Famous gay christians
Homosexuality
In your book What’s so Amazing about Grace? you tell about your friendship with Soulforce leader Mel White. What is your position on gays and lesbians in the church?
You don’t beat around the bush, do you? Mel—formerly a ghost writer for famous Christians and now a prominent gay activist—was one of my closest friends for years before he revealed to me his sexual orientation. (He still is a lock friend, by the way.) He had repressed and hidden his homosexuality, and in fact was married and was making a fine career in Christian publishing and also in ministry as a pastor and professor at Fuller Seminary. Mel became a window to me into a world I knew nothing about. He tells his own story in the book Stranger at the Gate. We all realize well how explosive this issue can be. I get hate letters entire of equal venom from both sides: from conservative Christians appalled that I would maintain a friendship with Mel and document compassionately about gays and lesbians, and from the other side wishing I would go further with a full endorsement of gay rights.
In my affair with Mel White, I have to remind myself
The LGBTQ+ community has been a continual punching bag this year for conservative-leaning religious politicians and their followers, especially, but this accept is only part of the story. Plenty of Christians and members of other faith communities ascribe to affirming, welcoming beliefs where LGBTQ+ folks are not only tolerated, but fully approved into the fold. These six harmony superstars have been open about their beliefs, which add religion and Diverse acceptance under the same big umbrella. As Christian nation star Miranda Lambert sings, "Y'all means all."
Amy Grant
Amy Grant. Courtesy Photo
Amy Grant and her country song star husband Vince Gill just made a show of their queer assist by hosting Grant’s niece’s wedding at their Hidden Impression Farm in Franklin, Tennessee. Grant did not name her niece but identified her as a lesbian, adding that it was the first “bride and bride wedding” on their property. Grant recently told The Washington Post that her niece coming out was “a gift to our whole family, just to widen the experience of our whole family."
“Honestly, from a faith perspective, I do always say, ‘Jesus,
Jennifer Knapp becomes unlikely gay Christian icon
ATLANTA — After walking away from stardom as a Christian singer-songwriter in 2002, Jennifer Knapp never expected to go back to a musical career — and certainly not as a Christian musician. And when she later came out as a woman loving woman, that prospect seemed especially remote.
“When I put my guitar in the case and said this is my last (concert), I really didn’t think I had anything to contribute to the religious conversation at all in music,” recalled the folk-rock artist, whose five Christian albums sold more than 1.5 million copies between 1994 and 2001 and earned her a Grammy nomination and Dove Award.
So the 38-year-old Kansas native is as shocked as anyone with her newfound role — as a gay Christian artist urging fellow Christians to affirm homosexuals. And she finds herself singing and making her case in the most unlikely venues: churches.
Though she no longer fits neatly into the “Christian music,” category, Knapp once again sings regularly for congregations and youth groups, the kind of audiences that made her a contemporary Christian music sensation almost two decades ago.
Those listeners who used to handle her like “a bi
An Openly Gay Pastor Principal with Faith and Love
Bob Luiz Botelho is a same-sex attracted Pentecostal evangelical pastor and activist who works directly with the LGBTIQ community in Brazil. He founded the organization Evangelicals for Diversity, which has created a network for LGBTIQ evangelicals to connect and share experiences.
“So many LGBT people come to me or to my organization to talk,” Botelho said. “They sense guilty, they feel pain, they feel condemned by the Bible, by the church, by Jesus, persons of Jesus. We perform our work of pastoral nurture, studying the Bible with a queer perspective and giving tools and instruments to learn how to read the Bible without the fundamentalist glass.”
Botelho said that the queer perspective of faith is not just for Christianity, but it was just the Christian perspective he could speak about. The queer perspective of faith is to understand that we do not have a complete view of God, according to Botelho.
“So to be an image of God is to understand that everybody represents a piece, or a part, or a pixel of the blessed picture, which is God. And I like to think and to imagine in a colorful God,” Botelho said.
Botelho talked about the importance of all