The elected Student Chaplain at Point Loma Nazarene University resigned his position April 1, just 12 days after he told a church forum he is gay. Now that forum has lost its place to meet.
Todd Clayton, 21, who was elected by the students for two years in a row, acknowledged he was gay at a forum at the First Church of the Nazarene that is adjacent to the college at 3901 Lomaland Drive.
“He’s tired,” said a female friend of Clayton’s on Sunday. She said he did not resign because of pressure from the conservative administration at the university. Clayton, a senior who will be graduating next month, could not be reached for comment.
The announcement of his resignation was made in chapel before the student body on Friday.
On March 20, Clayton came out of the closet, saying, “Yes, the rumors are true … I’m gay,” before 340 people who had gathered at the All God’s Children forum, which is a group in discussions on LGBT issues.
That forum has since lost a place to meet after the conservative denomination’s Southern District Superintendent John Denney told Pastor Dee Kelley the group should not meet in the church again.
“He believed the group had become a gay advocacy group,” said Rev. Kelley. “The church board met and agreed to comply with what the District Superintendent asked us.”
When pressed, Kelley said the action by Denney was an order, and not a request. Several messages were left for Denney, but he could not be reached for comment.
It was Pastor Kelley who told the forum on March 20, “The church needs to be a safe place to engage these topics.” He told a reporter Sunday he still believes this.
“We as a church are committed to providing safe places for difficult conversations on issues such as this,” said Kelley.
The group is forbidden to meet on the conservative campus and for the last 3 1/2 years it met mostly at First Church. Their last meeting Sunday drew 22 people. The campus has 2,400 enrolled students. Sharon Bowles, a group facilitator, said the group would meet again, possibly in private homes if necessary.
Clayton has been accepted at Princeton Theological Seminary and plans to become a minister. He told the group he “probably won’t be doing ministry in this denomination.”
“My commitment is to be celibate while I’m here,” said Clayton on March 20.
The university requires all students to abstain from sexual relations, alcohol, and tobacco products. Gay students in the past were expelled, but some of them were able to transfer to another Nazarene college in another state.
Clayton told the forum he prayed to be straight for many years. “Change me. Make me normal. I prayed every evening. It didn’t change me,” he said, adding, “I no longer pray that prayer.”
“Thanks be to God that he has made me gay. I am gay. I am Christian. I will continue to live in that manner,” said Clayton, who received a standing ovation at the forum.
