And he was married for 21 years and has children, but he decided to come clean after the rash of very public gay teen suicides. (WSBTV.com):
The pastor of a Rockdale County megachurch has publicly announced he is gay. Jim Swilley, bishop of Conyers’ Church in the Now, said he hopes his coming out will change attitudes toward homosexuality.
“I know a lot of straight people think it is a choice. It is not,” Swilley told Channel 2’s Diana Davis. I think some women marry gay men because they really think they can change them,” Swilley said.
He says he’s received support from many in his congregation, but at least one conservative Christian blog has called him sick, twisted, unclean and an instrument of the devil.
“I know all the hateful stuff that’s being written about me online, whatever,” Swilley said. “To think about saving a teenager yeah, I’ll risk my reputation for that.”
