Journalist and author Michael Coren had a high-profile career in the Canadian and international media – but it all came crashing down when he wrote a newspaper column sympathetic to gay Christians.
He received more than a thousand emails, letters – some containing bodily waste – death threats, attacks on his family and calls for his wife to leave him. He lost five regular newspaper columns, 14 speaking opportunities, a book contract, two radio shows and his position as a TV host.
The extreme reaction was, in part, due to British-born Coren previously being a strong advocate of the traditional Christian position, which opposes same-sex relationships.
In this autobiography – subtitled ‘From media firebrand to Anglican priest’ – Coren recounts the story, including the support he received from prominent LGBT people such as actor and atheist Stephen Fry, as well as gay Christians such as Rev Richard Coles and worship leader Vicky Beeching.
He writes: “The gospel, I now know, is about a first-century Palestinian Jew who grabbed the world and made it new. He demanded that we love God and love others as ourselves, and that we treat people the way we would want them to treat us.”
The book traces Coren’s journalistic career to his many years in the spotlight within Canadian TV and beyond, and his faith journey from growing up as “a happy half-Jewish child”, through Catholicism to training for the Anglican priesthood.
Coren now writes and broadcasts widely. While some will disagree with his revisionist perspective on sexuality, he remains a writer who argues the case for the Christian faith in secular places, and there are too few people doing that.
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