By Mark Ellis, Special to ASSIST News Service

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - October 14, 2015) -- When he was two-years-old his university-professor parents divorced and his father and mother entered the gay lifestyle. His lesbian mom and her partner took him to gay pride parades, LGBT clubs, parties and campouts, while his father remained "closeted" for several years.

"Mom was a political activist," says Caleb Kaltenbach, author of Messy Grace (Waterbrook Press). At gay pride parades, Caleb witnessed Christian demonstrators spray homosexual marchers with water and urine.

When he asked his mom why they were doing this, she said: "Because Christians hate gay people."

As a result, Caleb wanted nothing to do with Christianity or God.

In high school, a friend invited him to a Bible study and he accepted with ulterior motives. "I thought I would pretend to be a Christian, learn about Christianity, and dismantle their arguments," he recalls.

He had attended a mainline denominational church with his father sporadically, but was bored by it and didn't understand the liturgy. "They never discussed God, only social issues," he notes.

So when he grabbed a Bible off his dad's shelf and went to the Bible study, he didn't realize there was a difference between the Old and New Testaments. Confused when they asked him to read a verse from 1st Corinthians, he began reading from 1st Chronicles.

"I was so embarrassed, but I wouldn't let these Christians get me down," Caleb says. He had lumped this group of believers in with the angry demonstrators he saw in the street.

But something amazing happened when he began to read the Bible for himself.

Photo captions: 1) Caleb and his family. 2) Book cover

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About the writer: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com, a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.

You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).



Read also: Ex-Gay Man: 'Homosexuality Is Just Another Human Brokenness'