Thread by @Vancbromycin

When I was in college I studied abroad in Cape Town. While I was there, I was blessed to meet archbishop Desmond Tutu. He taught me I could be gay and religious at the same time.

A thread 1/?

I have struggled with religion my entire life. I was brought up protestant, and had been taught that being gay was evil. Of course when I had college I had urges and desires that I could not reconcile with my religious upbringing. 2/

I knew I was gay. In high school this realization made me want, and even try to kill myself. Fortunately I was not successful. 3/?

I struggled for years to reconcile my faith in God and Jesus with the fact that I loved other men. It was to the point that I was thrown out of my conservative small-town church after coming out as gay. 4/?

When I went to South Africa I considered myself an atheist. A friend of mine at the University of Cape Town invited me to coffee and services with Archbishop #DesmondTutu. I reluctantly accepted. 5/?

The Archbishop gave a lovely sermon, and my friend brought me to a small basement room afterwards where coffee and scones were served. After a while, the Archbishop came to the room got coffee, and sat down at a table near mine.

6/?

My friend said “go talk to him.” To which I said “I’m sure he doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

My friend pushed and said “im sure he does”

7/?

Very timidly I walked up and said “excuse me Archbishop I’m sorry to bother you. May I ask you a question?”

He smiled and said “of course my friend”

8/?

I asked archbishop #DesmondTutu “I’m from the United States. In my country, love between two men is considered evil and unholy. South Africa has recognized gay marriage since the 1990s. Part of me still believes. How do you reconcile faith and love?”

9/?

In response to my question he says “My child. There is nothing more holy and the love between two humans. No matter what man may say”

Of course I start crying uncontrollably. Years of southern etiquette fall away, and tears roll down my cheeks…

10/?

All I can say is “thank you sir”

This man that was closer to God than anyone I had ever met in my life just told me that I am not evil, and afterwards follows up by telling me “God still loves you”

11/?

Archbishop #DesmondTutu told me it’s ok to be gay after I had heard years of small minded preachers say I was going to hell.

12/?

I still believe because of him. This is my big Gay testimony, and this is me relating the first and only true religious experience I have ever had in my life.

13/?

Archbishop Tutu helped me reconcile my love and my faith in only a few words. He undid years of indoctrination in the span of one coffee klatch.

14/?

I would not be the proud gay man I am today, or the healer I am today without the simple words for a few minutes I got from Archbishop Tutu.

Only a few days after his death, I want everyone to know how he helped save me.

15/?

To hear someone I regarded as next to God say that God loved me and intentionally made me gay changed everything.

The self-loathing almost evaporated. The closet opened wide. I felt free.

16/?

If he was alive he probably wouldn’t recognize me, or remotely remember this encounter. For me though, even the brief exchange was life-altering.

I was loved. I was blessed. I was accepted.

17/?

I don’t have a good way to close this thread. My only hope is that each of us is able to have this profound and magnificent effects on someone else’s life even just once in our own life.

Love each other. Bless each other. Remove hate from each other.

End.