“But do you really think that’s typical? Are most people going to come to the church with the gay minister?”
“There might be some new people who would actually come because of it. Because we are open to diversity. I think young people might be attracted to that.”
“We might draw a lot of gays, but what about the normal people? Won’t they stay away?”
“Normal people,” Ian muttered. Fortunately, someone in the room had the same reaction.
“Normal people?” she said.
“You know what I mean, the families with kids.”
“At least they’re discreet. They’re not in your face about it.”
“Discreet,” Paul repeated. What an awful word.
“I’m with Jodi,” said a male voice. “Paul performed our wedding ceremony and our daughter’s baptism, and he was supportive when my wife’s mother died. He’s like part of the family. I’m going to support him. I can’t believe after all he’s given to this community we’d even talk about letting him go over this.”
“Me too. If he wanted us to know, he’d tell us. Otherwise, it’s none of our business.”
“I’m sorry, but doesn’t anyone else find this whole thing disgusting?” It was a man speaking. “It may not be PC these days, but it’s not natural. We are talking about the minister of our church. How could anyone be in favor of keeping him?”
“I’m with you. The Bible says it’s a sin. He’s supposed to be the minister. Would we keep him if he committed another sin?”
“Like what? Not honoring his father and mother?”
“It’s not just that he’s gay. He’s fooling around with a kid.”
“Come on, Mike,” Paul said. “Tell us what you think.”
“Ian’s an adult,” Julie replied. “He’s not underage.”
“But how old is he? Twenty? Twenty-one?”
“I think he’s twenty-five.”
“How does that look? The minister and the twenty-five-year-old janitor?”
“If it were a twenty-five-year-old female housekeeper, we wouldn’t even be talking about this.”
“Hooray, Julie,” Ian said.
“But it’s not a female housekeeper, is it?” a new voice chimed in.
“Look, everyone likes Ian,” Mike said, “but don’t forget, the kid is an alcoholic too.”
“He’s a recovering alcoholic.”
“What if he has a relapse? Alcoholics have relapses. Remember how he ended up here in the first place? Paul scraped him off the floor. Is someone going to have to go and bail the minister’s boyfriend out of jail or something? Think about that.”
“You know Ian,” Julie said. “Do you think that’s going to happen?”
“It could. But even if it didn’t, don’t you think it lowers the minister’s stature just a little bit to have taken up with this pretty young guy….”
Ian winced, as he always did when someone used word “pretty” to describe him. Paul was beginning to understand his aversion for the word.
“Doesn’t that paint the wrong kind of picture? It doesn’t make him seem very serious.”
Another male voice began