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Don't Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy D. Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches
Today the Metropolitan Community Church--the first to minister to the needs of lesbians and gay men--boasts over 200 congregations in nine countries. But, for Troy Perry, excommunicated from the Church of God because of his homosexuality, this achievement has been marked by a struggle against adversity. Here is his inspiring story. Photographs.
355 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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July 3, 2024
A FRANK, FORTHRIGHT, AND ENLIGHTENING STORY OF REV. PERRY AND THE MCC
Troy Deroy Perry Jr. (born 1940) is the founder of the Metropolitan Community Church.
He recounts in the first chapter of this 1990 book that after the death of his father (when he and his four younger brothers were all under the age of 12), “my mother… felt compelled to marry again. Her new suitor, aware of the ample estate left for Mother to manage, hastily offered his help… It quickly became apparent, but only to us, that our stepfather was a terrible man… after my father’s demise, I felt drawn toward religious meetings considerably more than ever before. I urgently needed to fill the paternal void, and never having had a relationship with my mother that encouraged discussion, I substituted talking to God for talks I had previously enjoyed with my father.” (Pg. 4)
He was also sexually molested by a supposed “brother” of his stepfather: “he forced pain into my body. I am certain it mattered not to him whether I was male or female… I was afraid if this was a punishment conceived by my stepfather, any immediate response on my part might result in no end of the two men’s awful misdeeds. I lay awake until shortly before dawn when the Lord took pity on me… In the morning, my physical hurt remained, but it was nothing compared with the lingering mental agony that I suffered.” (Pg. 7)
Later, “my sexual development was maturing in the same non-exclusive direction as my religion… I felt an ever increasing desire to be physically close with boys, yet part of me sought the social approval of being with girls… an attraction toward two sexes was, and for a number of years would continue to be, troublesome and very disturbing… I became a paid evangelist, traveling throughout Alabama… Perhaps that was another reason why I was attracted to a fundamentalist church. I was trying to keep the lid on a pressure cooker as far as my inescapable sexuality was concerned… My lack of understanding concerning love also applied to a handsome lad who was well entrenched in the congregation of my prospective father-in-law. While dating Pearl, I was, nevertheless, occasionally closer to the always available young man… Meanwhile, I fell in love with my wife.” (Pg. 14-15)
Not long after he was married, his district coordinator became aware of his situation, and excommunicated him: “My fall from grace had been so sudden. The horrible thing was that when I most needed the church, it was not there to help me. When my entire being cried out for compassion, the hierarchy was sanctimonious instead.” (Pg. 18) His wife stayed with him, and “It seemed like Divine Intervention that night when the couple asked me to come to their church… it was highly unlikely that the Church of God of Prophecy would ever learn from the Church of God that I had been accused of being homosexual. In an instant, I realized my ministry would continue.” (Pg. 22) But eventually, his new bishop found out, and ordered, “‘I want you to get up and tell them you feel like you’ve failed the Lord.’ I agreed… I had little fear of him. I was experienced. I had been run out of town before.” (Pg. 25)
He was drafted into the army, where a young [straight] black man who was his best friend told him, “It’s your business if you want to keep going to that church, but you’re gay and they really don’t want you… Troy, why don’t you think about starting your own church?... THAT would make sense!” (Pg. 27-28) After finishing his stint with the Army, a friend told him, “Listen, Troy, you ARE a homosexual. You will ALWAYS be a homosexual until the day you die. God knows that you are a homosexual. God made you the way that you are, and God loves! Nothing you or I can do will change it!” He thought, “Madeline Nelson would tell me that God had put me here on earth for some special purpose, but God had yet to reveal the plan.” (Pg. 30)
He prayed, “‘Lord, you called me to preach. Now I think I’ve seen my niche in the ministry. We need a church, not a homosexual church, but a special church that will reach out to the lesbian and gay community. A church for people in trouble, and for people that just want to be near you. So, if you want such a church started, and you seem to keep telling me that you do, well then, just let me know when?’ Whereupon, I received my answer to an impossible dream. A still, small voice in my mind’s ear spoke, and the voice said, ‘Now.’” (Pg. 35)
He points out, “In my entire Bible I counted 362 admonitions concerning sexual behavior between men and women, and many of those passages were never mentioned by holier-than-thou preachers. On the subject of homosexuality, however, I could find only a total of six references in the entire Bible. With the exception of two graphic verses in the Old Testament (which every bigoted, antigay preacher this side of the eternal fires has committed to memory), there is nothing to rival the biblical condemnations of adultery, lust, or other prohibited acts committed by heterosexual sex fiends in or out of the ministry of the ‘moral’ majority! By sheer weight of numbers, 6 versus 362, you can see who God was worried about!” (Pg. 39)
He continues, “I began comparing things I had heard preached in the churches with what I actually found in the Bible… I discovered… the verses [in Leviticus] also said [capital punishment] in reference to witches and wizards… Did that mean fortune-tellers should be stoned to death?... I said to myself, ‘…if we Christians are going to blindly accept some parts of the Bible, then we have to take them all! You must consider that there are scriptures which say clearly that it is an abomination to … wear cotton and linen at the same time. There are scriptures which state clearly that you may not eat shrimp, lobster, oysters, or have your steak cooked too rare.’” (Pg. 39-40)
He notes, “We, too, like heterosexuals, have outlaws who commit crimes---crimes we abhor! But because there are ten times as many heterosexuals in this world as there are homosexuals, ten times more criminal actions, including crimes against innocent boys and girls, are in fact committed by nonhomosexual individuals from the so-called straight community! The most prevalent abuses of children are felonious acts of incest in which a heterosexual father exerts parental pressure and takes full sexual advantage of his daughter. This is a REAL problem!” (Pg. 143)
He explains, “I have never prayed to receive my visions, and have always been careful not to let Metropolitan Community Church be perceived as anything other than what it is: intellectually and emotionally honest. By the same token, I believe it would be unfair to all of us to withhold genuine religious experiences that have stimulated our movement.” (Pg. 161)
In the MCC’s application letter for membership in the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., they stated, “It is our acceptance of homosexuality as a gift from God in the same way that heterosexuality is a gift from God that arouses fear, anger and hatred in some of our sisters and brothers. It is our affirmation of God’s love for ALL people, including homosexuals, that upsets people. It is our theological understanding, based on careful Biblical scholarship, that God does not condemn homosexuality per se anywhere in the Holy Scriptures that people seize upon to condemn us. What infuriates some people is our assertion that the traditional interpretations of scriptures to condemn homosexuality are as incorrect and invalid as the old interpretations of scriptures which permitted the holding of slaves and the subjugation of black people.” (Pg. 235) [Their application WAS approved.]
This book is absolutely “must reading” for anyone interested in the issue of LGBTQ people and the church.
Troy Deroy Perry Jr. (born 1940) is the founder of the Metropolitan Community Church.
He recounts in the first chapter of this 1990 book that after the death of his father (when he and his four younger brothers were all under the age of 12), “my mother… felt compelled to marry again. Her new suitor, aware of the ample estate left for Mother to manage, hastily offered his help… It quickly became apparent, but only to us, that our stepfather was a terrible man… after my father’s demise, I felt drawn toward religious meetings considerably more than ever before. I urgently needed to fill the paternal void, and never having had a relationship with my mother that encouraged discussion, I substituted talking to God for talks I had previously enjoyed with my father.” (Pg. 4)
He was also sexually molested by a supposed “brother” of his stepfather: “he forced pain into my body. I am certain it mattered not to him whether I was male or female… I was afraid if this was a punishment conceived by my stepfather, any immediate response on my part might result in no end of the two men’s awful misdeeds. I lay awake until shortly before dawn when the Lord took pity on me… In the morning, my physical hurt remained, but it was nothing compared with the lingering mental agony that I suffered.” (Pg. 7)
Later, “my sexual development was maturing in the same non-exclusive direction as my religion… I felt an ever increasing desire to be physically close with boys, yet part of me sought the social approval of being with girls… an attraction toward two sexes was, and for a number of years would continue to be, troublesome and very disturbing… I became a paid evangelist, traveling throughout Alabama… Perhaps that was another reason why I was attracted to a fundamentalist church. I was trying to keep the lid on a pressure cooker as far as my inescapable sexuality was concerned… My lack of understanding concerning love also applied to a handsome lad who was well entrenched in the congregation of my prospective father-in-law. While dating Pearl, I was, nevertheless, occasionally closer to the always available young man… Meanwhile, I fell in love with my wife.” (Pg. 14-15)
Not long after he was married, his district coordinator became aware of his situation, and excommunicated him: “My fall from grace had been so sudden. The horrible thing was that when I most needed the church, it was not there to help me. When my entire being cried out for compassion, the hierarchy was sanctimonious instead.” (Pg. 18) His wife stayed with him, and “It seemed like Divine Intervention that night when the couple asked me to come to their church… it was highly unlikely that the Church of God of Prophecy would ever learn from the Church of God that I had been accused of being homosexual. In an instant, I realized my ministry would continue.” (Pg. 22) But eventually, his new bishop found out, and ordered, “‘I want you to get up and tell them you feel like you’ve failed the Lord.’ I agreed… I had little fear of him. I was experienced. I had been run out of town before.” (Pg. 25)
He was drafted into the army, where a young [straight] black man who was his best friend told him, “It’s your business if you want to keep going to that church, but you’re gay and they really don’t want you… Troy, why don’t you think about starting your own church?... THAT would make sense!” (Pg. 27-28) After finishing his stint with the Army, a friend told him, “Listen, Troy, you ARE a homosexual. You will ALWAYS be a homosexual until the day you die. God knows that you are a homosexual. God made you the way that you are, and God loves! Nothing you or I can do will change it!” He thought, “Madeline Nelson would tell me that God had put me here on earth for some special purpose, but God had yet to reveal the plan.” (Pg. 30)
He prayed, “‘Lord, you called me to preach. Now I think I’ve seen my niche in the ministry. We need a church, not a homosexual church, but a special church that will reach out to the lesbian and gay community. A church for people in trouble, and for people that just want to be near you. So, if you want such a church started, and you seem to keep telling me that you do, well then, just let me know when?’ Whereupon, I received my answer to an impossible dream. A still, small voice in my mind’s ear spoke, and the voice said, ‘Now.’” (Pg. 35)
He points out, “In my entire Bible I counted 362 admonitions concerning sexual behavior between men and women, and many of those passages were never mentioned by holier-than-thou preachers. On the subject of homosexuality, however, I could find only a total of six references in the entire Bible. With the exception of two graphic verses in the Old Testament (which every bigoted, antigay preacher this side of the eternal fires has committed to memory), there is nothing to rival the biblical condemnations of adultery, lust, or other prohibited acts committed by heterosexual sex fiends in or out of the ministry of the ‘moral’ majority! By sheer weight of numbers, 6 versus 362, you can see who God was worried about!” (Pg. 39)
He continues, “I began comparing things I had heard preached in the churches with what I actually found in the Bible… I discovered… the verses [in Leviticus] also said [capital punishment] in reference to witches and wizards… Did that mean fortune-tellers should be stoned to death?... I said to myself, ‘…if we Christians are going to blindly accept some parts of the Bible, then we have to take them all! You must consider that there are scriptures which say clearly that it is an abomination to … wear cotton and linen at the same time. There are scriptures which state clearly that you may not eat shrimp, lobster, oysters, or have your steak cooked too rare.’” (Pg. 39-40)
He notes, “We, too, like heterosexuals, have outlaws who commit crimes---crimes we abhor! But because there are ten times as many heterosexuals in this world as there are homosexuals, ten times more criminal actions, including crimes against innocent boys and girls, are in fact committed by nonhomosexual individuals from the so-called straight community! The most prevalent abuses of children are felonious acts of incest in which a heterosexual father exerts parental pressure and takes full sexual advantage of his daughter. This is a REAL problem!” (Pg. 143)
He explains, “I have never prayed to receive my visions, and have always been careful not to let Metropolitan Community Church be perceived as anything other than what it is: intellectually and emotionally honest. By the same token, I believe it would be unfair to all of us to withhold genuine religious experiences that have stimulated our movement.” (Pg. 161)
In the MCC’s application letter for membership in the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., they stated, “It is our acceptance of homosexuality as a gift from God in the same way that heterosexuality is a gift from God that arouses fear, anger and hatred in some of our sisters and brothers. It is our affirmation of God’s love for ALL people, including homosexuals, that upsets people. It is our theological understanding, based on careful Biblical scholarship, that God does not condemn homosexuality per se anywhere in the Holy Scriptures that people seize upon to condemn us. What infuriates some people is our assertion that the traditional interpretations of scriptures to condemn homosexuality are as incorrect and invalid as the old interpretations of scriptures which permitted the holding of slaves and the subjugation of black people.” (Pg. 235) [Their application WAS approved.]
This book is absolutely “must reading” for anyone interested in the issue of LGBTQ people and the church.
June 29, 2020
Wonderful book about Troy Perry, his life and the creation of the MCC. His writing improves from the first though he does digress and the story beers off a little at points. Still it is very focused and there is less sermonizing and more telling the story and it’s an invitation to his world and perspective.
August 2, 2011
Inspiring, a little rough, worth reading
Read
July 16, 2015261.835 P465 1992
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews