I'm zapping off a quickie prayer request before heading to lunch with a woman from my past Evangelical life. She and I were the pianist and organist at our little church of infamy (There actually is a book about it!). Anyway, I've not seen her in years, so that makes it a coming out event, which always comes with its challenges in the given demographic. However, she has gone through a divorce, and that often tempers the evangelical in the Evangelical, but hopefully does not kill the Evangel. I trust that makes sense. Thanks for praying!
Peace of Christ,
KJ
When I asked KJ if he wanted this kept private he responded:
Oh no! The more praying the better. I'm hoping she'll come out to me as a lesbian! That would make things really simple. :-)
KJ, tell us more about the book, please.
Prayers for KJ and all about him!
ReplyDeletePrayers, of course.
ReplyDeleteI'm back from lunch. Thanks for the prayers! The most stressful coming out "episodes" were the first ones, and though it gets easier, I'm not ready to say it's easy.
ReplyDeleteAs it was, my friend, j, had read a letter I wrote back in '99 when I came out. I came out personally to family members and close friends, but then gave each of them a letter that explained my process, so that family, particularly my parents, wouldn't have to try to do that for me in the face of some much Evangelical misinformation. So, J had the "big news", and we could pick up from there, filling in some of the gaps. It was heartbreaking to hear her account of her marriage falling apart due to her ex-husband's refusal to seek the mental health treatment he needed. Prayers for J.
Grandmère, the book I'm referring to is "Fleeing Fundamentalism" by Carlene Cross. Back in the 80s, our little church was non-denominational (Carlene hides its real identify in the book, and calls it "Baptist", but it was not.), and we called a young pastor, newly graduated from Divinity school, married to a sweet young thing. They had three kids. Things started well, but unbeknownst to us, the pastor, "David" liked the booze and the naked wimmins (?), so their marriage was falling apart, and a whole lot of hypocrisy going on. A regular Peyton Place.
Carlene's account is fair from her perspective, but because of her distancing herself from her husband, she was unaware of the many good things that were going on in spite of the horrific. I use that as a reminder that the Spirit can still work through a whole lot of human nonsense.
Again, thanks so much for the prayers. I KNEW I could count on all of you.
KJ, I'm glad all went well, love. We'll add J to our prayers, too. I'm still praying for your sister Karen.
ReplyDeleteThank you also for the continued prayers for Karen. Chemo 1 is done, and she's learning to adjust the expectations of herself. Moms don't have time for this!
ReplyDeleteglad to hear that everything came out ok. and I saw that book....
ReplyDeleteKJ, glad things went all right. Thanks for keeping us posted.
ReplyDeleteOh, I always just throw it into conversation as if it were self evident. "Being a big 'mo and everything..." or something like that. No way am I going to let them get by with making a big deal over it.
ReplyDeleteOf course I may not be as thoughtful as KJ.
Glad to hear this went well.
Lindy, LOL. Right out of "How to Win Friends and Influence People".
ReplyDelete