisor during my final year at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is a progressive White pastor of a congregation that is part of the Reformed Church of America. As he encouraged me to repeat those words, I thought, \u201cthis man can\u2019t be saved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a product of Black churches\u2014formerly a member of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), baptized in \u201cJesus\u2019s name\u201d at an Apostolic church, attendee of a tongues-speaking, foot-stomping holiness church in my childhood\u2014I was convinced that God despised and would deliver me from the \u201cspirit of homosexuality\u201d that seemingly had its grip on me. <\/p>\n

Despite the fact that I left the Church after being suspended from ministerial preparation at the last church of which I was a member, I was still scarred so deeply that Rev. Meeters\u2019 words seemed to be paradoxical. I could not believe, even then\u2014even after having nearly finished seminary, God loved (gay) me.<\/p>\n

That is why I was not surprised when a video<\/a> of a self-proclaimed ex-gay COGIC member lauding his newfound attraction to women, in front of thousands, at the denomination\u2019s 107thHoly Convocation was widely circulated in social media. While I was never bold enough to publicly denounce my queerness, I did so in private, often.<\/p>\n

Read the rest here<\/a><\/p>\n

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