Okay, here are my thoughts on gay rights & the fundamental Christian view point. (This is at the risk of alienating some friends that have already pretty much alienated me so....well...there it is.)
As you know, I used to go to a church which I believe now to be a cult, or in the least cult-like. I eventually left not because of the gay issue but for my own issues, which you can read about in my blog entry entitled, My Story. At Last, which details the reasons why I believe it to be thus. (Reasons such as leadership controlling what you read or how you educate yourself, sexual discrimination, exclusivity within the church/all other churches & beliefs are wrong, the enforced belief that everything about you is wrong or evil, forced to "get rid of" outside relationships, etc.)
It was after I left & finally made connections with other 'refugees' that I started hearing some rather disturbing reports. One of which is the issue of adultery & child abuse/sexual among the leadership that is in some way swept under the carpet. At the time, I was a member if any "controversy" was going on, I probably had it explained to me, in some manipulative way, why things were handled the way they were. (To my shame, I believed them.)
But, now I hear reports of senior pastors & youth pastors who are discovered to have committed adultery or statuary rape who are not removed from the church but taken under the wing of some other leader for counseling, still offered their complete salary & benefits from the church, while their victims suffer alone, without any form of compensation. Other times, they are removed from the church they were part of but then appear years later active in leadership in another church in another part of the country. Furthermore, I've heard of accounts of registered sex offenders attending the church & the leadership does not take action or have the offender admit their presence. While my buddies, the Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason Stellman & Christian Kingery, two former Calvary pastors, got kicked out of Calvary for having differing views on scripture, kicked out in a foreign country & financially cut off. They are not spoken of at all anymore within the church yet were very well-connected with Chuck Smith & the "big church" in Costa Mesa. (As they joked, they should have just committed adultery!) What of Pastor Lonnie Frisbee, a man responsible for big revival in Calvary in the 1960's, who was later discovered to be homosexual who has now been erased from any references in the church history.
First, the idea of the sin of homosexuality versus the sin of adultery. The scripture often quoted by fundamentals is this one:
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,"
As they adamantly profess this as a reason for bigotry against homosexuals, yet adultery runs rampant & undisclosed & unaccounted for in their very own churches. Why? How is that right? Are these somehow above the very own scriptures they profess, above the laws of God? Is this not a form of hypocrisy unrepentant?
Next, the idea of the sex offenders, etc. When I was attending back in 2004, the senior pastors would speak from the pulpit about how a law had been passed that the government could arrest pastors for speaking against things of the law, ie homosexuality issues, I believed this. However, in the time I attended, they continued to speak out but I never saw any government official or police officer come storming into the church, arrest them, & chop off their heads, furthermore, I never actually saw or read this mysterious bill, just as they professed that the pledge of allegiance was no longer done in the public school districts, yet it is still recited. But, they did not see fit to announce, for the safety of their other members, that there were registered sex offenders in the church, or to deal with appropriately as the Bible decrees (and Calvary professes to be the most biblical of all churches) the issue of adultery within their leadership. Are Calvary pastors & churches above the law?
As I write this while I try to remain neutral & to relate the 'facts' as best I can, I find myself shaking with emotion, the memories of the past abuse flooding back towards myself & those I loved. I want to vomit & I want to cry, but more than that I want justice, restitution, & freedom, oh so very much, for my dear friends, those that no longer speak to me, that are still trapped inside.
Why are churches like Scientology & the Catholic Church under investigation for these issues yet Calvary remains unseen? I can no longer be silent. Yes, my life is better & yes, I believe that success is the best revenge for me personally. But, I must speak out. This is NOT right!
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