A Seventh-day Adventist pastor has resigned after she came out as bisexual.
“Through study and prayer, I’ve come to a point of complete disagreement with the Adventist Church on their teachings about LGBT people,” Alicia Johnston said in a video posted on Facebook on April 22. “I also myself am bisexual, so I’ve come to an awareness of that and have realized I just can’t live my life with integrity anymore without being honest about that.”
Johnston pastored Foothills Church in Chandler, Arizona.
Johnston submitted her resignation to her church and Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, saying she disagreed with the church’s stance on homosexuality.
“During dialogue with her, we greatly appreciate her honesty and sincerity in sharing her views,” the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists said in a statement. “Alicia is a gifted theologian and pastor—and we appreciate and respect her many talents.”
The conference reaffirmed the Adventist stance on homosexuality, though, which is listed as Fundamental Belief No. 23: “Marriage was divinely established in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in loving companionship.”
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