Joan Garrett's, in her in-depth reporting from Red Bank, TN, tells a bracing, moving story about a Southern Baptist minister grappling with his gay son's life and death:
The faithful hold firmly to God with one hand, family with the other. But sometimes we are forced to choose. If we can't hold onto both, which one do we let go? In 1991, after 25 years of defining himself by his position in the church, Matt Nevels' faith abruptly and irrevocably collided with the death of his middle son.
Fred Clark's view:
The story of Matt Nevels recalls in many ways all those other recent articles fretting about the Millennial generation’s disillusionment with the church. Nevels’ story shows the human side to all those statistics and all that polling data — putting a face on all those numbers. Like so many those Millennials, Nevels experienced personal pain at the cruelty and rejection the church showed someone he loved, and that pain forever altered his perception of the church. But the difference here is that Matt Nevels is 78 years old. And he is a retired Southern Baptist minister.
The Dish 