DALLAS — As someone who's been living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for all of six months, I've noticed that North Texas is the proud home to some of the most random things -- from "Barney & Friends" and Post Malone to Chili's and 7-Eleven.
But I never would've guessed that Dallas was also home to the world's largest LGBTQ-friendly church: Cathedral of Hope.
Upon learning about this place of worship located on Cedar Springs Road in the Oak Lawn neighborhood of Dallas, I knew I had to schedule a visit. Doing so felt important to me as a LGBTQ+ person myself (I identify as queer and agender), not only because it's LGBTQ+ History Month, but because I would like to eventually reconnect with my own faith one day.
My relationship with religion is a lot like that of other people in the LGBTQ+ community. One of the reasons many of us are sometimes scared to come out is because of a fear of religious backlash. This worry often makes it difficult for some LGBTQ+ people to find a genuine spiritual connection.
Rev. Dr. Neil Thomas, senior pastor at Cathedral of Hope, understands this well.
As he explained to me during my initial visit, it's a big part of why Cathedral of Hope even exists.
The church opened in 1970 under the Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), then moved under the United Churches of Christ (UCC) in 2007.
Thomas -- a pastor for more than 30 years who has worked at churches on both sides of the Atlantic -- was first ordained under the MCC and had been interested in working at Cathedral of Hope for a long time. When the senior pastor position opened at Cathedral of Hope, he said it felt like a calling for him to apply. He's now in the middle of his eighth year at the church.
"It wasn't just about applying for a job because it looked like a good church," Thomas said. "It is a church I've had a relationship with from the outside looking in."
While the Cathedral of Hope is renowned as the world's largest LGBTQ-friendly church, the reverend emphasizes that its support for the LGBTQ+ community is only a part of what the church does. Its members and leaders support other forms of social justice through what the church calls "Progressive Christianity," which Thomas says focuses on "the central message of love."
"This message that we speak of is not one [that comes] from a place of fear, but from a place of love," he said.
The Cathedral of Hope believes that Bible scriptures seen by many as anti-LGBTQ+ have been misinterpreted. Thomas said, in his church's view, these verses -- some of them known as "Clobber Passages" -- are actually talking about things like lust and abuse of power.
"There's plenty of theological study and evidence that these particular passages had nothing to do with homosexuality as we know it today," Thomas said. "Quite frankly, I don't believe that God is that concerned about what consenting adults do in their bedroom. I think God's far more concerned about the ways in which we feed the poor, how we stand up for the oppressed, how we make the world a more equal and fair place."
The reverend says everything the cathedral does follows its mission statement to "Proclaim Christ through faith, hope and love."
"That drives our worship, it drives our small groups, it drives the way in which we operate as an institution and as a church," he said.
He told me how some church members are currently going through a sermon series called "Unafraid," which was created to help them face their fears surrounding institutionalized religion.
"We've been using the particular sermon series to help people confront some of that [fear], to understand that that is a doctrine, not necessarily what the Word says, and to help people begin to recover from toxic Christianity -- from a Christianity that continues to speak about hatred and about how you hate somebody else rather than how you love somebody else," Thomas said.
The "Unafraid" series will run until Oct. 30. According to the reverend, about 400 people are participating in the series, along with another couple hundred who are reading a book connected to the series.
Outside of "Unafraid," the Cathedral of Hope also teaches courses on Sexuality Education, which the reverend said helps people unlearn the idea that they'll be sent to "hell in a handbasket."
In an effort for the church's leaders to teach themselves as well as others, they also created a webpage for people to better understand and support the transgender community. The reverend said they gathered trans church members to run an audit of the church and let them know how they can make their worship, language, resources and other things more inclusive.
"It's something I had to adjust to, something our leadership had to adjust to," Thomas said. "It's something the church had to adjust to. We're not a perfect church, but we try our hardest to face the reality of the existence that we find ourselves and apply our faith, hope and love to it."
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The church currently holds four worship services on Sundays -- two traditional services, plus a contemporary one and another in Spanish. It also has a growing online community with local, national and international members.
"We have traditionally done online worship for many, many years, long before COVID, because of our global presence," Thomas said. "But what's different about this time is that many of these folks who are faithfully worshiping in other states or other countries have actually started to pull together a small group of people who watch us faithfully together, and who are then taking on some of the outreach work that we're doing here in Dallas and actually doing it in their own location."
Still, he encourages interested parties look up churches closer to them when possible through resources like GayChurch.org and Believe Out Loud.
As for people like me, who are deciding to press "pause" on religion for the time being, Thomas said your decision is valid, too. He knows the strife religion has caused many in the LGBTQ+ community, and he said he even understands why some people will never return to the church at all.
His main hope is that people will find the time to do things that feed their spirituality -- in whatever form it takes.
Not surprisingly, for Thomas -- he is a pastor, after all -- that entails spreading what he believes to be the real word of God.
"[People are] coming to an angry God rather than to a loving God, and I don't believe that's the message of the scriptures," Thomas said. "And I will continue to speak that truth -- not because I'm self-serving, but because I believe that's what people deserve to hear. That's what Jesus came to preach."
