Another Colorado Minister Resigns

Another pastor of a megachurch in Colorado just resigned his position as senior pastor following an outing from an anonymous source.

I am copying and pasting this posting from 365gay.com.

(Denver, Colorado) The senior pastor of a second Colorado megachurch has resigned following a phone call to the church outing him.

The Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in South Denver announced in a video taped message to his congregation Sunday that he was stepping down.

"I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy," Barnes said in the video according to the Denver Post which was allowed to view the tape.

".. I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."

In the video Barnes is seen sitting with his wife.

The church's associate pastor, Dave Palmer, told the Post that the church got an anonymous call last week from a person who said he had overheard a conversation in which someone mentioned "blowing the whistle" on evangelical preachers engaged in homosexuality, including Barnes.

Barnes founded Grace Chapel in his basement 28 years ago and saw it grow to be one of the biggest churches in the state.

His resignation comes a month after Colorado Springs pastor Ted Haggard was outed by a former male prostitute. (story)

Barnes preached that homosexuality is a sin, but unlike Haggard neither he nor his church took a stand on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that was approved by voters last month.

In the video Barnes said he became a Christian at age 17 and felt it would help him give up homosexuality, but the feelings never went away, he said.

Still, he said he cannot accept that a person is "born that way," adding that he believes sexuality is influenced by childhood experiences.

Barnes said in the video that he has been in counseling three times but never found anyone he could talk to.

His wife also appeared in the half-hour video the Post reported, saying that she didn't know about her husband's struggles until he confided in her last week. The couple has two daughters in their 20s.

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You can also read a more detailed account of this story by going here, to an article published by the Denver Post.