Steven V. Sprinkle, Ph.D.

STEPHEN V. SPRINKLE, PhD

Brite Divinity School
Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, Texas

I am a gay Christian minister, ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1977.  Every church I have served in Connecticut, North Carolina, and Texas has grown.  My singleness made the members of my churches wonder, but they never knew I was gay.  I was afraid to come out.  Twice I was targeted with suspicion.  Graffiti was written on my house.  My car tires were slashed.  An anonymous letter was circulated once, alleging terrible things.  In an attempt to drive me away, my pet Basset hound, Beau, and my English bulldog, Buck, were butchered and hung up in the back yard of my parsonage.  There was a lot of fear in my life.  By grace, I didn't buckle and run.  The closet never protected me, though I once thought it did.  My dearest friend in ministry advised me, "If there are no secrets, Steve, there can be no ambushes."

Finally, I was ready.  I came out.  Fully.

It was the best thing I ever did.  Though I regret my silence, and acknowledge that I left every major prejudice pretty much intact in the churches I served, I rejoice in the voice I have now.  I teach in seminary, I preach and administer the sacraments in a whole new way.  The old fears die hard.  But as I exercise my full power as a gay man and a Christian, it becomes less and less important that I may be afraid.  I hope I can speak for myself and others for a long time.  I have never been defrocked.   I am grateful to stand with my sisters and brothers who have been.  Grace abounds.

This stole was donated to the Shower of Stoles collection when I visited Brite Divinity School in 2001.  Stephen Sprinkle is the Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Associate Professor in Practical Theology at Brite.  He was ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but he is now  a minister in the Alliance of Baptists. 

Steve's stole is one of six that I took with me everywhere I went.  While the main focus of denominational debate in recent years has centered on around LGBT ordination, none of the stories on these six stoles is concerned primarily with ordination.  Instead, each speaks to the church's complicity in the spiritual and physical violence aimed at LGBT people.  In many ways the church has avoided this complicity by sanitizing the debate and reducing our lives to an "issue" -- the issue of ordination, or the issue of marriage equality.  Doing so has allowed the church to keep the focus of its debate in-house and, more important, to cast LGBT persons as the "problem," rather than the church's own homophobia.

I read Steve's stole to virtually every church I visited.  Generally, I did so without introduction -- this shocking story speaks for itself.  The power of the story is redoubled by the fact that it is told without anger or bitterness, and that it ends with a seemingly impossible declaration of faith: "Grace abounds."  The only thing I would ever add to the reading of the story was to mention that Steve had added a line of small brass bells at the bottom of the stole, so he would "never be silenced again."  Without comment, this story would blow the lid off a congregation's polite debate and force people to look squarely into the face of spiritual violence against LGBT people.  It was one of the most effective stories in the entire collection for moving congregations from debate to constructive action.

I have read this story hundreds and hundreds of times, to groups all over North America.  Its powerful effect on me has never lessened, and never will.

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006