Dear Reader,

I was a very spiritual kid growing up. I went to a Catholic school and was always reading about different Saints. My grandmother was happy that one of her grandkids was interested in her faith, and we would spend hours talking about different topics such as angels, heaven, and what we thought it all meant. I will always hold that time as a special place in my heart. I recently interviewed Eric Muhr, who is a publisher at Barclay Press, executive editor at Meetinghouse.xyz, and founder of exploredco.com, who also happens to be gay. Muhr also started young in his faith. He had this to say about it, “When I was born, my parents were working as youth sponsors (unpaid youth pastors) at West Chehalem Friends Church. We moved to Hillsboro Friends Church the summer after my second birthday. I made a profession of faith at age three, and I became a member at age 16. ” I relate to Eric in the sense of having ones upbringing focused on faith. But after coming out things can change.

I came out as gay at the age of 19. I saw how much the Christian community could be hateful towards LGBT people. I didn’t know if I could believe in a God who would allow his people to treat others in such a harmful way. I chose to leave the church in hopes that I could find spiritual fulfillment elsewhere. Eric Muhr said he had a rough experience in his church. Even though they seemed relatively accepting when he came out, it was when he started dating that it became a problem. Here is what he stated on this subject, “After coming out to my senior pastor and also the administrative pastor in my congregation in October 2016, they said I should remain on staff and that they wanted to support me. Things changed when they found out I was dating, and then after I invited a minister from another Friends congregation to speak to our youth group (he was a trans man, and I wanted students to hear his story) the elders at my church began a disciplinary process. I resigned in January 2017.”

I came out as a transgender man at the age of 20 and found it even harder to deal with the Christian community. Whenever the trans topic was discussed among the faith body, it was always in disgust or hushed tones; there was never any representation. I was amazed to find out that Eric, prior to his resignation, had brought in a trans man to discuss the topics that many shied away from. If I had seen this in my church would I have left? Would I have felt such hate towards Christian people for many years following? No, I believe I would have stayed or at least continued practicing my faith and eventually found an accepting church home. I asked Muhr what advise he had for those struggling with their gender/sexual identities and Christian faith which he responded, “The struggle with faith and sexuality is a false duality. Just like the so-called “Culture Wars,” or the religion-science “debate,” there is no conflict between faith and sexuality. Instead, there are faith communities with toxic theology. It is not up to LGBTQ+ people to save the church. Unfortunately, most of us have internalized harmful messages about our identities, our bodies, and our sexualities – messages that must be deconstructed again and again and again. Even when we recognize the “lie” for what it is, the harm and hurt remain.”

Eric’s words are very powerful, and I am thankful I got a chance to interview him. I know that the Bible is a beautiful thing that has been mistranslated and taken out of context, but even knowing that, I can sometimes struggle. I struggle because there are so many out there that tell me I am wrong for simply being, and that I can’t be a Christian because of that. I asked Eric if he had a hard time as I still do to which he responded, “I struggled to respect people who hated me. In high school, confused, I decided that I didn’t have to believe anything that didn’t make sense to me and that I got to define how love felt to me (no matter what others claimed). It took me a long time to learn how to offer this freedom to others as well. But I became convinced in college that there had to be people like me – lots of them – who needed the same freedom I needed. I stayed in the church because it was the only community I had ever known outside my family, and in many ways it was dearer to me than my biological family. In addition, I suspected that the only way to be free would be to find those people who also needed freedom and to align myself with them.” And with that statement, it summarized exactly what I am trying to do with my social media presence. I want to show others that it’s okay to be LGBTQ+ AND Christian. I want others to find something useful in their journey as I have in this interview.

I want to thank Eric Muhr for his time in responding to my interview request, as well as answering my questions so thoroughly. If you would like to follow Eric, you can do so on both Twitter as well as Instagram @EricMuhr. If you are interested in more individuals who are walking both an LGBT and faith based path then I highly recommend checking out the tag #FaithFullyLGBT in all social media platforms. I look forward to discussing more topics and future interviews with you all. If you have any suggestions feel free to reach out to me on any connection listed below:

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Thank you,

Alexander M. Burchnell