Cross in the Closet: Straight Christian Lives a Year as Gay Man

OP - October 15, 2012, 12:37 AM

Quote

In his Nashville Christian church, Timothy Kurek was taught the lesson of God's wrath in the Biblical story of "Sodom and Gomorrah," and he believed that homosexuality was a sin.

"You learned to be very afraid of God," said Kurek. According to the preachings of his church, "The loving thing to do is to tell my friend who is gay, 'Hey, listen, you are an abomination and you need to repent to go to heaven.' I absolutely believed in that lock, stock and barrel."

So devout was Kurek as a teen that friends' parents would often call him to set their kids straight if they misbehaved or broke what they believed to be God's law.

"I would be the one on the phone until four in the morning, asking them to repent for their sins," he said.

But about four years ago, when a lesbian he knew from karaoke night confided to him that her parents had disowned her when she came out, Kurek felt that he failed her.

"I feel God really kicked me in the gut," he said. "She was crying in my arms and instead of being there for her, I was thinking about all the arguments to convert her."

Kurek's reaction ate away at him, and he wondered what it felt like to be gay and so alone. So even though Kurek identifies as straight, he embarked on what one religious writer called "spiritual espionage." He would live like a gay man for a year.

"It finally clicked," he said. "I needed to empathize and understand."
...

Source

Love hearing stories like this. Seeing someone so religious and homophobic question themselves and work hard on getting rid of their prejudice is amazing. Just wanted to share.

Re: Cross in the Closet: Straight Christian Lives a Year as Gay Man

Reply #2 - October 15, 2012, 02:44 AM

Pretending to be gay for a year must be...quite the experience.

In my opinion a life without curiosity is not a life worth living

Re: Cross in the Closet: Straight Christian Lives a Year as Gay Man

Reply #4 - October 15, 2012, 02:21 PM

Can't quite get my head around "thou shalt not bear false witness".

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"

Welcome

Donations

Recent Posts

Do humans have needed kno...

What music are you listen...

Is Iran/Persia going to b...

News From Syria

Muslim grooming gangs sti...

الحبيب من يشبه اكثر؟؟؟

Qur'anic studies today

Lights on the way

New Britain

ماذا يحدث هذه الايام؟؟؟.

What happens in these day...

What's happened to the fo...

Theme Changer

Topic: Cross in the Closet: Straight Christian Lives a Year as Gay Man

A

OP - October 15, 2012, 12:37 AM

osmanthus

Reply #1 - October 15, 2012, 12:45 AM

TheDashingRabbit

Reply #2 - October 15, 2012, 02:44 AM

osmanthus

Reply #3 - October 15, 2012, 07:25 AM

moi

Reply #4 - October 15, 2012, 02:21 PM

A

Reply #5 - October 15, 2012, 05:12 PM

Basic Information

General Resources

CEMB Organisation