Grandma takes a stand against anti-gay pastor

[heightsyankee]

I love this so much because my own grandmother made a speech at her Catholic Monday CLub (monthly Catholic woman's lunch), comparing not allowing gays to marry to how immigrants were not allowed to easily assimilate when moving to the US. While all of women in her Club were definitely white, most, if not all, were 1st generation. Their parents all came here after WWI.

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The story of one courageous grandmother, who reportedly stood up to a church pastor who outed a young gay man during mass, is touching hearts across the Internet.

The story was first posted to social news site Reddit by user BMMiller10. Though the Redditor actually wrote about the incident several months ago, the post only recentlyrose to the top of the r/lgbt subreddit this week, according to Gay Star News.

The 20-year-old BMMiller10 writes that he wanted to post the story because it made him both happy, sad and proud of his grandmother, who took a public stand against the homophobic preachings of her longtime pastor. Apparently, she had been pretty conservative in the past, but her opinions of the LGBT community began to change after BMMiller10 came out to her.

Here's what happened in her church, according to BMMiller10:

A kid that attends the church and is in high school is gay, and apparently his parents wrote to the pastor asking what should be done about this. The pastor took the letter the parents wrote, and read it to the entire congregation, outed the kid, and told everyone that they would "work together to address this problem of homosexuality."

My grandmother stood up at this point, said "There are a lot of problems here, and him being gay is not one of them." She apologized to the boy, then walked out the door. She just got back from turning in all the stuff she was responsible for for the church's yard sale and Bible School activities.

The young man goes on to say that the pastor was furious at his grandmother, but that she held firm.

Queerty notes that while it may seem like a "small thing" to the Redditor, it's these "small things" that "lead to big changes and BMMiller10 is certainly lucky to have a nana who’ll not only stand up for him, but for others and what she believes in."

This story is in wonderful contrast the stories of other LGBT youth who have come out to family members only to face rejection. In September HuffPost blogger Mikey Roxwrote about such an experience in a blog post, titled "How I Lost My Grandmother to God and Being Gay."

[sporky]

Good for Grandma. What a pitiful excuse of a pastor. Seriously, who reads some parishioner's letter addressing a personal matter to the entire congregation?

[Velar Fricative]

Go Grandma!

[Anne Blythe]

Feb 6, 2013 12:47:10 GMT -5 sporky said:

Good for Grandma. What a pitiful excuse of a pastor. Seriously, who reads some parishioner's letter addressing a personal matter to the entire congregation?

Unfortunately, a lot of pastors I have had experience with or know of from friends, especially here in super-conservative Texas, have done similar things. I was publicly humiliated from the pulpit and ostracized from my church home after I broke my "No-sex-before-marriage" vow, right before I turned 18, and I'm not the only kid I know who went through this. This sort of behavior is not surprising to me.

The grandma's response, however, is a happy and welcome change from the usual. Brava, grandma!

[NitaX]

Feb 6, 2013 13:03:31 GMT -5 Anne Blythe said:

Feb 6, 2013 12:47:10 GMT -5 sporky said:

Good for Grandma. What a pitiful excuse of a pastor. Seriously, who reads some parishioner's letter addressing a personal matter to the entire congregation?

Unfortunately, a lot of pastors I have had experience with or know of from friends, especially here in super-conservative Texas, have done similar things. I was publicly humiliated from the pulpit and ostracized from my church home after I broke my "No-sex-before-marriage" vow, right before I turned 18, and I'm not the only kid I know who went through this. This sort of behavior is not surprising to me.

The grandma's response, however, is a happy and welcome change from the usual. Brava, grandma!

Something similar happened to a friend of mine at her old church. She was barred from singing in the church choir because she was pregnant and having a baby out of wedlock.

Good for Grandma. I don't quite understand public shaming under the guise of "the Lord." If you want to believe it's a sin, fine, do that believe what you want, but that does not give you the right to publicly humiliate and bully someone. 

[laurenpetro]

Feb 6, 2013 13:03:31 GMT -5 Anne Blythe said:

Feb 6, 2013 12:47:10 GMT -5 sporky said:

Good for Grandma. What a pitiful excuse of a pastor. Seriously, who reads some parishioner's letter addressing a personal matter to the entire congregation?

Unfortunately, a lot of pastors I have had experience with or know of from friends, especially here in super-conservative Texas, have done similar things. I was publicly humiliated from the pulpit and ostracized from my church home after I broke my "No-sex-before-marriage" vow, right before I turned 18, and I'm not the only kid I know who went through this. This sort of behavior is not surprising to me.

The grandma's response, however, is a happy and welcome change from the usual. Brava, grandma!

holy shit!  REALLY?

it's times like that where my big mouth would have been perfect for.  i would have jumped up after he mentioned it, yelled "HELL YEAH!  AND IT WAS AWESOME!" and walked out.

there is nothing that pisses me off more than unchristian-like behavior in church. 

[AJL]

This is awesome! Good for her.

[Anne Blythe]

Feb 6, 2013 13:14:34 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

Feb 6, 2013 13:03:31 GMT -5 Anne Blythe said:

Unfortunately, a lot of pastors I have had experience with or know of from friends, especially here in super-conservative Texas, have done similar things. I was publicly humiliated from the pulpit and ostracized from my church home after I broke my "No-sex-before-marriage" vow, right before I turned 18, and I'm not the only kid I know who went through this. This sort of behavior is not surprising to me.

The grandma's response, however, is a happy and welcome change from the usual. Brava, grandma!

holy shit!  REALLY?

it's times like that where my big mouth would have been perfect for.  i would have jumped up after he mentioned it, yelled "HELL YEAH!  AND IT WAS AWESOME!" and walked out.

there is nothing that pisses me off more than unchristian-like behavior in church. 

Nowadays, I would do the same. At the time, I belonged to an almost-cult-like church that had brainwashed me from a young age. I didn't have enough sense of self-worth to stand up for myself. It was terrible.

[IIOY]

Go Grandma!

(I don't get to say that often)

[Velvetshady]

:Y: :Y: :Y: for Grandma

:N: for the parents

^o) for the paster

[thejackpot]

What a slime ball pastor. That poor kid who did nothing to deserve to be treated like that & good for the grandma.

[meshaliuknits]

AJL I love your siggie pic so very much!

[AJL]

I love me some Tim Gunn!

[soozy87]

How lovely!

[2vermont]

I would agree that what this pastor did was wrong.  However, I don't see names of any of the people (including the pastor) or the church.  Did I miss it?