The secret behind the pulpit

Perhaps you saw the item recently on CNN about the new female Pastor in Louisville that outed herself? No, not that kind of out. But first, some background.

First Unitarian Church in Louisville, Kentucky was founded more than 200 years ago. This a venerable, long-established conservative congregation that took a giant leap recently - and hired its first female Pastor, Dawn Colley. So, the other Sunday morning, when their new Pastor said she had a secret about herself that she needed to share, the congregation held its collective breath, and then the organist started playing an up-tempo number and the members of the Derby City Roller Girls skated down the aisle. That's when Ms. Colley ducked into a near-by room and emerged in Roller Girl regalia, as "Liv Fearlessly" her nom-de-skate.

It seems that the search committee never asked her about hobbies, and she never brought up the subject that on Saturdays she hip-checked opponents into the cheap seats. She was pretty sure that sooner or later some parishioner was going to catch the show, so Ms. Colley thought it best if she got her altar-ego (heh, heh) out in the open and fess up to being a holy roller (groan). In other words, she could no longer separate church and skate (enough!)

There's no word out of Louisville about the congregations response to this revelation, but it got me to thinking. Out of all the ministry staff that I have known, some of them surely have had similar deeply-closeted secrets. Don't you think? For example, our current pulpit minister might well have had a career on the pro surf-board circuit, known as "Kevin Keomoka." Or that guy we supported in Guatemala all those years; could he have really been with the CIA?  Send lawyers, guns and money.

Think about ministry staff you have known. Weren't there whispers? Rumors? I'm just sayin'.