Prominent Antigay Evangelical Blogger Outed as Gay
I don’t like outing, but when I get conflicted on the subject is when the person who has been outed turns out to be prominently and vocally anti-gay.
Jonathan Merritt, the son of famous evangelist James Merritt, has become a prominent evangelical blogger, writing for, among others, USA Today and The Atlantic (where he most recently wrote about his support of Chick-fil-A). Turns out he’s, as Queerty puts it, also “a deeply conflicted gay man” who just got busted for canoodling with gay blogger Azariah Southworth.
James Merrit, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is currently the pastor at an Atlanta mega-church, had promised that his son would join the church this weekend for a special announcement, but no word on whether this was what they had planned. Southworth outed Merritt in his blog this week, so Merritt responded by admitting his “inappropriate” actions to evangelist blogger Ed Stetzer.
Joe.My.God’s Joe Jervis posted a rundown of the relationship between Merritt and Southworth that occurred in 2009. Merritt says he and Southworth began emailing and sexting each other after Merritt wrote an article saying “that Christians must love people who experience sexual brokenness.” The sexting led to a meet up and “as we were saying goodbye, we had physical contact that went beyond the bounds of friendship. I was overcome with guilt, knowing I had put myself in an unwise situation. We never saw each other again and we ceased contact after a period of time.”