Anthony Venn-Brown

Anthony was a leader in the Assemblies of God denomination (now Australian Christian Churches) and a high profile preacher in the largest Pentecostal churches of Australia and overseas. Originally being raised in society that viewed homosexuality as a mental illness and perversion, he became a Christian at 18 believing that God would provide the answers he was looking for. In the church, the rejection of his true identity was further reinforced with the belief that his attraction to the same sex was an ‘abomination’ that made him unacceptable to God and others.

For the next 22 years he tried desperately to change his innate desire for connection and intimacy with a man through psychiatric treatment, exorcisms, ex-gay programs, 40-day fasts and struggled constantly to overcome his ‘problem’. After 16 years of marriage, he was forced to admit that essentially, nothing had changed. In 1991, he faced the toughest decision of his life; be true to himself and lose everything he held dear or, live a lie.

In 2004 his autobiography, ‘A Life of Unlearning’ (now in its second print), won the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Business Association’s ‘Book of the Year’. Anthony’s powerful and brutally honest account demonstrates the personal tragedies and devastation caused when people maintain the uninformed belief that homosexuality is a sin, a choice or the result of a dysfunctional upbringing. ‘A Life of Unlearning’ inspires people to live authentically and challenges the church to rethink it’s outdated beliefs about same sex orientation.

FORMER

1. Assemblies of God leader who contributed to the growth and transformation of the denomination

2. Regular preacher in all the mega churches of Australia and overseas (e.g. Hillsong, Paradise AOG Adelaide, Garden City Brisbane, City Life Church Melbourne) preaching to congregations of up to 5,000

3. Founder of Youth Alive NSW (now meets in the Acer Arena with over 20,000)

4. Founder and Director of Every Believer Evangelism

5. First Pentecostal appointed to the Australian Committee of the Lausanne Congress for World Evangelism

6. Believed that homosexuality was a sin, the result of a dysfunctional upbringing and that God could miraculously change homosexuals into heterosexuals

7. Closeted, tormented gay man, doing everything possible to appear and be heterosexual

CURRENT

1. Award wining author of ‘A Life of Unlearning – A journey to find the truth’ Foreword by Hon. Michael Kirby

2. Voted one of the 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australian’s 2007

3. Co-Founder and Co-Convenor of www.freedom2b.org, a global network for GLBTIQ people from Pentecostal and Charismatic backgrounds

4. Gay Ambassador, breaking down barriers and dispelling myths by creating an informed, respectful dialogue about same sex orientation.

5. Australia’s first openly gay Pentecostal and leading ex-ex-gay

6. Understands that sexual orientation is determined by prenatal biological factors and is no more abnormal than red hair or left-handedness. Changing a person’s same sex attraction is not even on God’s agenda. However, injustice, prejudice, discrimination, hatred and false accusations are.

7. Proud, fulfilled, gay man who has resolved all issues of faith and sexuality

Contact:

Email: anthony@anthonyvennbrown.com

Website:www.anthonyvennbrown.com

Download Chapter 1 ‘The Confession’ here www.anthonyvennbrown.com/book.html