What is it that so many people in the Church don’t understand about love? How is it possible for millions of church-going, Bible-reading adults to believe that Jesus would have responded with similar hostility toward messengers, much less toward those who have strayed from biblical teaching? Do these church people believe that they are sinless? Do they imagine that they are setting a ideal example for the young people who observe their attitude and actions?

After that experience it has been much easier for me to understand the distaste so many gays have for the Christian body – and why so many young adults who are not gay have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the conservative Christian juggernaut. From a marketing perspective, it was also a stark reminder that it only takes a relative handful of outliers – at least I hope they were outliers – to undermine the image and standing of the majority.