The Official Gays.com Blog

This is a guest post by Rev Candace Chellew-Hodge in response to the ‘gay exorcism’ video widely circulated on the internet a while ago. A recovering Southern Baptist and founder/editor of Whosoever.org: An Online Magazine for GLBT Christians, Chellew-Hodge’s first book, Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, published by Jossey-Bass is now available here. She currently serves as associate pastor at Garden of Grace United Church of Christ in Columbia, South Carolina.

The video is at once riveting and revolting. A 16-year-old boy writhes on the floor as the crowd around him shouts and the pastor invokes the power of God to free the boy from the “demon of homosexuality.”

Patricia McKinney, the leader of the small Connecticut church claims that they don’t hate gay and lesbian people – but they do not “believe in that lifestyle” and that while gays and lesbians would be welcome in her church, they have to get “delivered” from their homosexual demons.

As a Christian, who just happens to be a lesbian, I find myself a minority within a minority. A large number of gay and lesbian people have abandoned Christianity – and with these sorts of shenanigans going on in the name of God, it’s really no great leap of logic to figure out why. When you have someone, in the name of God, painting gays and lesbians as demon-possessed people with an abhorrent “lifestyle,” God gets a pretty bad rap in the deal.

I always begin my workshops by proclaiming the good news that God loves gays and lesbians just as they are and they should never believe anyone who says differently. As I say this, however, I’m showing images of homophobic people protesting at pride parades and other gatherings holding signs like “Sodomy is sin.” The point is to drive home the mixed messages gays and lesbians get from religion. On one hand lesbian pastors like me say, “God loves you,” while the religious right, with the aid of their large media microphone, screams, “God hates fags.” Who can blame our community for being confused?

The ramifications of this rejection of God in the gay and lesbian community are great. I recently wrote a book aimed at the gay and lesbian Christian community called “Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians.” I expected to have a warm reception by the gay and lesbian media. After all, this is a book written for our community, by someone in our community imparting the good news that God loves gays and lesbians, made us just as we are, and that we have nothing to fear from anyone – especially those like McKinney who believe God hates us or that a demon has infested us.

Except for an online excerpt in the Advocate, my book has been like Kryptonite to the gay press. A few smaller, local papers have done an article here and there, but by and large, I can’t get anyone to even mention it, let alone actually do a story on it. The comments on the Advocate article really tell why. I’m attacked for believing in some imaginary friend and questioned about why I would want to stay in a club that didn’t want me as a member.

The rejection, not just of Christianity, but of spirituality in general, also leaves our community vulnerable to self-destructive behaviors like addiction to drugs, alcohol or other behaviors that are bad for us. I believe that spirituality – no matter what the flavor – gives us meaning and purpose in our lives. While the gay and lesbian community may reject Christianity on a widespread basis – I do believe it’s important for gays and lesbians to find some manner of meaningful spiritual outlet whether it be in Buddhism or other, more gay-friendly, religions. All human beings need to feel a connection to something larger and find a home in a community that nurtures the best parts of themselves.

That’s not to say that Christianity itself is beyond redemption. There is certainly a movement afoot within Christianity to reform the old traditions and exorcise the demons of homophobia from its sanctuaries.

My own denomination, the United Church of Christ, became the first mainline denomination to support marriage equality for gays and lesbians way back in 2004. The denomination has always been ahead of
the social curve, however, when it became the first denomination to ordain a gay man back in 1973. Other denominations are stepping up as well including the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians.

The Christian church has always been society’s tail light and never it’s headlight. While that’s sad, it’s unfortunately true. Instead of abandoning the church to the bigots like McKinney and her ilk, gays and lesbians need to view religion like a run down neighborhood and begin the rehab process right away. Religion is too important a factor in human life for it to completely fall by the wayside or be left to the likes of bigots like McKinney to take over.

McKinney is right about one thing. In her interview with MSNBC she asserts that “everything carries a spirit.” McKinney and her gay hating cohorts within any religion, Christianity or otherwise, carry a spirit of rejection and enmity for gays and lesbians. They repel more gays and lesbians than they attract and while she claims this young man’s “lifestyle” has changed – anyone who has been through an ex-gay ministry knows he’s just as gay today as he was when he was writhing on the floor.

But, if it’s true everything carries a spirit, then we must be careful about the spirit of our reply to people like McKinney. It cannot be a spirit that returns hatred for hatred or rejection for rejection. Jesus understood this kind of spirit and counseled against it, urging us to love our neighbors just as much as we love ourselves.

In that spirit, let us not hate McKinney – but instead look upon her and her kind with compassion. They are on the losing side of history. Gay and lesbian people will one day be fully accepted in society – and in church. When people know they are fighting a losing battle, they redouble their efforts near the end of that battle. In their desperation they throw everything they can at their foe.

Truly, it is not the demon of homosexuality that is being exorcised on the floor of that church – but the demon of homophobia being exposed to the harsh light of day. Let our love and compassion for those possessed by this demon drive it out once and for all.