Praise the Lord and pass the menu, please
In Indiana Bible Belt, restaurant-church catering to gays
By Ron Grossman
Tribune reporter
June 1, 2008
LA PORTE, Ind. — Some first-time visitors to Holy Macaroni pass through an entrance hall separating its sanctuary and dining room, glance at a display of local newspaper notices, turn on their heels and leave.
Apparently they weren't prepared to find the buildind contains not only the Italian restaurant but a gay-friendly church, both of them
operated by co-chefs, co-pastors and lovers Randy Duncan and Daniel Wright.
....
The religious side of the enterprise is the New Life Community Church of Hope, a "gay-affirming" Christian ministry that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Sunday services here, which draw about 40 to 50 people, show that when Duncan left the United Pentecostal Church he took with him the denomination's enthusiastic approach to prayer. These are foot-stomping, hand-waving events accompanied by an electric organ, keyboard piano and a full set of drums.
The congregation is based on the premise that gay men and women could be spared the pain its pastors knew in other, more conservative religious groups.
.....
Duncan says he had crushes on boys from the age of 10 or 11 but tried to live a heterosexual life, in part because of his strong religious beliefs. He married twice, became a father and was ordained in the United Pentecostal Church.
Eventually, however, Duncan said the tension between his sexual identity and the denomination's condemnation of homosexuality became untenable, and in 1996 he divorced his wife and left his pastorate.
.....
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-holy-macaroni_bd01jun01,0,5713402.story
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