Chapter 7: My Life

“Old Fashioned Jesus Values” was the headline to the cover story of the Dallas Morning News’ Metro section. However, the headline of the online version offered more provocative click bait by reading “Black Gay Pastor at White Straight Church.” Although the story was featuring my church’s gun control advocacy (we placed 96 crosses, crescent moons, and Stars of David on our front lawn to represent the 96 persons who are killed daily by gun violence), the reporter seemed much more interested in my race and sexual identity along with the racial and political context of the church I served.

Indeed, I was a Black, openly gay pastor serving a local and traditional United Church of Christ congregation that was none of the above. It also happened to be, as the journalist pointed out, in the most Republican district of all Dallas County and within an affluent neighborhood whose most famous neighbor was former President George W. Bush. So, what, he asked, was I doing there?