John Russell Stanger was the first openly gay ordained minister in Texas. He explains how his faith helped him come out.
Reverend John Russell Stanger knew from an early age that he wanted to serve in his church when he grew up. While other kids were playing outside or watching TV, he was giving services in his living room.
The only this that made this path difficult was his knowledge that he was gay, and his fear of how his church would react. He followed his calling to the ministry, earning a BA in religion and continuing on to Seminary, all the while trying to convince himself that he wasn’t gay.
It was actually in Seminary that he realized that his assumptions were wrong:
And it wasn’t until being in Seminary in that first year and kind of learning that this religious tradition that I had been told doesn’t support gay people actually has all this beautiful tradition that does celebrate people who are on the margin, people who are different, and we follow this guy named Jesus who hung out with people that society rejected and that started to click for me. And I ended up coming out at the end of my first year.
At the time he came out, he did not intend to seek ordination because his denomination (Presbyterian Church USA) did not ordain gay people. When that changed a year later, so did his decision, and he became “first out person in Texas to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church.”
Reverend Stanger also made the decision to be publically gay. Why?
Because I didn’t know anyone gay growing up, I made a conscious decision to be publicly gay and to model that you could be gay and Christian and even gay or LGBT as a religious leader and that is something that is a good thing. So people knew I was being ordained and proud of being gay and that really annoys people who don’t understand why we’re proud to be gay.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeI think a lot of people believe there is one type of religious person because they’ve grown up with people who are religious and families who are religious and religious communities who are anti-LGBT, so I hope those kids know that there are pastors and gay communities and churches who will embrace them fully as who they are.
Originally published at ImFromDriftwood.com. I’m From Driftwood envisions a world where every lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer person feels understood and accepted, and every straight person is an ally.
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