12 September 2010

Lesbian Couple Goes Undercover As Man And Wife At Evangelical Church

Han Nguyen and Ceil Melton
Several years ago, Han Nguyen [a native of Vietnam] and Ceil Melton were lesbian ministers and partners in Austin when they felt called to try and minister in what they called mainstream churches.

... They’d heard about Victory Christian Center ... Nguyen said that the senior pastor, Lee Boss, was well-known for being unfriendly to the LGBT community, she said, and she felt connected to him as someone who had served in Vietnam.

... Their mission was to go undercover with Melton posing as a man to see if the couple would be treated differently as a heterosexual couple in ministry.

... It was successful, Nguyen said. “We loved them and they loved us,” she said. “The leadership took us in right away. They told us secrets they hadn’t revealed to their board of directors. Spiritually, we were able to connect with them because they didn’t have the stumbling block of what we looked like and what our spirits were. We became close with them, they took us out for private luncheons. We ministered in their church. It was the spirit in us that they connected to, not the packages.”

The couple became a part of the church for about four months, they said. They decided that they would reveal who they were and told the congregation that they were going back to Vietnam. “We told people how much we loved them and thanked them for their love,” Nguyen said. “We told them that we were two lesbian ministers of God, and the bodyguards started to rush us and the pastor called them off. He knew cameras were on him. I told him, ‘God is Love, we are not abominations. God created me, God loves my people. We’re here for a reason.’”

Nguyen and Meil made a film about their experience called "The Faith of the Abomination." It debuted today as part of the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival.

Read the entire article in the Austin American-Statesman.

Via Dangerous Minds

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