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Key presenters of opposing conferences
offer Christian counterpoint
on being gay and going straight
by Timothy Krause
ne man tried to be gay before going straight. The other tried to be straight before
accepting himself as a gay man. Both are Christians, and each man’s faith
changed his life. Now they’re in Portland to share their experiences and their
philosophies at competing conferences June 21.
aa
Mike Haley, 40, lives in Colorado Springs,
C olo., with a wife and two sons. He serves as
youth and gender analyst for Focus on the
Family, a national fundamentalist religious
organization that promotes prevention and
treatment o f homosexuality through means
such as reparative therapy. An ex-gay man
himself, Haley became the new poster child
and host o f the organization’s anti-gay confer
ences called Love Won Out when prominent
spokesman John Paulk announced his resigna
tion last April. He also serves as chairman of
the Exodus International hoard.
Brett W ehb-M itchell spent nearly four
decades living the heterosexual American dream
hut remaining unfulfilled within. Ever so slowly,
this former husband and father of two made his
way out of the closet to embrace his true feelings.
Now an openly gay man, Brett-Mitchell lives
with his partner in Pittsboro, N.C., and serves as
assistant professor of Christian nurture at Duke
University. He’s authored a new htx)k titled
Chnstly Gestures: Learning to Be Members o f the
B<xiy o f Christ and will offer the keynote address
for the queer-positive multidcnominational Love
Welcomes All conference.
’rotesters demonstrate outside a Love Won Out conference in Washington, D.C.
Just Out recently spoke with each man about
the issues that would be addressed at the con
ferences as well as their personal experiences.
Timothy Krause: Many sexual minorities
and evangelical leaders believe they can posi
tively reconcile their faith with their sexuali
ty, that the two can live in harmony.
Mike Haley: We would want people to he
able to articulate why they believe that. Where
are you getting that information.’ Have you
really studied Scripture?
One of our conference speakers was a pas
tor at a Metropoli
tan
Community
Church. W hen he
really got down and T he queer-friendly Broadway Baptist Church
studied Scripture, rallies at a Love Welcomes All event in Kansas
he would get hacked City, Mo.
into comers that he
law. Ceremonial law were things that were in
couldn’t get out of.
the Old Testament that, when Christ came,
He finally had to he
followers of Christ are no longer hound by.
honest with himself
But moral law has never changed. And the
about what the real
issue of hom osexuality— that God has
ity is regarding what
designed sex to he between a man and a
Scripture truly does
woman solely in marriage— is part of the
say when you look
moral component that has not changed and
at it from the very
never will change.
core, from Genesis
to Revelation, and
Brett Webb-Mitchell: Scripture says many
things. It’s kind of like a mine, with various rich
not just picking and
choosing and taking
veins of all kinds of minerals flowing in there. If
we go into Scriptures, we can find anything we
stuff out of context.
want. The issue gets to he this: How are you
T h ere’s cerem o
using Scripture?
nial law and moral