Has God brought me to my current church to come out to a few people? I keep getting signs encouraging me to do so. Maybe it's just wishful thinking.

I posted last Sunday that my Sunday school class seemed very open to homosexuality. Most seemed to see it as a natural part of human variation, like physical characteristics. This class is what I consider to be the "liberal" adult class that discusses current issues.

Today after church, out of curiosity, I asked the teacher of the other adult class what their lesson was about. The teacher is Bill, the same Bill who gave such an inspiring guest sermon at my old church a few weeks ago that I also posted about. (He spoke on the privilege of suffering.)

I have never attended this other class, but it consists of mostly older people and I have assumed it is more conservative. Bill said the class discussed the need to be honest with the church about one's struggles. (This has also been the theme of some recent sermons.) He gave the examples of people discussing their addictions or coming out as gay. He said that the people in the class are surprisingly honest with each other. He mentioned Annie, whose son hanged himself several years ago, and who spoke of in support of homosexuals last Sunday. Bill said he thinks we should all be able to be honest with each other. Maybe not with the whole church, but with a few close people. Then he corrected himself, and said with the whole church.

I told him about the rhetoric in the community where I teach that sometimes vehemently condemns certain groups of people (atheists, liberals, homosexuals, evolutionists, feminists, etc.), and that prevents people from being honest. He said he has so much trouble with those attitudes. I then said that the dilemma for people who want to be honest is that if others have preconceived ideas about certain groups of people, whether they will change their opinion about the person coming out or change their preconceived ideas. Bill felt certain people would do the latter.

It seems that it would be pretty safe to come out as gay at my church. Coming out as a BLer would be a different story, I'm sure. But I will strongly consider coming out to Bill and maybe Annie.

--Julius