While this is non-COG related, in a unique way it is. Here is a courageous video of a mega church pastor in Georgia. This man has balls! Something far too many ministers in Armstrongism do NOT have.
If some of the COG ministers had real integrity and humility they too might be talking like this. God knows that some of the splinter group ministers/elders/deacons are just like Pastor Swilley! Even HWA referred to one man running a medium size Armstrongite splinter cult as the "...most effeminate minister the church has ever had." We had a traveling long-winded evangelist who was seen by many Ambassador students in gay bars.
There has been the Atlanta preacher Eddie Long in the news recently. We all watched while Ted Haggard created his own debacle (and STILL does to the day). In the COG we even had the story about GTA that has been around for decades:
from the 1996 Ambassador Report
A confidential source in the Chicago area, a former WCG member who is gay, recently explained to me what is believed to be the origin of Garner Ted's sexual escapades with women and girls. As reported to me, when Garner Ted was a young man, he apparently was living with another young man in a gay relationship. When his father, Herbert, found out about it he yanked GTA out of this gay relationship and commanded him never to participate in such a life-style ever again. So long as Garner Ted remained away from gay involvements, Herbert Armstrong looked the other way in regard to GTA's many heterosexual involvements. This long-established, family-based behavioral programming may account for the constant denial of sexual misconduct by GTA in spite of the extensive documentation of his lifelong problem.
"Those that bark out scriptures know the least about it!"
His wife speaks around the 48 minute mark. The video is a little over an hour long and
well worth watching in it's entirety
Swilley, who created the Church In The Now some 25 years ago, is a divorced father of four. But he's known he's gay since he was a boy, says the Rockdale County man of the cloth, and even his wife Debye — whom he divorced earlier this year — knew when they got married (!). The couple kept it a secret for more than two decades, but Jim says Debye recently pushed him to share his story.
The pastor made the announcement to his congregation two weeks ago (yes, it takes time for some stories to trickle), with his family in the audience and decided to come out now after witnessing the rash of gay youths killing themselves. One Internet forum poster says that unlike Atlanta's Long (whom Swilley won't speak about), Swilley has not used the pulpit to denigrate gays: "For those of you familiar with Church In the Now, while never discussing his own sexuality, you know that Swilley has always preached a message of inclusion, love and abundance for all God's children. Bishop Swilley has been asked to step down as Bishop, but will remain as Pastor."
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"Bishop Jim Swilley of Church In the Now of Conyers, announced to his congregation tonight that he is gay. He has been the pastor of Church In the Now since 1985, and has been married to his second wife for 21 years and is the father of four.
For those of you familiar with Church In the Now, while never discussing his own sexuality, you know that Swilley has always preached a message of inclusion, love and abundance for all God's children. Bishop Swilley has been asked to step down as Bishop, but will remain as Pastor.
Encouraged by the recent rash of G&L teen suicides, he decided to make his congregation aware of his sexual preference. I say sexual preference because he's made it clear that he does not intend to live a homosexual lifestyle (in that he has chosen to be celibate for the rest of his life). Knowing of his sexual preference, yet fully supporting him, his wife left him more than a year ago. However, she was in attendance at tonight's service, and spoke vigorously in support and love for her ex-husband, her childrens' father.
I absolutely support Bishop Swilley and his courage to speak his truth from the pulpit. As someone said recently said in the wake of the Eddie Long scandal, "it didn't take a scandal to bring me out of the closet." This is true of Bishop Swilley. While it is reasonable to consider whether or not the New Birth (which is a neighboring church) scandal influenced his decision, at the end of the day, Swilley made a decision to be completely honest with his congregation about who he is and invite them to continue to follow his message of God's love for every one.
"I say sexual preference because he's made it clear that he does not intend to live a homosexual lifestyle (in that he has chosen to be celibate for the rest of his life)."
ReplyDeleteHmm, sounds like someone should send Swilley in Peterson Toscano's direction; Toscano is a survivor of a similarly fundie mindset, and came out of it still a believer, a Quaker, and happily living his golden-rule-adhering life (at least, he seems to be, from reading his blog), which includes freedom to do with his own sexuality as he sees fit. No "celibacy" required, and the orientation is not viewed as a "sin" that needs to be resisted/denied/etc.
Just my two cents' worth. I've got no dog in the hunt, but I've read Peterson's blog for a couple of years, as he's one of the few North American Quaker bloggers I can tolerate reasonably well, and I figured a link would be appropriate, given the quote I have excerpted above.