Tried to be Straight: Conversion Therapy, LGBTQ Faith, and Queer Theology (Andy Wells)

What if the part of you the church told you to fight was never the enemy?

In this episode of Untamed Grace, Jeromy sits down with Andy Wells, author of Tried to Be Straight, for a deeply honest conversation about conversion therapy, LGBTQ faith, queer theology, and learning to stop asking for permission to exist.

Andy spent years as a devoted Christian while privately wrestling with being gay. He pursued conversion therapy, lived with the pressure of trying to become straight, and carried the weight of self-rejection, addiction, and spiritual fear. But his story did not end there.

Together, Jeromy and Andy explore what it means to read Scripture through a queer lens, including the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, the blind man in John 9, Psalm 139, and the possibility that the Bible may have been speaking belonging over queer people all along.

This conversation moves beyond simple “affirming” language and asks something deeper:
What if LGBTQ Christians are not just accepted by God, but gifted, needed, and called?

For anyone navigating Christian deconstruction, LGBTQ inclusion, religious trauma, conversion therapy, queer theology, faith reconstruction, or the long road toward self-acceptance, this episode offers a vision of faith beyond fear—and a God much bigger than the one many of us inherited.

Andy's Website: AndyWells.gay

Once grace is tamed, it ceases to be grace. Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening. 

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Episode partnered with QuoirCast, and written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson. 

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