New Life Church hero says she was asked to leave because she's gay

Thanks. Her own words show her to be very confused about what it means to be a Christian, and her relationship to the Word of God. Also, that she doesn't really understand the meaning of the words she uses, and looks to pass off blame for her trouble to others, be it her Church trying to teach her the Word of God, or a reporter for apparently accurately conveying what she said.
Here is an interesting paragraph in her own words:
I shared with the audience at this private event that I, too, had been hurt by the leadership at my church, but I did not go into any detail other than letting them know it was made very clear to me, and believe me it was, that I was no longer wanted or needed at New Life after they found out I am gay.
She went to a group. She publicly said her leadership hurt her, and that they made it "very clear to me", that she was not wanted by the church.
Then, she blames the reporter for making this public, because she thinks THAT is what makes this a story. She was apparently FINE with trashing her church and it's leadership in private, but is upset that someone took her public words at a "private" event and published them for the rest of us to see.
Now, where in HER Bible is she told that it is OK to accuse her Christian brethren of behaving badly in front of outsiders, while trying to hide the accusations from them? Rembmer, this isn't a spur of the moment thing she said, NOR is this just a thoughtless response. Her words at the event were PREPARED by her, and her words in this web site were written by her in her own time.

That of course is bunk. Her church, according to her, believes homosexuality is a sin; she doesn't, and it seems clear from what she wrote that she interprets her church's refusal to accept her sin as acceptable is what drove her away from the church.

You make some very good points. I guess even heros are not perfect.

Straight or Lesbian, it matters not to me.””

Correction: The words are normal, not straight as defined by homosexuals, for a sexually dimorphic species and homosexual to describe the mentally deranged condition. Would it matter to you if they were pederastic, a condition ingrained in the male homosexual lifestyle? The mentally deranged have no business in law enforcement. Stop buying the marketing of deviance; this isn’t hollywood.

I say gay or straight because I am using the same terms I would use to them in person at work or at school.

It's social convention and the way we are trained to adress certain people, not a moral judgement one way or the other.

Thanks for posting that. Not that it will make some of these folks drop the stones they're holding....
A few notes.
First, it looks like I was right to caution folks about the role of Gazette columnist Barry Noreen in this story.
Second, even if we account for the certainty that Ms. Assam is putting the best possible face on her side of the story, it seems quite clear that something really did happen at New Life, related to her role at the church and her homosexuality. I believe her claim that she was deeply hurt by the episode.

And finally, if we believe that even some of Assam's story is true, Pastor Boyd's quoted response looks less than forthright. (Remembering again that Mr. Noreen may not have provided full context, either in his questions to Boyd, or in his depiction of Boyd's response.)

It does sound like the reporter was trying to stir things up a bit.

The impression I get is that both are putting some spin on their own versions of the story to show themselves in the best possible light.

The tell for me is that neither are being really very specific in exactly what was said.

Probably was a bit of an emotional exchange or events that neither side wants to go into details about, I would guess...

I just didn't like seeing what looked to me like Jeanne Assam's character being insulted and derided after her heroic act of confronting the armed man with the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle armed only with her 9mm pistol and saving all those people in the New Life church.

But then again, maybe heros are not perfect either. None of us are.

I hope that God intervenes and helps her get right with Him.

I think we all agree that she left the church because of her sinful actions, and I presume because her church refused to accept her sinful actions as proper.
Well, that's just simplistic to the point of priggishness. If people were made of Legos, I suppose you could build a nice story like that. Real life is a lot messier.
And yet I see nothing in that story that in any way contradicts what the Pastor said.
Except that he left out a few details about the events in question, didn't he? (In Mr. Noreen's telling, at any rate -- see? He's still important here.) Boyd makes it seem like Ms. Assam is lying -- her story is "absolutely untrue." No suggestion that anything actually might have caused her to leave, no indication that something went on between them.... Just the flat statement that she's not telling the truth. Which is just a little dishonest, don't you think?

I don't give Ms. Assam a free pass on this; I think she stretched the truth. But she's not the only one whose story needs to be taken with a grain of salt. New Life's pastor, Barry Noreen, and a bunch of stone-throwers on this thread need to be called out as well.

It probably was a lot messier. I can only guess. Maybe things got more than a bit emotional and some things got said that are now regretted. Maybe she got shunned and avoided by the other church members instead of being told to leave. Maybe she was told that she could no longer be part of the security team. Who knows. Whatever the true story is and the exact details are, it probably was a bit messy.

I don't think anyone is perfect. Without knowing her in person, there is no telling if she is a quiet person who keeps to herself, or someone with a lot of other issues.

I had just asked a few questions about a week ago about lesbians on the police force. Seems there is a lot of drama oftentimes going on in their lives. Most of the time under the surface, but apparently sometimes it boils over.

I guess being homosexual, either gay or lesbian, is very stressful on a person even with the current level of acceptance of gays and lebians in society.

I guess with two women (or two men) the proper emotional balance that God designed for the relationship between a man and a woman, is not there where the two partners are the same sex.

I guess that's why most churches suggest people who are not attracted to the opposite sex lead celebate lives rather than hooking up with a same sex partner.

I guess the emotional differences that draws a man and a woman together and sustains them in a relationship works against the two partners in a same sex relationship.

Kind of like the + and - minus electrical charges of atomic particles or the North and South poles of two bar magnets. The opposites attract but two of the same polarity push away. Kind of a simple example that really isn't exactly biological but I do think that God sometimes leaves little clues in his design of creation as to how he thinks.

Aside from all that, whatever the actual facts are, I do hope that God intervenes and touches her heart and heals her hurt and shows her the way of what His path is for her. I wish her all the best.

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