A gay church organist has spoken out against his former church’s teaching – after storming out during an anti-gay sermon.
Jason Biel had attended a church in Lacombe, Alberta.
Speaking via the I’m From Driftwood project, he recalled what happened when he came face-to-face with homophobia.
Mr Biel explained: “I did my undergrad at a small Adventist university… it’s about as conservative as you can get.
“While studying there, my organ professor, she gave me opportunities to perform quite often at the church there.
“It was… during my last year of my undergrad there, that she asked me to come in to play. And it seemed like any other day.
“It was when the sermon started that things seem a little different. It wasn’t the usual head pastor who was doing the sermon. They had a chaplain from the university doing it.
“The service started like any other – I played the prelude and the hymns and sat down. And the pastor got up to give his sermon.
He added: “When he started in referencing Leviticus 18, which is quite homophobic for lack of a better word… I wasn’t really sure what to do.
“I was faced with a choice to sit, as everyone else does, as per usual, and listen to this message be delivered, or I could do something.
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