Venn-Brown to spread gospel of acceptance

Freedon 2 B[e] co-founder Anthony Venn-Brown has started a program to reach out to mainstream churches, offering advice on how to foster acceptance of gay and lesbian Christians.

Venn-Brown, a former Pentecostal minister, has written to a number of Australian churches offering his services as a consultant on ways to welcome gays and lesbians into the church. The offer has already been accepted by two major Pentecostal churches in Melbourne.

Providing guidance on issues of morality, theology and the specific needs of gay and lesbian worshippers, Venn-Brown said education is the key.

The people in the church are not the problem, ignorance is the problem, he told Sydney Star Observer.

There are churches that have done the transition among their leadership -” they just have to transition among their congregation. That’s a juggling act, because if it’s not handled properly, the congregations polarise.

So it’s very much about how can I assist with documentation, appropriate language, etc, to minimise that polarisation.

Venn-Brown described the transition to acceptance as a journey which he can help people along.

It’s about questioning. With people who don’t think that gay Christians exist, I would start questioning their knowledge about sexual orientation -” what they’re aware of from both a scientific perspective and a theological one, because people who are holding on to a traditional view that homosexuality is a sin, obviously don’t understand that it’s an orientation, not an abomination.

info: Anthony Venn-Brown is the author of A Life of Unlearning: A Journey to Find The Truth. He is also a professional life coach.