By Mark Ellis, Special to ASSIST News Service
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - October 14, 2015)
-- When he was two-years-old his university-professor parents divorced
and his father and mother entered the gay lifestyle. His lesbian mom and
her partner took him to gay pride parades, LGBT clubs, parties and
campouts, while his father remained “closeted” for several years.
“Mom was a political activist,” says Caleb Kaltenbach, author of Messy Grace
(Waterbrook Press). At gay pride parades, Caleb witnessed Christian
demonstrators spray homosexual marchers with water and urine.
When he asked his mom why they were doing this, she said: “Because Christians hate gay people.”
As a result, Caleb wanted nothing to do with Christianity or God.
In
high school, a friend invited him to a Bible study and he accepted with
ulterior motives. “I thought I would pretend to be a Christian, learn
about Christianity, and dismantle their arguments,” he recalls.
He had attended a mainline
denominational church with his father sporadically, but was bored by it
and didn’t understand the liturgy. “They never discussed God, only
social issues,” he notes.
So when he grabbed a Bible off
his dad’s shelf and went to the Bible study, he didn’t realize there was
a difference between the Old and New Testaments. Confused when they
asked him to read a verse from 1st Corinthians, he began reading from
1st Chronicles.
“I was so embarrassed, but I
wouldn’t let these Christians get me down,” Caleb says. He had lumped
this group of believers in with the angry demonstrators he saw in the
street.
But something amazing happened when he began to read the Bible for himself.
Photo captions: 1) Caleb and his family. 2) Book coverMORE
About the writer: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com,
a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church
around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.
You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar