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Gay in God’s House: an Interview with a Gay Reverend
Recently, I spoke with a Christian who ranted about the mere presence of gay people on television constituting Satan seeking to latch onto vulnerable youth.
Like many others, this person would find Reverend Dan Lewis to be quite the enigma.
I met Dan in 2019 when he offered his church, Grace United Methodist Church of Long Beach, as a storage space for a clothing drive I hosted. To this day, I can’t remember how it came up, but at some point, he mentioned being gay: I was shocked by this coexistence.
Not because I was homophobic or anything…well, at least not anymore. I’ll admit when I was younger, I allowed a Christian identity to justify hatred of homosexuality. Then a straightforward question helped change that, which I’ll circle back to after detailing more of Dan’s journey.
Dan grew up in a time (1970’s) and a place (rural Montana) that wasn’t particularly fond of gays.
“We didn’t have out gay people and if there were, no one would be surprised or feel sorry if they were found dead by the river.”
Sheesh.