“I went from being a very narrow-minded, hyperconservative Christian to an ally of the gay community,” says Timothy Kurek, the conservative Christian who went undercover as a gay man for his new book The Cross in the Closet. Kurek told his family and friends in Nashville that he was gay, even though he’s straight, in order to better understand the experience of the LGBT community in the face of religious propaganda. He says he cried after being called a faggot: “I had to be held back from attacking the person that did it. I never felt so violated and minimized in my entire life, because of that one word.” The book’s ultimate goal, says its author, is to drive home the point to conservative Christians that, “there’s a much better way. It’s God’s job to judge, it’s the spirit’s job to convict, and it’s my job to love.”
(via The Star — thanks, Kevin!)
I am so tired of “I’m going to do X for a year and then write about it” books. When will the genre play itself out?
Thank you, Timothy, for your brave and unselfish passage into a world of hate, rejection and laws that apply to everyone but us. I just downloaded your book from iTunes, and for your year-long journey and realization that no one would possibly ask or want to be austrasized for something we are born as, a human being created by God, unless it was the truth. Bless you, Timothy, and your family, church and community. I will certainly share your story (paraphrased, not literally) with my church family. You can visit our website at http://www.faithfamilyucc.org.
That’s what ya call “bad anthropology” right there son.