[img]https://www.sermonindex.net/images/forum/2004/may/featured_news.gif[/img]As a Pentecostal pastor and gay, the Rev. Douglas Clanton doesnt blink when he says, "We absolutely believe the Bible is inerrant."He sees no conflict with that statement and being gay. "They say it like saying you are Republican and gay, which I happen to be also," said Clanton, who is pastor of the Reconciling Pentecostal Assembly in Scottsdale and the co-founder of Reconciling Pentecostals International, which recently held its fourth annual conference in Scottsdale.Some suggest to the 41-yearold minister that its an oxymoron to declare oneself a "Pentecostal homosexual" given the 100-year-old conservative "Holiness" movements uncompromising teachings against homosexuality as sin. But Clanton said when he came to terms with being gay, he wasnt about to dump his deeply held Pentecostal faith. He believes he and the 500 associated with member congregations are living in the spirit of Christs teachings and love. He argues that a "misinterpretation of Scripture" has led to the condemnation of homosexuality."We are all from Pentecostal background, and we say we happen to be gay we are not a gay organization," said Clanton, who earned a degree in theology from Christian Life College in Stockton, Calif., a prime training center for United Pentecostal ministers. The third-generation Pentecostal pastor became a church evangelist at 25 and has been a music director. He and four others began meeting in 1999 and founded Reconciling Pentecostal International the next year. It has 23 licensed pastors. One of them is his mother, the Rev. Gloria Morgan, who is also one of five presbyters on the board and the associate pastor of his Scottsdale church.
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
oh boy, that sure is disheartening.not only that the United pentecostal is a "oneness" church , which is another bucket o worms.