Gay Chrstian (Pentecostal) Pastor In Dallas

[RevChasBM]

Hello! I am the Gay founder/pastor of an LGBT Affirming Spirit-filled church in Dallas TX. Yes, such churches do exist! Many LGBT people struggle endlessly with their identity as an LGBT person and their faith in god. Particularly if they come from an Evangelical or Fundamentalist church background. But the fact that you struggle so intensely is indicative of the fact that your faith is real, and your sexual orientation is not merely a choice. If it were, you could easily chose a different path. I am happy to try and help anyone who may be seeking to reconcile their faith in Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all!) with their sexual orientation or gender identity. IT CAN BE DONE! We have created a number of websites, as well as profiles on just about every social media site known to man which are offered as an outreach and support to LGBT people of faith. Feel free to look me up on FaceBook, Linked In, YouTube,, etc, etc. Our church in Dallas is called The ONE Church In Christ Jesus. And my full name as used on most of these sites is Pastor Charles Curtiss Burnett-Morrow. My partner and I have been together 14 years in December, and we just finally married on October 10, 2015.

[Feathers]

That is a very detailed poll that you've set up. Welcome to GS.

I attended Catholic school for 13 years (3-16, including nursery), and found it a huge struggle during secondary school (I'm British) when I realised that something wasn't quite right, and any experiencing any form of intimate contact with boys my own age caused me turmoil, no matter how much I enjoyed those experiences I hated myself for it. Being a Catholic, in a Catholic school was as you could imagine, not an easy experience. (Nor is having Irish relatives on one side either.) Although I suspect I was one of the lucky ones - I was able to weather the storm and not experience the more serious side affects of coping with pain or stress which has become unfortunately more regular over the last few years. Even today, Catholic Schools do not get half of the sex-education, and help available to LGBT people that should be available, which disgusts me. I had nowhere to turn to and it left me vulnerable and easily manipulated, to my detriment.

I don't respect the Catholic Church. I don't like the Catholic Church and I think Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster needs to go and take a long walk off a short cliff. I don't care much for the "new" Pope either. I had hope originally, it has since died courtesy of his various backpeddling which is about as much as I expected really.

That said I do respect my local Parish Priest, but I refuse to attend mass. That and I dislike having to touch people I'm not comfortable with, which makes the "sign of peace" during the Catholic mass near unbearable.

After all those years of education, despite realising at the very least I was bisexual I discovered that I was, to put it plainly, a complete and utter prick. A prick who believed that they had the right to follow religious teachings and use bible verse to say to a friend who was considering abortion that "it's god's will(!)". Looking back, 7 years on (I am 23 now), I am horrified that I was like that, and I am generally apathetic towards religion as a result. I've dealt with enough evangelicals from the United States courtesy of online communities I'm part of (NationStates being the primary one) to have also learned the United States needs to experience the watershed on religion that the protestant reformation brought in Europe (in my view as it severely weakened the Catholic Church's influence).

At the day, how I keep the so called being called God is my own business. Would I like to believe he exists? Certainly; I'd like some form of certainty that knowing that all the torture that people endure every day has some form of purpose; and was in fact part of some divine plan and not simple cosmic fuckery. If he does, and if I ever meet him, then I can't say I'd treat him nicely despite that. Stephen Fry asks some very good questions that I too would like an answer to. While, unlike in the video, I will not say he is a complete maniac and utterly evil, I have a list of questions.



My apologies if this was not the reply you envisioned. :redface:

[TigerLover]

Welcome to GS.

It's always tragic when someones own faith and passion is used to hurt them.
I'm an atheist now but I'm really glad that pastors like you exist to help LGBT believers. I've always thought of Churches like yours as a great example of real Christian teaching in action.

[Anocxu]

Hello and welcome. .

[Meebs]

Welcome to GS

[valkyrie4488]

Welcome. ^^

[RevChasBM]

`I have actually found that I like this forum quite a bit. Much better even than Facebook, although I have thousands of contacts on Facebook. Personally, my faith is very real to me. I am sorry that so many have had such negative experiences. I a very aware of this terrible tendency within Christian churches. I grew up in what is considered (according to the Human Rights Campaign) to be the most homophobic religious organization in America, the Assemblies of God. I cannot say that my personal experience was too bad, but I cannot say it was glorious and pleasant either. I can appreciate the experiences of those who have replied thus far. I am so sorry that you have chosen to abandon your faith. That is certainly your choice. Our ministry is very uniue and appraches the evangelical message of Christ with a very different spirit and mindset. Many the world over find our videos on YouTube to be a blessing and a help. We are just happy to be able to reach out to folks who need and seek healing from the abuses and neglect of Fundamentalism, which I despise with a passion as well! God bless.

[RevChasBM]

Feathers ... The poll I set up is worded in such a detailed fashion for a reason I am generally very curious and interested in learning exactly where people are at, spiritually that is. People can choose as many answers as they like, which kind of helps them to really create an indepth spiritual profile of themselves. It is very difficult for me to minister to people in the LGBT communities if I do not have a clear understanding of where they may be coming from. this poll will hopefully help me to better understand where many people may be coming from. : )