One of the daughters of popular Christian speaker and author Jen Hatmaker, who a few years ago made waves when she embraced the lifestyles of the LGBT community, recently revealed she is gay.
At the introduction of the lengthy conversation between Hatmaker and her daughter Sydney, the “For the Love” podcast host said the episode was not “an announcement,” because her family has known for quite some time that Sydney is homosexual. It was, though, the first time she’d shared the revelation with her listeners and readers.
Sydney told Hatmaker she knew she was gay at around 12 years old, admitting she had “pretend” crushes on boys growing up.
Hatmaker’s daughter said she struggled intensely with her faith and sexual orientation for years, noting the “nail in the coffin” was when she was Googling different theological perspectives on homosexuality and came across an article that referenced her mother as “loving” toward the LGBT community, but not “affirming.”
Sydney explained a particular moment, which Hatmaker described as “a terrible day,” when she picked up a book by an unnamed pastor who “didn’t know where he landed [on homosexuality] but knew that he loved the gay people in his life, systematically going through the Bible and, verse by verse, coming to the conclusion that gayness is sin.”
“That was just — destroyed me,” she told her mom, recalling having a “full meltdown” that day. “[I] read the whole thing in one day, just fully feeling in that moment like God didn’t love me.”
Hatmaker argued many pastors preach as if only heterosexual people are in their congregations, when, in reality, “every single church is just filled with gay kids and gay moms and dads.”
“It’s just so irresponsible to break their hearts,” she added.
Sydney, with the agreement of her mother, said it’s “not enough” for pastors and Christians to just love LGBT people; they need to also fully embrace their lifestyles.
Hatmaker explained that it is “maybe even more cruel” to love LGBT people while also believing homosexuality to be contrary to biblical teaching.
“It is not enough, Christians, to say, ‘Well, we love you, anyway,’” she said. “I don’t want to be ‘loved anyway.’”
All of this comes on the heels of the release of Hatmaker’s newest book, “Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You.” She wrote in the book that she has largely exchanged evangelical theology for “the wild terrain of the wilderness.”
“I am far more captivated by those of you asking: Where is the life? What does a vibrant faith system look like? What feels and sounds and looks like actual good news? Where is there more joy and less fear? What is kind? What is generous? What feels like Jesus? Where are people coming back to life, coming back to God?” Hatmaker wrote recently.
Listen to Hatmaker’s full conversation with Sydney here.