Why do LGBTQ+ people stay in churches that consider them to be sinful? A seminary student set out to find out why

Same-sex marriage and sexual and gender diversity is accepted as normal and celebrated in Canada today. But it is still seen as wrong by some conservative evangelical Christian denominations.

And yet, there are many LGBTTQ+ people who still attend evangelical churches where their sexual identity is considered sinful and their full participation is not welcome. Why do they stay?

That’s what Naomi Isaac, who graduated in April from the Master of Arts in counselling psychology at Providence Theological Seminary in Otterburne, sought to find out in her thesis titled “2SLGBTQ+ Christians’ Experience of Spirituality in Canadian Evangelical Churches.”

Read about it in my recent Free Press column.