Another one bites the dust. Another Denver-area Pastor, Paul Barnes, has stepped down and told his 2,100 member congregation that he has had sexual encounters with men.
Is something in the Denver water that creates evangelical hypocrites? “A month ago, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County preached to his 2,100-member congregation about integrity and grace in the aftermath of the Ted Haggard drugs-and-gay-sex scandal. Now, the 54-year-old Barnes joins Haggard as a fallen evangelical minister who preached that homosexuality was a sin but grappled with a hidden life.”
Said to be (unlike Haggard) an apolitical introvert, Barnes confessed to his church in a 32-minute video: “I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy… I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.”
Barnes is married and has two daughters in their 20's.