Date: Sun, 30 Jan 94 23:59:22 EST From: jstopa@ccs.carleton.ca (John Stopa)
Subject: A snippit from the local paper, FYI

This appeared in Saturday's religion section of _The Ottawa Citizen_...  I
thought I'd pass it on to Y'all out in Luti-space:

"Once-strong enemy of homosexuality, pastor dying of AIDS from male liasons"

Burnaby, B.C. (CP) - With hundred of Christian faces staring up at him - and
his wife and two teenage daughters in the front pew - a pastor who had
preached against homosexuality annaounced his sexual liasons with men.
        The open confession four years ago was supposed to be part of Frank
Shears' church discipline in this Vancouver suburb. It was supposed to be part
of his salvation from the demon of homosexuality. But instead it was the
beginning of the end for Shears, now dying of AIDS. Shears still believes God
loves him. He doesn't believe his AIDS is a punishment for being homosexual.
"My big concern is the multitude of young men out there who become
disillusioned with God and the church because they want to change their sexual
orientation and cannot," he says. "I just want to send them the message that
God accepts them the way they are." In 14 years at Burnaby Christian
Fellowship, Shears had become one of the most beloved pastors and counsellors
at the evangelical congregation, which became known for its part in publicly
assaulting the 1990 Gay Games in Vancouver. The church believed his special
call from God was to cure young people of homosexuality. Shears had become a
vocal figure in Canada in the crusade against what opponents labelled the
homosexual lifestyle, says United Church [of Canada] minister Tim Stevenson,
the first openly gay man in Canada to be ordained. In one of numerous media
appearances during the 1980, Shears debated homosexual MP Svend Robinson on
national television. Everywhere he could, Shears taught that homosexuality
could be overcome. But a few years ago, after decades of using prayer to fight
what he thought were satanically inspired sexual attractions towards men, and
after 17 years of marriage to a woman, he fell off the heterosexual wagon.
Now, Shears sits in a Vancouver hospital room, clasping his hands weakly in
his lap.  In a delicate voice, he says doctors have told him he has six months
to live. After his public confession, "I really hated God", he says. "That's
why I got promiscuous, I thought is God was going to kill me, I'd better get
it over with.  So I had 27 partners in three weekends." Shears then got a grip
on his hormones and gradually began to develop safe-sex relationships. He
wanted to live whatever the homosexual lifestyle was. But it was too late. He
found out in 1991 he was HIV-positive.  A while later he learned he had AIDS.
Shears says the worst thing about his gruelling hour of exposure four years
ago was watching his family clutch each other, sobbing and sobbing. He says
his marriage ended soon after and virtually no one from the church would talk
to him. His eldest daughter, Corrie, now 18, says her father's church
confession came only hours after he'd told the family. She says she still
believes in God, but she's lost trust in the church. "They could have handled
that situation totally differently," she says.

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