'Being Gay Is a Gift from God': The Gift That Keeps On Giving

[William769]

In January 2009 Ed Bacon, the rector here at All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and spoke the words, "Being gay is a gift from God."

Those seven words, offered in response to a call-in viewer from Atlanta, set off a ripple of reactions that lit up Oprah's switchboard, almost crashed our parish email server, and continues to bring people toward us here at All Saints. The segment recently aired again (on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network), and so nearly three years later, we are finding that "being gay is a gift from God" is the gift that keeps on giving.

And the gift that it is giving (as the 2009 segment makes the rounds again via YouTube and on Facebook) is a new wave of email feedback in response to a faith leader standing up and speaking out against religious based bigotry aimed at LGBT people.

Here are two examples -- which I found literally side by side in our inbox this morning:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-susan-russell/being-gay-is-a-gift-from-_b_1173886.html

[applegrove]

1. Like they say, what you hated about yourself as a teen is what gives you character as an adult.

Last edited Wed Jan 4, 2012, 12:08 AM - Edit history (1)

I can well imagine that the trauma gay teens go through makes them deeper & more compassionate adults.