Three Colorado ministers have come forward in recent months to speak with contrition of their clandestine same-sex encounters. These revelations have become the subject of much discussion because of the public life these men shaped for themselves in the clergy.
It may be tempting to look with a measure of disdain on moral voices who have gone exactly where they’ve told others not to go. But a simple lesson to take from these painful announcements is that these ministers face the same internal struggles that many others do in defining their sexuality. They could be your brother or friend. They deserve our tolerance and understanding.
The Rev. Ted Haggard, who had been president of the National Association of Evangelicals and senior pastor of a Colorado Springs megachurch, was the most high-profile of the confessionals, admitting to “sexual immorality.” He did so after a male prostitute alleged a relationship.
There was also the Rev. Benjamin Reynolds, a longtime advocate of gay and lesbian rights, who told his Colorado Springs flock he was gay and resigned out of concern that he would be considered an “outcast.”
Most recently, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County resigned after telling parishioners he had “struggled with homosexuality” since he was 5.
Mary Cheney or not, there’s little chance that conservative Christian leaders will soften their antagonism toward homosexuality, but we can hope these recent revelations will stir more tolerance.
“Those who don’t have homosexual inclinations can be judgmental towards those that do,” the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals and senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., told a reporter.
“When you discover people you know and respect are struggling with homosexuality, suddenly you’re more compassionate because they are real people who are around you, members of your church and community, and the compassion level rises. It should.”
We hope future revelations are met with the realization that such passages are, after all, a prime opportunity to practice the compassion we preach.
