Join The Reformation Project To End Homophobia In The Church

When I started coming out in the fall of 2009, I knew that I had a long and uncertain road ahead of me.

I was a sophomore at Harvard, and although college offered me a supportive environment, home did not. My conservative church in Kansas took a dim view of same-sex relationships, and I was deeply anxious about how they and my family would react.

Fortunately, my family responded with love and grace. Our church, however, did not prove as open. Some of our friends were supportive, but most firmly adhered to a “love the sinner, hate the sin” approach.

Try as I might, as just one person, I couldn’t make the kinds of changes that were needed for me to gain acceptance.

My situation, I am happy to say, has changed since then. Last year, a progressive church in Wichita gave me a platform to speak about the Bible and homosexuality, and the video of my hour-long talk there has been seen more than half a million times on YouTube. It was featured in The New York Times last fall, and next year, Random House will publish a book that I’m writing to help its message reach an even wider audience.

Those are all great developments, and I’m deeply grateful to the thousands of people whose help and support made them possible.

But I’m also mindful of everyone whose situation hasn’t yet improved, like the closeted young man in Alabama who e-mailed me last week. He said that my video helped him to accept himself, but that he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to come out to his church and find acceptance there. Winds of change have been blowing nationally, but they haven’t come close to changing his community yet.

His story remains a sadly common one. Denominational groups and other advocacy organizations have produced major changes in the church at large in recent years, and we are all better off for the more supportive climate they’ve created. Certainly, I never would’ve been able to give the talk that I did last year without it.

But for all those important changes, there are still far too many churches that remain resistant to LGBT equality.

They ground their objections in the Bible, and until the LGBT Christians in their communities engage with their biblical arguments thoroughly and systematically, they won’t budge.

That’s why I’m launching The Reformation Project: to train Christians, both straight and LGBT, with the biblical knowledge and arguments they need to reform even the most conservative of churches.

Since posting my video, I’ve heard from hundreds of traditional-minded Christians who said that they changed their minds after watching it. For many of them, it was the first time they had heard systematic, respectful arguments about the Bible from the other point of view, and it opened them up to a different understanding.

That’s a great start. But I know that we can multiply that impact many times over by training and empowering more Christians to make similar, Bible-based cases for acceptance in their own communities, churches, schools, and denominations.

This fall, The Reformation Project will host our first leadership training conference for 50 straight, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians who are committed to changing their churches from within.

After three months of intensive study and preparation this summer, we will meet at Asbury United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Kansas from September 18th-21st.

There, we will put our 50 aspiring reformers through a Bible boot camp. We will equip them with the tools they need to confidently and effectively advocate for reform, and then we will support them in their efforts once they return home.

We have already been receiving some amazing applications from across the U.S. and Canada, and I look forward to reading as many as we receive by the May 1st deadline.

If you are a Christian—gay, bi, straight, or trans—who could benefit from intensive study and training about the Bible and homosexuality, then apply for the conference.

Whether you feel well-positioned to make changes on this issue or whether you’ve already made them, please make a donation to support the leaders we will be training. In order to ensure equal opportunity regardless of personal financial situations, the conference will be free for the 50 reformers. Not only can this be a transformative experience for them, but it will have positive ripple effects in their communities for years to come as well.

Pro-LGBT Christians have made great strides so far. Now, we have the chance to advance the next step further and ensure that all LGBT people in all churches—even in places like Kansas and Alabama—receive the acceptance and support that they deserve. Your support can start to make that happen this September in Kansas City.