| Roberta Kreider's story
Roberta Kreider is a living testament to God's power to work in mysterious ways. She grew up under the doctrine that homosexuality, while rarely discussed at all, was considered to be an awful and exceedingly terrible sin. The idea that homosexuals could be active caring Christians that walked in God's love was never an issue for her until tragically her dear brother contracted AIDS, and came out to Roberta shortly before his death.
With this confrontation came a mighty journey for Roberta. In her attempt to understand her brother and his life, she searched, questioned, and eventually, after her own personal relationship with God found the voices of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered believers ready to be heard. From her "Fifteen Reason Why I Changed My Mind" , and her willingness to hear EVERYONE's story, came the book From Wounded Hearts. She has written two more books since then.
Dotti: The following note is from Roberta Kreider, an amazing 80 year "young" ally. When I hear people share about how their parents (or anyone) are just "too old" to understand, I tell them about Roberta and Harold. Visit her website.
June 7, 2005
Dear Dotti,
Thank you for sharing about your great adventure into the office of Focus on the Family and you new plans for taking the message further into "Straight America." My days are so full in the aftermath of the last book that I can't keep up with my friends as I would like to do. You did a great job of confronting in love at Focus...
We plan to be in Eugene, Oregon, most of the time between August 7-18, and hope that we can arrange to get together while we are on the west coast.
Over the noon hour tomorrow, Harold and I will be sharing our faith stories with the employees of our electric company in Allentown. This is a great opportunity! Some of the employees want to take us out for lunch afterward.
We have been chosen to be the Grand Marshals of the Pride Parade in Allentown on June 19. We will each need to give a short speech in the opening ceremonies.
On either Tuesday or Wednesday morning (July 21 or 22), we will be sharing with the World Religions Class at our local community college. This is the third time that we have been asked to share there. Each semester, Jacqueline Marish, the professor (and author in FWH), invites us to come and share with her class.
I have been asked to tell my faith story on the opening evening of the Evangelicals Concerned Conference held at the university in San Francisco, California, July 21-24. We plan to fly out on July 20 and return on the 25th. We will appreciate your prayers that the Spirit of Jesus will shine through us. We hope that the trip to Oregon can be a restful one.
Please keep us informed about the happenings in your life. When you get to the Mid-West, there is a retired missionary couple in Goshen, Indiana, that I wish you could contact. They would not be able to host you, but I hope I can get them to invite you into their home to tell your story. They have a gay son, but they cannot bring themselves to see God's grace for their son in his "chosen lifestyle." (Please note the quotes--I do not call it a lifestyle.) The father is my second cousin, although we have never met, but we have been having some dialogue by letter. The last time I talked with his son several years ago, he was very bitter toward his dad and toward the church.
May God keep you close to God's own heart.
With Love,
Roberta (and Harold)
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