I'm Coming Out Of The Closet

That's right. No more hiding in the shadows of church dogma.. or behind the sacred, "You must love the sinner and hate the sin" propaganda that good Christians everywhere have decided is the rallying call to gospel purity. I'm coming out and it's scary.. I mean, what if people no longer respect me?


Or, Jesus help me- what if people don't like me!? Dude, what if I stop getting invitations to speak at revivals and special events... or become the boring subject matter of the latest juicy gossip of my pastor "friends!?"

OK, enough of my sad attempt at being melodramatic... all that stuff has happened to me before. Honestly, it's been happening to me since I answered God's call to be in the ministry 23 years ago. It all started when I began inviting my unchurched friends and coworkers to church. Stop. There’s something you should know before we go on.


My friends were not of the “church-going” breed- we were all Headbangers, complete with mullets and bandannas. And we worked at a saw mill... but they were my friends- I could identify with them and I knew God could use me to reach them- after all, God wanted to have a relationship with them, too.

And then it happened... a respectable member of the church shared with me that I would have to part ways with my friends and coworkers because, “You come from a respectable family- you shouldn’t be hanging around such troubled young men” and the clincher, “We don’t need people like that in this place.” Huh? I couldn’t believe it. Is that what he thought of ME before I cleaned up my life? My eyes were forever opened to a dirty, little secret held by many in the land of the hallowed crosses: “If you’re not one of us then you can’t possibly be one of Gods.”

In the past three years I have done two things that have landed me on the "Judas Iscariot's Most Wanted Evangelical Pastor's List." First, I started pushing for the reformation of the current failed drug laws, including the legalization of medical marijuana.


Secondly, I became more intentional about reaching out and loving people within the LGBT community. Both are huge justice issues for me and remaining silent would put me at odds with Jesus- and that wasn't happening.

Here's another little shocker I've learned: You can hate your neighbor as long as her politics flies in the face of what’s most popular in your church. It’s even quite permissible in some churches to break God’s laws of justice and mercy as long as the act is preceded by saying, “You know what the Bible says about that, right!?”

Perhaps that’s my struggle... and the reason why I have to come out of the closet. I DO know what the bible says. And it says a lot about loving my enemies, showing forgiveness, feeding the hungry, welcoming the outcast, healing the broken- and not just for show; but living a life of radical hospitality and extravagant love among the spiritually dead, physically broken and socially unacceptable by welcoming them ALL into the church family in the name of Jesus!

One word of warning- radical hospitality and devotion to Christ will offend friends, family and especially church folk who will think you now play for the dark side. I’m coming out of the closet... the Pharisaical closet- and it feels great! What about you?