- 7 minutes ago
Grace Baldridge goes to LA to see what is up with these cultish celebrity megachurches and why some of these churches are not allowing LGBTQ members.
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00:01Welcome home. You belong here. Come as you are.
00:05These are the messages that greet you at Instagrammable megachurches all across Los Angeles.
00:11With services that look more like Coachella than your grandmother's prayer circle,
00:15are the lights and the fog machines clouding the truth?
00:21You may think California is a godless land full of pot smokers and porn stars,
00:26but it's actually home to over 200 of America's nearly 1,700 megachurches,
00:31which is more than any other state in the country.
00:34In an era where Justin Bieber jetsets with his preferred pastors
00:37and Kanye's launched a Sunday service sensation, church has never been cooler.
00:42Let's go to church.
00:43As a hip gay Christian, this should be exciting for me, right?
00:47Well, not exactly.
00:50Ellen Page recently tweeted at Chris Pratt regarding the exclusionary LGBTQ policies
00:54of the church that he attends.
00:56This raised a larger conversation about megachurch transparency toward the queer community.
01:01As Ellen firmly pointed out, the damage this causes is severe.
01:05The fallout from this whole situation was really —
01:08I think that moment was so painful,
01:11like sitting there and having to go through the rest of the service
01:13knowing that we had to be like,
01:15oh, this is not what we thought it was.
01:18Stormi is a wife, a dog mom, and a Christian.
01:23Stormi's faith is actually part of what united her and her wife upon first meeting.
01:27As queer people of faith, they forged a special bond
01:31despite the institutionalized tension surrounding their sexuality.
01:35They emailed a Los Angeles church called Oasis to find out if they'd be welcome there.
01:39And they received a resounding yes.
01:43We do not reject people because of their sexual orientation
01:46or any other kind of issue that they are facing.
01:50Reading it the first time and those first two sentences resounding yes,
01:55all people are welcome, welcome home.
01:57And so you take that sort of at face value?
02:01Of course.
02:02I think we kind of both read that and then skimmed the rest.
02:05Because reading it now, it feels like, oh, they were actually trying to tip us off to the fact that
02:13our sexual orientation is an issue that we are facing.
02:19After spending over a year attending and tithing at their newfound church home,
02:24Stormi and her wife received a heartbreaking message from the pulpit.
02:27We were sitting in service and there's a section where they do kind of promotional video.
02:34This specific video was about celebrating recovery.
02:38There were very quick edits and flashes of people holding up signs that described things that they had overcome.
02:46Like, I was a sex addict. I was an alcoholic.
02:51And then kind of woven quickly in between all these people holding up these signs of like how this church
02:57helped them overcome.
02:58There was one that said, I used to struggle with same-sex attraction.
03:03And I know that she saw it and she knew that I saw it and we kind of just sat.
03:07We sat through the rest of the service.
03:09We were both in different stages of already grieving the loss of like this thing in our life that we
03:16really held so dear.
03:19It's interesting sitting here talking with you about transparency.
03:22And I think of the analogy of like, as queer people, we often have to come out of the closet.
03:31And it's sort of like what we're asking of these church communities as well.
03:36Just to sort of come out and be overt and to own their stance.
03:41Yep.
03:42You know?
03:43It feels as if you have to.
03:44That's exactly what it is.
03:45They have to come out.
03:46Fortunately, not all churches struggle to come out.
03:49It's been said that you find God where you least expect him.
03:53And today, God is at RuPaul's DragCon.
03:56And so am I.
03:58I'm a nun.
03:59I'm here to serve.
04:00Can I get an amen?
04:03Every year, DragCon kicks off its final day of festivities with a Sunday service led by some of the most
04:09iconic queens ready to praise his holy name.
04:12You know it's like real church when they bring out the tambourines.
04:16This year's service is led by Reverend Jerrell Walls.
04:19As a fellow queer person of faith, Reverend Walls understands the importance of finding an affirming community that makes an
04:25example of God's unconditional love.
04:28DragCon is a place where Jesus would be.
04:30It's a place where the community gathers all different kinds of people and faiths and ideas and thoughts come together.
04:36And it's a perfect place for us to share God's grace.
04:39I'm in my clergy drag.
04:41It's something I don't always wear, but I like to wear it here because it's my way to contribute.
04:46Because I don't look good in drag.
04:51It is ironic to come to Drag Race and for us to be offering a religious service when a number
05:00of queens have talked and shared some horrific experiences that they've had to endure with regards to organized religion.
05:10But I think that's actually the point.
05:13I would like to take a brief moment to point out that that is in fact me, talking to Fenton
05:17Bailey and Randy Barbato, the creators of RuPaul's Drag Race.
05:21Okay, moving on.
05:22The true spirit of Christianity is a message of love, a message of forgiveness, a message of inclusion.
05:29And I think in a way it's no surprise that many people who are into drag are also people of
05:35faith and very spiritual because they more often than not have been persecuted, oppressed or punished for being who they
05:43are.
05:44As a result to come through that and still express yourself shows a degree of moral fiber and moral strength.
05:53So really, drag is actually pretty spiritual at its core.
05:57What's your opinion on some of these churches who profess inclusion, radical inclusion, but actually there are stipulations after the
06:04fact?
06:05It's frustrating because I know they will collect your offering, they'll take your attendance, but they won't allow you to
06:11do anything.
06:12And it shows that second-class citizenship and we're told we're all one in Christ.
06:18There's no levels of who's better than anyone else.
06:26It can often be difficult to breach the walls around churches like this, but I was hopeful about having an
06:32open and honest discussion about the mixed messaging of megachurches.
06:36After much outreach and discussion, we had finally found a place that was willing to sit down and be transparent
06:41with us.
06:42Or so we thought.
06:43So we were scheduled today to go to a really popular Los Angeles church called Mosaic.
06:49And we were going to film their service and then we were going to talk with them about their positions
06:54on inclusion.
06:56And late last night they pulled the plug on us filming and doing the interview and they gave some pretty
07:01vague reasons.
07:02But while we were doing research on this last night, I noticed that there was a Twitter thread about this
07:08church that had started to pick up some traction.
07:12Hopefully we can speak with people at Mosaic regarding what's happening.
07:17If Mosaic expected our interests to disappear upon their cancellation, they were wrong.
07:23With growing curiosity, we were determined to find out whether this was an isolated incident or a representation of the
07:29church's policies on LGBTQ members.
07:32One conversation quickly led to many more.
07:34And before too long, the floodgates had opened.
07:37We gathered a group of ex-Mosaic members who wanted to share their stories.
07:41Why do you think that Mosaic is not transparent on the issue of LGBTQ inclusion?
07:48It's publicity. 150%.
07:51Mosaic has spent so much money, time and effort on the way that they make their church appear to the
07:58entire world.
07:59You know, you have different celebrities who attend.
08:02And I'm telling you, if these celebrities knew that they were going to a church that was not inclusive of
08:07like an LGBT community, they wouldn't go.
08:11The first time I found out Mosaic's policy and how they enforced it was when I asked if I could
08:16put one of our team members in charge of a section who was openly gay.
08:21Yeah.
08:21But when I asked to put him in charge of something, the answer was no, because he's openly gay.
08:28He's unhealthy.
08:31On the Mosaic website, it states that Mosaic is a place where anyone can belong before they believe.
08:36And that they strive to create a home in the city for anyone who does not have one.
08:41But is it really a home if the welcome is conditional?
08:45I think maybe because I'm a queer Christian, I am used to being in uncomfortable situations where not everyone loves
08:53me.
08:54And just kind of going off of luck.
08:55It's the definition of being a queer Christian.
08:56I'm a 27 year old woman and I've been in the church my whole life.
08:59And I remember crying when I was nine years old at Christian camp.
09:03I didn't think I could be loved.
09:06What I found is a lot of those pastors, they're with you privately.
09:11They will say, oh, I get it.
09:13I love you.
09:14Everything's cool.
09:15But it's when they're on the stage, when they won't make that stand.
09:18It's, you know.
09:19That's when it matters.
09:20How many of you, while you were at Mosaic, tried to hold them to account or raise concerns
09:26in some capacity about their issues with, oh my gosh.
09:30I think I can say that all of us tried to stay.
09:34Yeah.
09:34We all just want to see change.
09:37We're such a small group of the hundreds of people who have left or have been hurt.
09:44But it's hundreds of people who are terrified to speak out.
09:48Because you get blocked, you get unfollowed, you get rumors spread about you.
09:52I think for so long I was so angry at myself for believing them.
09:58I was like, that's not the person I am.
09:59I'm not a homophobic person.
10:01I'm not somebody who slut shames I'm not.
10:03How did I get involved in this?
10:06It's, being trusting is not a fault.
10:09And that it is unkind that they have been lying to people.
10:14And I think if I had to say something to the church, I would probably say, you told us we
10:21were leaders.
10:21We are leaders and we're sitting here and we're telling you there's something wrong.
10:25And work, we think you need to change it.
10:33So where do we go from here?
10:35How can we engage in a thoughtful discourse if only one side is coming to the table?
10:40This lack of clarity not only stifles conversation, but it deceives a community that has long been abused by religion.
10:48To belong is to be included, to be allied to.
10:52It is not to be lied to, to be condemned by, or to be cast aside.
10:56The good news is that churches do not have a monopoly on community.
11:01Fellowship isn't exclusively found in a pew or a hipster Jesus rock concert.
11:05We are the church.
11:07And you are welcome here.
11:39The church wanted to compete.
11:39There are things on the table right now.
11:39And these people are in security of ourselves
11:39By the way we are getting sued for a few more minutes.
11:40And if you shouldn't have been cię, then everything.
11:41Weしかot up our city to
11:41a house, we should be prepared for you.
11:42There are just between two and a half,