Pulpit Persecution

persecute vt. to afflict constantly as to injure or distress, as for reasons of religion, race, etc. persecution n.

In doing research for our social experiment project at Victory Christian Center Austin, we discovered an uncanny parallel between persecuted Christians and the lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered community; we have all suffered persecution because of bad religion.

Having been raised in the Christian faith ourselves, and having reconciled the afflictions of our religious upbringing with our sexual orientation, Ceil and I shuddered at the idea of voluntarily throwing ourselves back into the CLOSET, for the sake of finding answers through this experiment. For too long, our people have suffered in silence, persecuted from the pulpits, while asked by their church leaders to give money for people elsewhere in the world to live the way God intended - freely.

With great zeal, Evangelical church leaders encourage their congregations to support missionaries with their offerings. In fact, they are staunch supporters of the Bush doctrine of spreading democracy and religious freedom around the world at whatever the cost.

The sad irony is these Evangelical leaders fail to see that they themselves perpetrate the very same religious persecution and intolerance toward people who are not like them. Hundreds of thousands of our LGBT people have lost their families, their churches, and their lives because of religious persecution and condemnation. This is completely contrary to their "pro-life" doctrine, and like the horrendous act of throwing salt on an open wound, these intolerant and hate-filled institutions are rewarded by our government with tax exempt status... go figure!