Pastor Adam Phillips believes in a theology that welcomes the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. However, for thousands of years the church has believed that the Bible teaches homosexuality is a sin, and going against that theological history was something Phillips could not get himself to do for a long time, ensuring he kept quiet about his personal beliefs that contradicted traditional church teachings.
However, Phillips has now decided to come out publicly with his views, and has attacked his former denomination which subscribed to the traditional teachings of Christianity. He has claimed that many others in his former denomination also feel the way he does, and that they all experience "intense fear" at holding liberal personal beliefs that go against long-held church teachings.
"That's how intense the fear was for me in my former denomination, and for so many of my friends and colleagues who remain," he wrote on the Huffington Post. "We were not allowed to preside over same-sex weddings, for one, even though many of us either affirmed or secretly presided over them for years. You wouldn't want a photo of you attending such a gay-affirming event to pop up on Facebook for fear of losing your job. Marching around with an apology on my chest at the Pride Parade? Well, that was the most unfathomable thing of all."
Phillips recently joined a Pride Parade, describing: "Walking down Burnside Avenue, I realized this was not your typical Sunday stroll. I wore my red church pastoral stole (symbolising the season of Pentecost) and carried that poster in front of me for everyone to see."
The poster Phillips carried was one condemning Christians who have been "judgmental, deceptive, manipulative" and who "denied rights and equality" to those in the LGBTQ community "in the name of God". He did not make it clear whether he was attacking all Christians who believe in the traditional teachings that homosexuality is a sin, or whether he was rebuking a particular group of Christians he knew who had committed specific acts to "manipulate" people to deny "rights and equality" from people.
"As a Christian I AM SORRY for the narrow-minded, judgmental, deceptive, manipulative actions of those who denied rights & equality to so many in the name of God."
Phillips stated that he believes no one deserves to be "denigrated" in the name of God, although he did not address whether he believed Christians were denigrating people simply by having faith in what they believe God identifies as sin in the Bible.
Regardless, Phillips went on to describe how people at the Pride Parade greeted and cheered him for his support: "People began to cheer. Many asked me to slow down so they could take a picture. Some wiped away tears and simply mouthed 'thank you,' or 'I accept your apology.' For the next few miles, cheers and cameras and tears greeted us everywhere we went. I was grateful I was wearing sunglasses, because there were a few moments when I simply welled up with tears and couldn't handle it anymore."
