Gay Georgia mega-church pastor reflects on year of coming out

Last year, Bishop Jim Swilley spoke from his heart to his congregation at Church in the Now in Conyers, Ga. He came out as a gay man, shocking many of his mega-church congregants and making national headlines.

The Oct. 13, 2010, sermon sparked a mass exodus from the church. Attendance dropped from approximately 2,500 on any given Sunday to only about 500. The church was forced into foreclosure on its massive property and is now renting one of the buildings back from the bank for worship.

The Georgia Voice spoke with Swilley last year about his coming out, and recently went back to follow up on how he, his family and his church are doing a year later. Despite the changes to his Conyers congregation, Swilley remains confident in his journey as a gay Christian and hopeful for his new project, Church in the Now Midtown.

..CITN Midtown is not a gay church. It’s an “everything” church. It’s gay, straight, black, white, male, female... it’s the type of diverse church that I’m used to anyway. These people know I’m gay and they are sitting here with their Bibles open in their laps and they’re loving God and they’re worshipping and these things are not mutually exclusive

‘He will say the prohibition of “fornication” indicates that gays should marry each other in order not to be fornicators, since St. Paul says “marriage is honorable for all.”’

I predict the pro-polygamy crowd will try to use a similar argument when the “polygamous rights” movement gains momentum: “It’s not adultery if an already married man marries another woman. His mistress(or mistresses) will become his 2nd(or 3rd or 4th, etc.) wife. Therefore, it technically can’t be adultery”.

If you could, could you point me to any evidence that would lead you to believe sodomite priests used Scripture as a defense for their actions?

I'm afraid that I wasn't clear in why I was making the comparison between the Catholic priests who molested those altar boys and this latest perversion. It wasn't to say that the Priests used Scripture to defend their actions, it was that their actions were just as evil as this sodomite claiming to preach the Gospel.

As Mrs. Don-o pointed out, those priests didn't try to justify their actions with Scriptural support, but that's a small comfort when looking at the bigger picture involved here. If they didn't try to justify it with Scripture, then what does it say about the RCC's bureaucracy that they were allowed to remain in the body instead of being immediately excommunicated for their evil? Look at Christ's own words about those who would hard a child.

And before you accuse me of being rabidly anti-Catholic, I want to point out that the situation here doesn't even have a Church bureaucracy to blame. This sodomite is twisting Scripture to justify his perversion and 500 people of his congregation either don't even know enough Scripture to reject him completely or give their approval of his actions. Talk about sin in the camp, we've got that showing up in spades here.

Christians, of all stripes, seem to have forgotten that the passage in II Timothy states that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

Simply put, we're not to manufacture doctrine out of incomplete or partial Scriptural references, which is what happens more times than not; especially when it comes to sex or money.

Anyway, sorry about getting off on a mini-rant there. There's a time for disagreeing over doctrine and interpretation of Scripture, but when the rebellion is as blatant as it is in this instance, it doesn't even enter my mind if a person is Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant or otherwise. If they're standing on the Word of God against those wolves in sheep's clothing, then they're going to find me right there with them. I hope that clears things up a little.

Here's how he's different: Reverend Gay Pastor is convinced that his stand is Scriptural, and nobody has any authority to tell him otherwise.

I wanted to try to further illustrate my point here. Yes, this sodomite would try to state that his stand is Scriptural and that no one has the authority to tell him otherwise. You're correct in thinking that he'll try to take that position. However, that's not what 2 Timothy 3 states. It doesn't state that select portions of Scripture are breathed by God and are profitable. It states that ALL Scripture is breathed by God. Including that Scripture that labels sodomy as an abomination and those who practice it as an abomination in God's sight. That's where the authority to reject this doctrine as evil comes from. It doesn't come from a Church bureaucracy or the membership of the Church, it comes directly from God Himself via His written and recorded word.

The bureaucracy and the membership derive their authority from the Word, not the other way around, and when we fail to stand by this point, we wind up with sodomites molesting the altar boys, homosexual marriage being accepted as normal in the Churches, abortion seen as a woman's "right" instead of infanticide and all kinds of other forms of evil. There's sin in the camp and it started when man thought he understood the Bible better than the Author did.

I've got to agree with you that when a Church bureaucracy covers up crime (as way too many in the Catholic heirarchy did) it compounds the crime by many multiples. When I first realized (around 2002) that a bunch of Bishops had not only failed to notify the cops, but transfered the predators around to different parishes, it was like a sickening blow to the stomach from which I have really not recovered.

It brought to mind the famous quote, below (tagline).

And you'll find people in the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) proclaiming gross errors similar to this Rev. Gay Evangelical Pastor guy. CTSA is an academic (not Apostolic) organization of University based (not Church-based) credentialed creepazoids, but most Catholics don't even realize that.

So the deceiver quotes Scripture, as always, for his own purposes. And he even has his own Lowerarchy working for him, PhD credentials and all.

Let's pray for each other. We've got a lot of fighting to do, but not against each other.

Let's pray for each other. We've got a lot of fighting to do, but not against each other.

Absolutely, no question what so ever that I'll keep you in my prayers. We may be different denominations, but you're right that we can't waste our strength attacking each other in this matter. Scripture states that we're to exhort one another to the Glory of God the Father and I can think of no better way to do so than to support my Brothers and Sisters against the Deceiver, especially when he's infiltrated our ranks.

Auxilium meum a domino

While I disagree with you on where authority lies, Scripture plainly states that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth and that it has authority to settle disputes: "Take it to the Church", and it was through the Church that our Lord gave the Scriptures and to the Church did he give teaching authority. We'll have to agree to disagree on these points I suppose. But I believe that we can fully agree that predators and those who cover or aid in any way those predators, be they a Bishop or head coach, should face secular justice just as surely as they will face eternal justice.

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