Texas author Lou Anne Smoot will be speaking at the Silver City Woman's Club at 6:00 PM on Monday, September 22. Ms. Smoot is the author of A Christian Coming Out: A Journal of the Darkest Period in My Life. She is hosted by PFLAG Silver City.
After spending 60 years living what most Southern Baptists would consider a "normal life" which included marrying and raising four children, Lou Anne Smoot faced a painful truth about herself–she was homosexual.
This retired public school teacher, holder of two college degrees, mother of four, grandmother of six, and Baptist Sunday School teacher, courageously changed her life in the direction she felt God was "prodding" her to go. Despite the uncomfortableness of remaining a member of her Baptist church when she divorced and began "coming out," she remained faithful to God and to her church at a time when most homosexuals her age either remained "in the closet" or turned their backs on the churches that seemed to turn their backs on them.
Ms. Smoot has written a very telling narrative of her experiences "coming out" as a gay Christian while remaining committed to her Baptist church. It is a compelling story of agony and heartache, joy and hope. In A Christian Coming Out, the author courageously offers all readers a "brutally honest" glimpse behind the scenes into the depth of soul agony that a lifelong Christian experiences when wrestling with the reality of her homosexual orientation and her religious beliefs and doctrines. Beliefs and doctrines which have been in different seasons of her life a source of hope, joy, strength, and comfort as well as shame, condemnation, and rejection.
Anyone who has or continues to question and struggle with the issues surrounding the intersection of homosexuality, Christianity, faith, religion, or the church would want to come and hear her story.
There will be a question and answer time with Ms. Smoot following her presentation. She can be reached at her website www.louannesmoot.com.
For more information, call PFLAG Silver City at 590-8797.