WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - The Rev. Troy Perry felt he had a simple mission when he gathered a dozen congregants in his living room in 1968 to sing hymns and take Communion: He wanted them to know God loves gay people as much as everyone else. "I told them, 'God doesn't play favorites,'" recalled Perry, who recruited the 11 men and one woman with an ad in the national gay newsmagazine The Advocate. "I knew God loved me, and if God loved me, God had to love other gay people," said Perry, an excommunicated Pentecostal minister. From that service in...