Why a Bible belt conservative spent a year pretending to be gay

[babsbunny]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/13/bible-belt-conservative-year-gay

Timothy Kurek, a graduate of the evangelical Liberty University, decided to 'walk in the shoes' of a gay man and emerged with his faith strengthened

Paul Harris New York

Timothy Kurek grew up hating homosexuality. As a conservative Christian deep in America's Bible belt, he had been taught that being gay was an abomination before God. He went to his right-wing church, saw himself as a soldier for Christ and attended Liberty University, the "evangelical West Point".

But when a Christian friend in a karaoke bar told him how her family had kicked her out when she revealed she was a lesbian, Kurek began to question profoundly his beliefs and religious teaching. Amazingly, the 26-year-old decided to "walk in the shoes" of a gay man in America by pretending to be homosexual.

[NMDemDist2]

1. wow

that was totally unexpected response to his friend coming out.

pretty awesome story

[Ian David]

2. And it wasn't even for a reality TV program?

Oh, wait. He did it to sell a book.

Still, it sounds like something that might do some good.

[bluestate10]

3. The guy was opened minded enough to feel for the gay female that started him on his journey.

He is lucky that he had a support system. I hope that his book sells well and open some eyes among the deeply religious. People don't become gay for kicks, God made them that way.

[MissMarple]

4. So many of these "beliefs" come from a narrow, literalist view of the old testament.

This clip is fairly long but in the beginning he talks about zionist, old testament Christians and their misplaced belief in the old testament laws. He is not happy with the giant supermarket churches that have "marketplaces" so you can by goods, soda and popcorn to take in to view the "entertainment". At about 10:30 minutes in he discusses what Jesus said about keeping his commandments.

"If you love me you will keep my commandments. 1. To love God with all of your heart 2.To love your neighbor as yourself and 3. Let ye have love for one another."

Good stuff even if you are not a practicing Christian. All Saints Monastery in Canada

[mike_c]

5. while I respect what this guy tried to do...

...and applaud him for any lessons he learned, I doubt that he could ever really understand, at a visceral level, the frustration of enduring injustice simply for being what he is. Because he isn't. Social privilege remains a shield, even when others aren't aware of it.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. You are probably right in one sense, but

from the article: "For an entire year Kurek lived "under cover" as a homosexual in his home town of Nashville. He told his family he was gay, as well as his friends and his church." This would have been huge. He stayed in his own hometown, he came out to everyone, including his church.....he would have been treated as if he really were gay by all of these people, and that would be very enlightening.

Yes, he would not have had the true feeling of being different than the norm, having been born with feelings that many in society were telling you were wrong. But I have no doubt that he learned a lot about how gays do face.

From his mother's private journal: "I'd rather have found out from a doctor that I had terminal cancer than I have a gay son."

[WinkyDink]

8. I disagree. One of the greatest such social quests was the subject of "Black Like Me."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me

Black Like Me is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin first published in 1961. Griffin was a white native of Dallas, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia passing as a black man. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles.

Griffin kept a journal of his experiences; the 188-page diary was the genesis of the book.

In 1959, at the time of the book's writing, race relations were particularly strained in America; Griffin's aim was to explain the difficulties facing black people in certain areas. Under the care of a doctor, Griffin artificially darkened his skin to pass as a black man.

In 1964, a film version of Black Like Me starring James Whitmore was produced.[1]

Robert Bonazzi subsequently published the book Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me.

The title of the book is taken from the last line of the Langston Hughes poem "Dream Variations":
Rest at pale evening... A tall slim tree... Night coming tenderly Black like me.

[mike_c]

11. I read BLM while I was in high school....

Thinking about BLM gave me some pause when I wrote my original response, but in the end I rejected that analogy. Both Griffin and the subject of the OP represented themselves as someone they weren't in order to experience life in someone else's shoes, and I agree they were similar in that respect. However, in the end, neither of them was powerless to change their circumstances, and that made both their experiences somewhat removed from the truth experienced by people of color and gay men. Somehow though, and I admit to being less than articulate describing what seems like something of a hunch, it seems to me that one's sexuality so fundamentally establishes one's identity that sexual discrimination is especially cruel. And the knowledge that you can revert to your true self, and lift the illusion of difference, must keep social privilege alive in the back of the mind, a refuge that is ultimately always available when you tire of the charade.

I don't mean to diminish what either of them learned about society. But Griffin darkened his skin-- he experienced racial discrimination because he genuinely became black, at least on the outside (and I'd still argue that his sense of social privilege was intact on the inside, because that is what fueled his personal epiphanies). The subject of the OP never had to deal with the inevitability of his gayness, the naturalness of how he felt about his own sexuality, and bewilderment that others would reject him because of it.

[toddwv]

6. It's amazing when people make the effort

to not only lift the veil of ignorance from their own eyes but everyone else around them too.

[kooljerk666]

9. I usually would not a fundy the time of day........

But this guy and his story brought tears to my eyes.

God bless 'em

[11 Bravo]

10. That is one Hell of a moving story! Thanks for sharing it.