Zerbie, we are totally on the same page. So many people would at least be open minded about LGBT issues if they hadn't been scared to death of it at church. Ironically, most of them probably know of a gay family member. That's what really makes it sad. The preacher tells them Uncle Bobby, whom they adored, is a child molestor who is going to hell.
Vanessa, your comments remind me that ministerial authority is a queer thing (pun intended). There are so many (in my experience more than half!) who abuse that authority that it scares me! I used to think it was only fundamentalists & uneducated clergy but I now know that is NOT true. I have seen liberal pastors lie, cheat, & steal and justify it all. After 7 years in ministry, I have learned to begin with the assumption that a minister is a sinner capable of anything as awful as anyone else, myself included, and that trust is something to be built, not automatically given just because of ordination or seminary graduation.
We clergy are cracked vessels at best. It helps that I was raised a strict Calvinist! That doctrine of total depravity is too true in this profession!
