Making Sense of Scripture and the Salvation Army as a Gay Person Called to Officership
Some of my first memories of prayer are from a time I barely knew God. In fact, I may not have known Him at all. I remember the scene vividly. In my pre and early teens I would kneel at my bed and pray the same prayer: “God, if you’re out there, please make me normal... just for one day”. Tears would roll down my face as I begged God to take from me whatever it was that made me different, that made me think the way I did, talk the way I did, walk the way I did and most importantly, whatever it was that made the other boys so viciously and mercilessly abuse me each day. Why did God make me this way, why wouldn’t He take from me what people kept telling me was so bad – at school, in the street, on the TV – why wouldn’t He stop me having the filth, the abomination, the whatever it was that made me a faggot, a poofter, a gay. I went a long time thinking that God either didn’t exist or couldn’t answer my prayer.
Captain Kris Halliday
Prepared for the Thought Matters Conference 29-31 August 2014
