When the Westboro Baptist Church went to New York City to protest the decision to legalize gay marriage in New York, Jeff Chu decided to take them out to eat.

Chu, the editor-at-large of national business magazine Fast Company, had previously met with some of the church members for his book, “Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America.”

Before he took them out to eat, he said he was worried about the members wearing shirts with slogans such as “God Hates F*gs” and public reaction to their presence, especially since he considered them to be “publicity whores.”

When Chu finally saw the church members, he said, they had covered up the slogans to attempt to tone down their image.

“They put on masks as well, just like the rest of us do,” Chu said. “That was a real gift to me, to see them as multidimensional.”

Chu shared this anecdote as he talked about his book Tuesday night in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium. In his book, Chu tells the stories of individuals and congregations with varying opinions on homosexuality and Christianity.

In a discussion led by Charlotte Grimes, Knight Chair in political reporting, Chu talked about the process of researching and reporting for his book, including the dilemma of writing this book as a gay Christian himself.

“I never reported on anything so personal before,” he said. “It’s easy to put on the journalist persona when you’re reporting about things that aren’t about whether or not you’re going to hell.”

Chu described how his family struggled to understand his sexuality. One time he asked his father why his mother had such a hard time understanding and his father replied, “We’re not just Christian, we’re Baptist,” and walked away. Chu also said that his husband has never been invited to a family occasion, but he understands.

“What do you do? They’re still my family,” he said. “It comes from a place of love. It’s not just love for me. It’s love for Jesus. My mom doesn’t want me to go to hell. What mom wants their child to go to hell? And my mom is afraid I will because I’m gay.”

Besides answering questions from Grimes and audience members, Chu shared an excerpt from his book. As he read, photographs from his visit to the Westboro Baptist Church were projected to the audience, including images of the youngest church members picketing.

‪Teresa Sabga, a junior magazine journalism major, said Chu was “really insightful” about the struggles of someone being judged for being who he is and how he handles it, especially where religion is prominent.

‪“Coming from a religious family, I know exactly what he means when he says his family outcast him,” she said.

Johnny Rosa said he was impressed by Chu’s discussion.  Rosa, a sophomore magazine journalism major, said it was nice to hear people like Chu talk about views he holds himself.

“I think discussion about any topic is not only helpful, but necessary, especially when it comes to religion,” Rosa said. “If you believe in something, you should be able to talk to people about it and want to talk to people about it.”

Published on October 16, 2013 at 12:24 am

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers