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Sermon prep: storytelling.
Jun. 9th, 2010 09:17 amI want to tell you about a guy I used to know. I'll call him Ray.
Ray was a gay man who grew up in one of the rougher neighborhoods of inner-city Baltimore. From his earliest childhood, he told me, his father and brothers rejected and abused him because they saw him as effeminate. He grew up thinking that at the core of his being was a horrible flaw, and - because he was also a devout conservative Christian - an unforgivable sin. When I met Ray, he couldn't ever remember a time that he hadn't thought he was worthless. He didn't want to live. He didn't think he deserved to live.
So, lucky Ray: he wasn't going to live. He was dying of AIDS when I met him. ( Read more... )
Ray was a gay man who grew up in one of the rougher neighborhoods of inner-city Baltimore. From his earliest childhood, he told me, his father and brothers rejected and abused him because they saw him as effeminate. He grew up thinking that at the core of his being was a horrible flaw, and - because he was also a devout conservative Christian - an unforgivable sin. When I met Ray, he couldn't ever remember a time that he hadn't thought he was worthless. He didn't want to live. He didn't think he deserved to live.
So, lucky Ray: he wasn't going to live. He was dying of AIDS when I met him. ( Read more... )
