PASTOR PROMOTES ACCEPTANCE, LOVE
“I’m not your average pastor, thank God.”
Brandiilyne Mangum-Dear is the pastor for Joshua Generation Metropolitan Community Church and owner of The Red Jasper, a New Age and metaphysical supply store.
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Brandiilyne struggled with drug addiction for 17 years before finding God and deciding to pursue being a pastor and has been in the ministry since 2005.
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“I started using drugs when I was 11 years old because I was trying to suppress my sexuality, and I met God and was rapidly set free from drugs. And I wanted to go into the ministry because I wanted to help other people struggling with addiction,” Brandiilyne said
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And so Brandiilyne began her first church, Dying to Live Ministries, in Laurel, MS. Much of the church was focused on recovery for people with addictions. As part of the church, she opened the ZAC Center for Women, which houses women for six months while they go through a 12-month recovery program created by Brandiilyne.
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While Dying to Live Ministries is still around and thriving today, Brandiilyne is no longer associated with it. After starting a relationship with her now wife, she was expelled from the church and found herself questioning her faith.
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“It was a really difficult time. I really wrestled with my faith and struggled with my faith and I wasn’t sure about my sexuality and my faith and I couldn’t reconcile the two,” she said.
After this, Brandiilyne didn’t attend church for two years and spent this time trying to figure out her relationship with God.
“I was really having this spiritual crisis. But then God showed me the story of Peter. Peter was on the roof meditating when God showed him a vision. In the vision, all of the animals came down in a sheet and God said, ‘Eat these.’ And Peter said, ‘No, I would never touch anything that is unclean.’ And God says to him ‘You can’t call anything unclean that I have made clean.’ And the church called me unclean because of my sexuality and God really showed me, he said ‘I made you clean, you are not an abomination, you are not what they say you are and they’re reading my Bible incorrectly,’” she said.
During this time of introspection, Brandiilyne also began to see God and religion in a brand-new light. She realized that it was the system of organized religion that turned her and others away from God and that she needed to separate these the idea of God and religion.
“I hate to use the word religion because I have a friend who’s a Buddhist lama and she said, ‘But religion is important to some people.’ In her faith, religion is an important word. But when I see religion I see something that causes harm. So I should probably use the word legalism. Legalism completely goes against mercy and grace and the message of Christ,” Brandiilyne said. “I think religion makes it difficult when we have all these rules and laws. God’s love is unconditional, not just conditional up to what we can understand. Because God’s grace is bigger than our small minds, our small books and our small doctrines.”
After this breakthrough, Brandiilyne came up with the idea to begin another church of her own, but this time it would be a radically inclusive and accepting of LGBT people.
Brandiilyne and her wife, Susan, became involved in a documentary called L Word Mississippi, and during filming, they launched Joshua Generation in 2014.
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Around this time, Brandiilyne also started her own business, The Red Jasper, which sells metaphysical and spiritual supplies, such as tarot cards, crystals and jewelry. She was inspired to start the store so that people in Hattiesburg could have a place to practice their spirituality, however they want.
“I’ve met a lot of people through this journey that has completely left religion and have become spiritual. And I believe that people find God and find spirit in so many ways and I believe that God’s big enough to meet people exactly where they are spiritually. So it’s my desire to make a place where everybody can find that spiritual connection with God, however they perceive God.”
Although Brandiilyne has seen Joshua Generation grow and thrive throughout the years, she also encounters frequent criticism, particularly online through social media.
“Almost every week I get called a heretic or a blasphemer. I get called all kinds of different things. And people have threatened me, but it just makes me more determined to this. If people want to criticize me or antagonize me, that’s fine. It’s fine.” Brandiilyne said. “They called Jesus a blasphemer as well, so they can call me the same thing. That’s fine. Jesus didn’t come to fit in. Jesus didn’t come to make nice with everybody. Jesus came to tear down a system that was built by man. That religious system that leaves love out is what Jesus came to destroy. And that’s what I’m here to preach. I’m here to preach like Jesus did.”
Aside from her ministry, Brandiilyne is active in many other ways in the community and tries to support the local LGBT community as much as possible.
Her church was recently a plaintiff in a case against HB 1523, a law in Mississippi that makes it legal for businesses to discriminate against LGBT people. The case went to the Supreme Court, but the court refused to hear it because no one had yet been hurt by the law.
“We’re still fighting. We’re still trying to protect LGBT people in this community and make sure that happens. We’re in a great city though. Hattiesburg is a great city to be LGBTQ, but we’re still fighting for Mississippi,” Brandiilyne said.
Brandiilyne said she remains positive over the future of LGBT rights and her own path.
“I preach from the Bible; I teach from the Bible. That’s what I do. I don’t condemn people. I don’t think that’s what we’re called to do, period. I believe God is love and as long as I’m loving people and everything we’re doing is in love, I think it’s all going to be okay,” she said.