Carlton PearsonOn CNN this week, Tulsa Pentecostal pastor Carlton Pearson described how he had a change of heart about fundamentalism after his best friend came out gay. Bishop Pearson graduated from ORU, and was well-known for his association with such charismatic superstars as Carman and Oral Roberts.

At one time he headed up a 5,000-strong megachurch in Tulsa, OK, but was denounced as a heretic by fellow charismatics when he began embracing the “Gospel of Inclusion” in 2003. The one-time fundamentalist now preaches that God accepts everyone – including gays and lesbians – a message that has cost him the best part of his congregation and his career. He says he looked around the Bible Belt and saw that fundamentalism “probably wasn’t working”.

He also talks about his former support for ex-gay ministry, which he now rejects:

The people who were gay were disfigured and dysfunctional and confused. I mean, those were the only explanations we had. And God would not be pleased with that; it’s not natural. … This is of the Devil. We need to rebuke this thing and bind it. I had all my gay friends fasting and praying and seeking God; we were anointing them with oil and encouraging them to go further into counseling.

Pearson appears to have put his money where his mouth is: He is now a firm supporter of gay rights, and earlier this year joined gays and lesbians for a Washington rally in support of hates crimes legislation.

He is on target with his final observation:

I think we have idolized the Bible and used it (and I call them “Bible bullets”) to denounce anything we don’t like or don’t understand or anything we fear. And I would like for that to be corrected in the Christian consciousness.

Watch the video here.

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