{"id":2115,"date":"2023-08-24T19:19:05","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T19:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/?p=2115"},"modified":"2023-12-15T14:44:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T14:44:05","slug":"radical-heroes-justin-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2023\/08\/24\/radical-heroes-justin-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Lee&#8217;s Struggle as a Gay Man and Devout Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Justin Lee\u2019s Struggle as a Gay Man &amp; Devout Christian\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8SGDAQAlyPU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI was absolutely convinced that you could not be gay and a Christian. In my mind, it was like the diagnosis for a disease.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Justin Lee grew up in a conservative Christian family that taught him being gay was a sin. Eventually, questions about his own sexuality forced him to reconsider everything he thought he knew.<\/p>\n<p>Lee came to terms with being gay but struggled to find a community and no longer felt like he belonged in the church. However, he still held on to his faith.<\/p>\n<p>In college, he organized a dialogue between the evangelical Christian and LGBTQ groups on campus to listen to each other and try to knock down misconceptions they had about one another. When Lee shared his story, he realized that storytelling \u2014 and the curiosity that comes with it for the listener \u2014 is a powerful tool for bridging divides.<\/p>\n<p>Lee continues to host dialogues like that today and focuses on teaching people to apply the principles of strategic conversation to the political, social, and personal causes they care most about. In 2001, Lee founded the Gay Christian Network (later rebranded to Q Christian Fellowship), which serves lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, and straight ally Christians. His first book, Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate, has been widely cited for its role in helping Christian parents understand and accept their LGBTQ kids.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLSLMi25OZFr4xNJJy6gyHpgx-0L0Cb99N\">Radical Heroes<\/a> is a series featuring stories from extraordinary leaders demonstrating curiosity, compassion, and courage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI was absolutely convinced that you could not be gay and a Christian. In my mind, it was like the diagnosis for a disease.\u201d Justin Lee grew up in a conservative Christian family that taught him being gay was a sin. Eventually, questions about his own sexuality forced him to reconsider everything he thought he&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"collection_feed":[79],"type_feed":[72],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Justin Lee&#039;s Struggle as a Gay Man and Devout Christian - Builders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2023\/08\/24\/radical-heroes-justin-lee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Justin Lee&#039;s Struggle as a Gay Man and Devout Christian - Builders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI was absolutely convinced that you could not be gay and a Christian. 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