avb7

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avb7

i'll be in Melbourne on Friday 5 October

said ages ago

libby

what a fascinating story! please please please start a blog... i'm sure there's so much interest in hearing about how you've addressed these issues in your life and what you're up to now

said ages ago - view conversation

Anthony was a leader in the Assemblies of God denomination and a popular preacher in the mega churches of Australia (Hillsong) and overseas. He lived in a world that told him his attraction to the same sex was an abomination and made him unacceptable to God and others.

For 22 years he tried desperately to change through psychiatric treatment, exorcisms, exgay programs, 40-day fasts and daily struggles with his ‘problem’. After 16 years of marriage, he eventually had to admit that nothing had changed. In 1991, he faced the toughest decision of his life; be true to himself and lose everything he held dear or live a lie.

In 2004 his autobiography, ‘A Life of Unlearning’, won the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Business Association’s ‘Book of the Year’. Anthony’s honest account demonstrates the personal tragedies and devastation caused when people maintain the uninformed belief that homosexuality is a sin, a choice or the result of a dysfunctional upbringing. ‘A Life of Unlearning’ inspires people to live authentically and challenges the church to let go of its outdated and ill informed beliefs about same sex attraction.

Former:

1. Assemblies of God leader who contributed to the growth and transformation of the denomination
2. Regular preacher in all the mega churches of Australia (e.g. Hillsong, Paradise AOG Adelaide, Garden City Brisbane, City Life Church Melbourne) preaching to audiences of up to 5,000 and in many countries such as USA, UK, New Zealand, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Europe and West Africa.
3. Supported by Frank and Brian Houston (National President, Assemblies of God in Australia and Senior Pastor, Hillsong Church) and also Hon Andrew Evans (Family First Party leader)
4. Founder of Youth Alive NSW (now meets in the Super Dome, Olympic Park)
5. Founder and Director of Every Believer Evangelism
6. First Pentecostal appointed to the Australian Committee of the Lausanne Congress for World Evangelism
7. Believed that homosexuality was a sin, a choice or the result of a dysfunctional upbringing and that God could miraculously change homosexuals into heterosexuals.
8. Closeted, tormented gay man, doing everything possible to appear and be heterosexual

Current:

1. Award wining author of 'A Life of Unlearning - Coming Out of the Church, One Man's Struggle' Foreword by Hon. Michael Kirby
2. Spokesperson for various Gay & Lesbian Community Groups on Religious Issues
3. Co Founder and Convenor of Freedom 2 b(e), a global network for GLBTIQ people from Pentecostal/Charismatic backgrounds
4. Gay Ambassador, breaking down barriers and dispelling myths by creating an informed, respectful dialogue about same sex orientation.
5. Australia’s first openly gay Pentecostal
6. Member of Hillsong Church, Waterloo, Sydney
7. Understand that sexual orientation is determined by prenatal biological factors and is no more abnormal than red hair or being left handed. Changing a person’s same sex attraction is not even on Gods agenda. However, injustice, prejudice, discrimination, hatred and false accusations are.
8. Proud, fulfilled, gay man who has resolved all issues of faith and sexuality.

Interests

Dinner with friends, supporting people resolving faith/sexuality issues, writing, reading