I have spent my entire adult life trying to reconcile being gay with being a Christian. Because of the embrace of the Episcopal Church, I was able to do so. No more...
I take a lot of guff from my gay friends for being a devout Christian, more than I take from my church friends for being gay. There are an awful lot of recovering Catholics, Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, etc., in the gay community, and they are BITTER about their treatment at the hands of so-called "Christian" families and church communities during childhood. I have consoled myself that MY church, the Episcopal Church, the much esteemed Church of England in America, was different. We had the true path, we understood better than anyone the truth in Jesus' teachings of tolerance, equality, acceptance and unconditional love, and we alone among the mainline Christian denominations were enlightened, modern, thinking Christians.
Now this. Thrown under the bus in New Orleans, all to appease African bishops that have more in common with Robertson and Falwell than Fosdick and Spong? I feel more at sea than I have ever felt about almost anything. I thought surely the Episcopal Church would stand on principle and say "piss off" to the Communion rather than do this. Unity at all costs? I don't think so. Even with this last insult, there are some (naturally Southern) bishops that think they did not go far enough in condemning gays to second class status. I am about to utter a rather un-
Christian sentiment. FUCK OFF...
To have been treated in this manner by a church that I worked so hard to get back to is beyond devastating. What is a Christian gay boy to do?