DALLAS — In May of 2020 we handed over our platform to Black voices in our North Texas community through a series called “While I Have Your Attention.”
Those courageous souls spoke out against racial bias, race based violence, and systemic racism.
Now, as we mark another Pride Month that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community, we are, once again, turning our platform over to our family, friends, and neighbors to amplify even more voices in the struggle for equality in America.
Here is Rev. Dr. Neil G. Thomas' story, pastor at Cathedral of Hope, one of the largest LGBTQ+ houses of worship in the country:
The word homosexual never even appeared in scripture until about the 1700s. So people will go back and find whatever they want to find. And we do that over and over again to justify our own beliefs. Now that I have your attention … you are a child of god. God loves you. God loves me. Just as you are.
My name is Neil Thomas. I identify as he/him. I cannot believe where I am today. I am the pastor of the largest LGBTQ+ congregation in the world. I’ve met the Queen. I’ve met Diana. I’ve met Obama. I’ve done some amazing things and I’m still a gay man.
I got the notion very young in age there’s a difference between “churchianity” and Christianity. This religion that we talk about really isn’t that doctrine. Understanding of scripture is not just on the page of the Bible but written on the pages of the hearts of people sitting in their congregations day in and day out. I had heard messages that God didn’t like gay people. That wasn’t my understanding of God. And so I was able to very quickly reconcile that notion. I’ve also had to struggle to claim my faith especially in a backdrop of oppression and those (who) somehow believe they will go to hell. The church itself has to repent. We know of so many who experience religious trauma who say to me when they come to church for the first time not only did I cry at the back of the building for the entirety of the service, but they were also concerned if they walked into a religious building a thunderbolt of lightning would strike them.
For an institution that’s supposed to be about love, this is pretty concerning for me. I’m grateful (that) on Monday morning we open our doors and some of those youths show up at our doorstep because they’ve been kicked out by their families and we get to rescue them and show them something different and I believe that’s something Jesus would do.
I want people to know that life is full and vibrant and exciting and dynamic and all the goodness you’ve been created to be is built up in your body. And as we would say in the LGBTQ+ community, you are fabulous. And I clicked three times because that’s what Dorothy does to find her way home. Life is so full if we can just get past some of the messages church so often gives us. I’m sitting here before you a 58-year-old man telling you it’s worth it.
More 'While I Have Your Attention' stories: