From preacher to teacher: Author encourages outreach to churches for gay rights – Joplin Globe
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From being labeled a deviant as a child to becoming an Assemblies of God preacher, then falling out with the church over his homosexuality, an Australian author and activist shared his story as part of pride month, and showed how a conflict of being gay and Christian can be resolved.
“I had to unlearn what I learned to discover the truth, that I wasn’t sick or in need of healing,” said Anthony Venn-Brown. “I wasn’t an abomination to God. It wasn’t homosexuality that caused bad behavior in my life. It was the fear of the closet.”
Venn-Brown, author of “A Life of Unlearning: A Preacher’s Struggle with His Homosexuality, Church and Faith,” shared parts of his story with about 20 people Wednesday during a book-signing event in downtown Joplin as part of LGBTQ Pride Month. After sharing his story, he took questions from the audience about their own struggles and answered questions about a range of issues, from current events to reconciling their own faith.
He previously was a Pentecostal pastor for growing Australian megachurches, he said.
But before he pursued that career, he said he showed homosexual characteristics as a child. But a Christian camp as a teen helped him choose a path for Jesus, he said. Moved by stories of his influence and meaning, Venn-Brown became a follower.
“I walked around the beach and said, “God, my life is a mess, so if you want to do something with it, I give it to you,’” Venn-Brown said. “I came back changed.”
He underwent gay conversion therapy, and even received an exorcism to pray demons away.
From there, as he increased his level of service to churches throughout the 1970s and ‘80s and trained to be a pastor, he started a family, having two children with his wife. He helped plant churches and was the founder of Youth Alive NSW.
A meeting with another gay man changed the course of his life, Venn-Brown said. The encounter was not just sexual, however.
“What he did was awaken my gay self, and I realized that it is not about sex, it’s about love,” Venn-Brown said. “From that moment, I knew I could not preach.”
The affair was discovered when his wife found a letter. The fallout quickly ended his preaching career, leaving him at 40 to find a new path. All throughout, Venn-Brown struggled with mental health issues, he said.
His faith, however, brought him back to find a place where homosexuality and God do not clash, but coexist. His book, first released in 2004, opened up an audience of people with similar stories and backgrounds.
Venn-Brown is the founder and CEO of Ambassadors and Bridge Builders International, an advocacy group that reaches out to churches, Christian leaders and other religious organizations in an effort to increase acceptance, understanding and equality.
During Wednesday’s program he talked about how passages, used by some Christians to suggest that homosexuality is a sin, are mistranslated or taken out of context. and he talked about the similarities and differences in Australian and American politics, and how education and outreach to churches is more effective at ensuring gay rights.
“The enemy is ignorance,” Venn-Brown said. “We make the big mistake thinking that the enemy is churches and try to fight them, but that just never got us anywhere.”
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