How strange, sad and ironic, that once again a “Good Christian Man” who dedicated his life to to a faith which condemns homosexuality as one of the worst sins imaginable has been outed for his own closeted homosexual practices and forced to resign as Pastor of an evangelical church:
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – The founding pastor of a second Colorado church has resigned over gay sex allegations, just weeks after the evangelical community was shaken by the scandal surrounding megachurch leader Ted Haggard. […]
On Sunday, Paul Barnes, founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel in this Denver suburb, told his evangelical congregation in a videotaped message he had had sexual relations with other men and was stepping down.
Dave Palmer, associate pastor of Grace Chapel, told The Denver Post that Barnes confessed to him after the church received a call last week. […]
On the videotape, which The Post was allowed to view, Barnes told church members: “I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy. … I can’t tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.”
Imagine that. Pastor Barnes has struggled with his sexuality since the age of five. And why is that? Because our society is not truly a Christian society, that’s why. It is all too often a society based on prejudice and bigotry toward anyone who is different, whether that difference be one of skin color, ethnic identity, gender or sexual orientation. So bigoted, in fact, that a man such as Barnes who has known since childhood he was gay has repressed that essential part of himself, choosing instead to live a life of secret shame and guilt, and, in all likelihood, a life in which he castigated those who shared his sexual orientation, rather than accepting them as the full and complete human beings that they are.
What a country.
It is easy to go off on the hypocrisy of these people because of all the damage they do to others. But at the moment it also strikes me as very sad. There is some twisted pathology at work. “God made me gay, but He hates me because I’m gay.” Who needs a god who is so sadistic?!
Americans are incredibly immature when it comes to sexuality. We are not the only ones but we have to be near the top of the list.
I know that type of christianity, because I was raised in it as well. It focuses so much on shame, humiliation and guilt that the “good news” gets lost in translation.
If the fundies keep this up, they’ll be the ones taking homosexuality mainstream.
Well, I’m sure its a boost for the business of all those religious “deprogrammers” who claim they can cure you of the gay.
Ah, but aren’t these incidents proof that the struggle is useless?
Kahli, you assume this guy ever gave a shit about what “God” thought. As was ever the case, the path to privilege and power largely resolved into the Red and the Black — the military-industrial or the church. If you can swallow the dishonesty and treachery that goes with the job it’s a great way to get power, money and security by spewing an hour or two of mindless blather every week. I think the only lesson this episode teaches is that gay folks are no better and no worse than everybody else, and the true American god, mammon, is the one whispering in the ears of the “faithful”.
religion.
But this is not always the case.
For Ted Haggerd, pretending that he hated gays while he was gay probably mean $500,000/year in salary. What’s a little hypocrisy for that kind of money?
Apparently, some people need a sadistic god in order to justify their own self-loathing.
In this case, to quote John Lennon: ‘God is a concept by which we measure our pain.’ IOW, this god has no divinity; it’s a self-projection & manifest self-absorption. A perishable mirror of delusion.
His homosexuality is certainly SYMPTOMATIC.
Other than the refusal to accept that God made him the way he is, Barnes seems like a much better person than Haggard. At least that’s what I gather from the article. I feel sympathy for him, it must be difficult to live with that kind of self-loathing.
He was outed, probably by one of his little butt-buddies. And, that is justice. These scumbags have their little fun after hours, wearing masks. Then, during the day, they gain political and moral authority by condemning their after-hours behavior.
I am hoping that the millions of gay guys, who have somewhat anonymous relationships, begin to focus on WHO these guys are. Are you having a little fun with someone who is going to totally trash you the next day?
We need a fundamentalist outing center, where the pictures of these little preacher-toads are all posted, so that they can be recognized and brought out of the bathhouses, into the light of day.
“He was outed, probably by one of his little butt-buddies.”
This is the type of statement you expect from the conservatives. We do not know if the guys he was dating knew who he was. I know from experience when I was much younger, you could meet people that you did not know and start seeing them and they turn out to be married. So do not judge negatively unless you know the circumstances.
(RF, please check the hotmail account listed on your user page.)
As difficult as it may be, these conflicted men deserve our sympathy. The are victims of their self-loathing. Admittedly, they injure others and must be held accountable for their actions, but they are hurting themselves as well. There is nothing to celebrate here.
I have given him my sympathy and do feel sorry for him. I will check the email when I get home though. I was not the one making the “but buddy” comment which I find offensive to say the least.
And then he became a part of the system that seeks to oppress homosexuality, staying with it for years. I can understand that he has great difficulities with which he struggles, I just can’t understand why he would continue as part of the oppressing system for so long.
It’s the perfect beard, no?
Aside of that, I’d suppose it manifests the inward struggle — a matter of projection both disgusting & pathetic.
What a country/what a religion!
I feel sorry for him. He was not a minister who worked on the anti-gay marriage amendments. I don’t know if he preached against gays. I feel sorry for him that he could not accept who he is and come to terms with his homsexuality. I hope he can get away from the people who keep telling him he is a sinner and be a happy yuman being.
Sexuality, like race and class, is an area where we have not caught up with our inspiring rhetoric, political or religious. That does not mean that our political and religious institutions are failures. To me, the Progressive movement is a political and cultural movement, whose purpose is to expand our institutions to meet the stirring rhetoric of the nation’s founders and those who have expanded that stirring sentiment to include those who were denied it by the human failings of those same founders. The revolution is ongoing, and if all goes well, our human weaknesses and hypocrisies will be as stunningly obvious and outdated in the near future as the slave-holding of the signers of the Declaration of Independence is to us. Our movement should be working to expose and destroy the cultural underpinnings that led this human being to deny such an integral part of his identity, his sexuality. Understanding is needed, even in the face of reaction and hatred.
I have to agree 100% with you Teach. We have to look at the way things are taught and try and bring more understanding in the nation and the world.