Church Outings...

There are parts of this story that are completely funny and some that are very tragic. I encourage all people who are in this situation to get to know God for yourself. The love of Jesus The Christ has nothing to do with this situation...

Choir Member on Outing Spree Hits DC Baptist Church

A female choir member at the D.C. Greater Mount
Calvary Holy Church has sent a letter to its pastor,
outing over 100 church members, mostly male members of
the choir, the Washington Blade reports:

Outing"The outings added to the inner turmoil
experienced by a large number of gays who attend
services at the 7,000-member Greater Mount Calvary
Holy Church, located on Rhode Island Ave., N.E.,
according to a gay former member who provided copies
of the e-mails to the Blade. 'I will be leaving the
choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the
tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in
choir rehearsal than I do,' the church choir member
said in one of her e-mails to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr.,
the church pastor. The e-mail, sent in December,
identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay. She
sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying
another 62 church members as gay. 'The following
people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my
prayer is that you will sit them down from their
ministries,' she told Owens in the December e-mail.
'Because they are ushering in the presence of sin,
lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits.'"

The female choir member also copied the email to over
300 additional church members on a Yahoo group.

The pastor would likely be sympathetic to her
concerns, given his past: "Owens became the subject of
media attention in April 2006 when he used the word
'fag' in a sermon on Palm Sunday. 'It takes real men
to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior,' Owens said in
the sermon, which was recorded by the church. 'I’m not
talking about no faggot or no sissy,' he said. 'Let
the real men come down here and take a bow — all the
real men. I’m talking about straight men … praise God
that you’re straight.' The church’s web site includes
a listing of twice-monthly sessions of a ministry
called 'Breaking the Chains of Homosexuality,' which
it says helps gays change their sexual orientation
through counseling and prayer. Minister Dennis
Sawyers, an expert in 'ex-gay' ministries, is listed
as the leader of the church’s efforts to counsel
gays."

Sylvia Rhue, director of the National Black Justice
Coalition’s religious affairs program said that many
gays attend that church because they like the
"traditional setting" they find there. A setting,
which, at this particular church, is now in turmoil.

{The Choir Pictured Above Is Not Affiliated With The Church In The Story}