Raised by Gay Parents, He Shocked Them by Coming Out as a Christian—and Then a Pastor

Mark Ellis : Mar 16, 2016
God Reports

"I completely concur that God designed sexuality to be between a man and a woman, but that's not the first thing I talk about with somebody that's gay," he continues. "I want to get to know them as a person, to build a friendship. I want to help them see Christ as their main identity..."

When he was two-years-old his university-professor parents divorced and his father and mother entered the gay lifestyle. His lesbian mom and her partner took him to gay pride parades, LGBT clubs, parties and campouts, while his father remained "closeted" for several years. (Photo via God Reports)

"Mom was a political activist," says Caleb Kaltenbach, author of Messy Grace (Waterbrook Press). At gay pride parades, Caleb witnessed Christian demonstrators spray homosexual marchers with water and urine.
 
When he asked his mom why they were doing this, she said: "Because Christians hate gay people."
 
As a result, Caleb wanted nothing to do with Christianity or God.
 
In high school, a friend invited him to a Bible study and he accepted with ulterior motives. "I thought I would pretend to be a Christian, learn about Christianity, and dismantle their arguments," he recalls.
 
He had attended a mainline denominational church with his father sporadically, but was bored by it and didn't understand the liturgy. "They never discussed God, only social issues," he notes.
 
So when he grabbed a Bible off his dad's shelf and went to the Bible study, he didn't realize there was a difference between the Old and New Testaments. Confused when they asked him to read a verse from 1st Corinthians, he began reading from 1st Chronicles.
 
"I was so embarrassed, but I wouldn't let these Christians get me down," Caleb says. He had lumped this group of Believers in with the angry demonstrators he saw in the street.

But something amazing happened when he began to read the Bible for himself. "I really fell in love with Jesus," he recalls. "I learned that Jesus is really not like the Christians I saw on the street corners."
 
Later, he met a Christian friend at a restaurant and asked, "What do you have to do to be saved?" (Photo via God Reports)
 
As his friend, Gregg, waxed on about the realities of Jesus and His divinity, something stirred within Caleb.
 
"As Gregg was talking, it happened," he writes in his book. "I can't explain it. Something just shifted inside me. I truly believed what he was saying. There was no way around it—in that moment I became a follower of Jesus."
 
Baptized "covertly" almost immediately after he was Born Again, his dad grounded him after absorbing the shocking news. His lesbian mom and her partner were horrified when they learned, and accused him of the ultimate betrayal...
 
Click here to read more of Caleb's testimony, and how God used the very people his parents disdained to bring about a miracle in their hearts.