Cults to Consciousness Growing Up Gay “In My Super Fundamentalist Christian Church”
Kevin James Thornton grew up in a small Christian town in Indiana. His early life started at a Baptist church, but once he discovered a Mega Church focused on rock bands and the youth, he became enamored and doubled down on his faith. A Jesus loving, self motivated chiId then teen, he loved his fully immersive church and heavily partook in extremely questionable youth events, but something inside himself felt wrong. Driven by his desire to fit in and “fix himself” he wouldn’t even allow himself to have the thought that he was gay.
He attended youth group bible study religiously and went to inner city parks in NYC dressed as “sin” clowns to perform “morality plays”. They even put on extreme HeII based haunted houses with graphic scenes played out by the youth. Things started to feel grim for Kevin once the group graduated high school and the boys he had crushes on coupled up and got married, leaving Kevin feeling more alone than ever. Always having buried who he really was, it wasn’t until he escaped to college and found himself in a new group within theater that the inner turmoil would subside.
Kevin dives into what it was like selling everything to move to LA to become a comedian, and how he blew up on TikTok during the pandemic by sharing his old bible study memories (with a splash of autotune).
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Chapter Marks
00:04:24 Kevin's early church experiences as a southern baptist
00:06:58 How Kevin changed churches and why it appealed to him as a teenager
00:09:40 How this mega church appeared to be less conservative but doctrinally the opposite
00:10:50 What Kevin's parents thought about his dedication to church
00:12:14 What the messages were like at the new church
00:14:28 Youth group mission trips to inner cities
00:19:10 Messages from the church and the pressure to proselytize and bring more people to the church through events
00:22:35 Kevin's dissonance with his s*xuality
00:26:56 The story about home bible study during youth group
00:30:13 How people in the same situations can have different experiences
00:33:25 The mega church's haunted houses for Halloween
00:37:27 Kevin's feelings at the time on the haunted houses
00:39:06 When Kevin started to realize there were issues with his church
00:43:28 How seeing other gay people be acceptable helped Kevin accept himself
00:47:14 How his old youth group felt about Kevin's new life in college
00:49:56 How reaching out can make someone second guess the best path for themselves
00:52:17 Kevin's shift from his old life into the comedy scene
00:59:11 How an app and the pandemic changed Kevin's comedy
01:06:08 How Kevin is doing today
01:11:47 Linda, Listen
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