posted on August 4, 2004 06:47:28 AM new
SEBRING, Fla. (AP) -- A church choir director who wrote a newspaper opinion piece supportive of gay marriage was fired after church officials took issue with the article.
Dennis Ray, who is gay, said his firing by the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) came as a surprise. He lost his job after a July 22 guest column appeared in Highlands Today in which he claimed half of the church's members believe in acceptance of gay people.
"I couldn't stop myself from writing that article," said Ray, 43. "I listen to Christian radio. The songs are beautiful, but in between the music they had all these fundamentalists preachers spewing nothing but hate and bigotry on issues having anything to do with homosexuality, from branding us as child molesters to being mentally ill and everything in between."
Officials at the southern Florida church, which considers homosexuality a sin, said Ray has the right to express his opinion, but went too far when he claimed that half the congregation agreed with him
We don't object to his stance, but he cannot say this is how we feel as well," said Johan Van Der Merwe, the church's pastor. "Not even I can do that because I don't know how people feel."
Ray said choir members and others in the church knew of his sexual orientation.
