{"id":935,"date":"2014-05-03T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T13:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulstanley.org\/blog\/?p=935"},"modified":"2014-05-03T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T13:42:08","slug":"a-letter-to-ellen-page-about-her-coming-out-and-what-i-wished-that-weirdo-pastor-on-the-plane-would-have-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/03\/a-letter-to-ellen-page-about-her-coming-out-and-what-i-wished-that-weirdo-pastor-on-the-plane-would-have-said\/","title":{"rendered":"A Letter to Ellen Page About Her \u2018Coming Out\u2019 and What I Wished that Weirdo Pastor on the Plane Would Have Said"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Note: Over the past year and a half I&#8217;ve gotten to know Matt Moore. He is a guy in his early twenties who has struggled with same-sex attraction but has a true heart for Jesus. In addition to being a great guy, he is an incredible writer and I am anxious to see his story in print one day. In the meantime, I thought I would share a post Matt wrote yesterday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ellen Page\u2014most commonly known as Juno, \u2014burst out of the closet in her emotional speech at a Human Rights Campaign event supporting LGBTQ youth in February. I watched her speech a few days later. She was bold\u2026 yet vulnerable. It truly was emotionally stirring. For years Ellen lived in the spotlight of Hollywood, but made note to keep her attraction to women out of that spotlight. If I remember her speech correctly, she said she felt she needed to \u201cbe\u201d a certain way in order to attain a successful acting career, etc. But over time hiding this part of herself grew to be a tiresome ordeal\u2026. and on February 14th, in front of multitudes, she came out as gay.<\/p>\n<p>I remember my own coming out. I remember the tremendous amount of freedom that came with the release of my biggest, darkest secret. The secret that I had always been so ashamed of. The secret that I had sworn to myself I would never let be discovered. Like Ellen Page, I eventually got to a point where I was just beyond done hiding this part of myself. I was done with pretending to like girls. I was done with trying to date girls. I was done with overanalyzing every conversation and interaction I had that I thought could lead to someone questioning my sexuality. Coming out was the best thing that I ever did in the first 20 years of my life. To this day, I am glad I came out. I believe I am where I am today in part, because I decided to be real with myself and everyone else about who I really was.<\/p>\n<p>About a month after Ellen\u2019s coming out speech, she shared on her twitter account that while on a plane, a pastor slipped her a little note. The note said, \u201cWhile God thinks it\u2019s lovely that you stood up for your beliefs, perhaps you\u2019ve never had the loving arms of a father.\u201d And then he signed it, \u201cYour Heavenly Daddy.\u201d\u2026..lol. He really did.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s all just go ahead and have a virtual vomit over that.<\/p>\n<p>Ellen responded to the note, on twitter, saying \u201c2 da pastor who wrote me-Being gay isn\u2019t a belief. My soul isn\u2019t struggling &amp; I don\u2019t want arms of Heavenly Father around me. A girls arms? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I remember the ooey-gooey things I would hear from Christians after I came out. Things similar to what Ellen heard from the \u201cYour Heavenly Daddy\u201d weirdo she met on the plane. I was well aware that many religious people thought my life was wrong\u2026. and thought that I, as a human being, was wrong. Wired wrongly. Or something. My perception of the Church was a group of people who wanted to diagnose me and then tell me to do something I couldn\u2019t do\u2014to stop being gay. I couldn\u2019t do that. And it angered me that I would even be asked to attempt it.<\/p>\n<p>So Ellen, if you ever read this &#8211; which I doubt you will &#8211; but whatever &#8211; I get where you are. I\u2019ve been there. But I\u2019m not there anymore. I am attracted to the same sex, yes, but I am a believer in Christ. I know the weirdo pastor on the plane had good intentions in giving you his note. But he was off. Way off. So please let me try to say what I wish he would have said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dear Ellen,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>God loves you. You are created in his likeness, you bear his image, and He loves you. He really loves you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/a-letter-to-ellen-page-about-her-coming-out-and-what-i-wished-that-weirdo-pastor-on-the-plane-would-have-said-119002\/\">here<\/a> to read the rest of Matt&#8217;s letter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ellen Page\u2014most commonly known as Juno, \u2014burst out of the closet in her emotional speech at a Human Rights Campaign event supporting LGBTQ youth in February. I watched her speech a few days later. She was bold\u2026 yet vulnerable. 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