Bishop Michael Curry, who gave Harry and Meghan’s wedding sermon, talks faith, pride and an inclusive church
Can you be gay and a person of faith?
While the anti-LGBTQ+ positions of many church bodies have sewn division in the hearts of many, pitting neighbor against neighbor and parents against children, the intersection between religion and sexual identity has evolved more recently.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church, in a candid conversation with ABC News' Paula Faris, opened up about his thoughts for a more inclusive church.
In a new series called "Faith Friday" on the "Good Morning America" Instagram account, Curry said it's essential the church lead the way and be "conscious for love."
Curry, who gave the sermon at Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's wedding, reiterated the need for more understanding among people of faith and the church at large toward LGBTQ+ people who feel trapped between faith and identity and the burden to choose between the two.
"I realize we, in the Christian community, have hurt people, we have hurt the children of God," Curry told Faris. "Much of the pain people have experienced has been imposed by the church, and we have done so as a society. We've got to figure out how to love each other and find a way."
As the first black person to serve as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Curry went on to explain how societal norms continue to play a role in why it's difficult for many LGBTQ+ followers of their faiths to have open conversations around their sexual identity, because equality has simply never been normative, for any community of individuals.
"For much of human history," he shared, "we have not seen what we now know to be human equality ... this is a profound transition in the understanding of who we are as human beings."
"Gender, race and sexual orientation and identity are the three touchstones of where our time is transitioning from an old world way of seeing of ourselves, to a new world way of seeing ourselves." It's true of women, blacks as well as people of the LGBTQ+ communities, Bishop Curry shared.
"We need to accept people for who they are. If God made them, then they are good enough for me," he told Faris. "God made all of us equally, in God's image and likeness, and that is how we need to behave to each other. That's been a dawning in the last 100 years."
On the question of "Can you be gay and a Christ Follower?" Bishop Curry replied: "I have no doubt and no question in my mind about where Jesus of Nazareth stood on it."
"Jesus of Nazareth was the one who taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves," he added.
Watch "Faith Friday" live at "Good Morning America" on Instagram every Friday in June for Pride Month and see more at GoodMorningAmerica.com/PRIDE
