BAPTIST BELIEVER: Colleen Ott chose to join the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia (above) after her former church pastors asked her to attend an ex-gay group or step down from her deaconship. Ott hopes to become a deacon at First Baptist soon. Photo: Timothy Cwiek

Religion has been an important part of Colleen R. Ott’s life, for as long as she can remember.

She was born into the Catholic faith, but converted to the Baptist denomination at age 17. “It gave me everything the Catholic Church didn’t as far as spiritual nourishment,” said Ott, 29.

Around the time of her conversion, she joined the Pennypack Baptist Church, on Cruisetown Road in Northeast Philadelphia. Soon, she became active in various areas of church life.

Ott served on the church’s education board, supplied food and drinks for the church’s coffee house, tended to grounds of the adjacent cemetery and sang in the choir.

In June 2006, a particular honor was bestowed on Ott when she was selected to serve as a church deacon. Baptist deacons fill a variety of leadership roles, including teaching Sunday school and distributing Communion.

But all that changed last month when Ott came out as a lesbian.

During a tense meeting, The Rev. Tony Tilford and his wife, co-pastor Jean-Marie Tilford, allegedly told Ott she must join Harvest International Ministries or Exodus International to change her lesbian orientation — or stop being a church deacon.

Harvest and Exodus are Christian-based “ex-gay” ministries that purportedly help people avoid being attracted to the same sex.

“I know that people who go through those programs either come out very depressed or try to commit suicide,” Ott said.

Knowing that she didn’t want to worship in a homophobic environment, Ott told the Tilfords she would leave the congregation.

She said the Tilfords offered to throw a going-away party for her, but Ott declined.

Baptist churches operate under the Congregational governance system, giving autonomy to individual, local churches; the denomination does not have a formal, comprehensive policy on GLBT rights within the church. Ott said she knew of no grievance procedure available to her to challenge the Tilfords’ ultimatum.

“I’m kind of shaken that this would happen to me at a church that I’ve been active with for at least eight years or so,” she added. “I put a whole lot of hard work into that little church there. I really cared about the congregation.”

Still, Ott has no regrets about coming out. “I believe it was the right thing to do,” she said. “I was sick of living two lives.”

The good news for Ott is that she found a new home church, the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia in Center City, where she feels welcome, regardless of her sexual orientation.

Ott, an emergency medical technician, said she’s very happy at her new church and hopes to become a deacon there someday.

Her new pastor, The Rev. Gerardo James de Jesus, said he’s delighted that Ott is joining his congregation.

“Colleen is in the process of becoming a member and we’re very happy to have her,” de Jesus told PGN. “I would be honored for her to serve as a deacon.”

He said he was dismayed with the Tilfords’ alleged ultimatum. “It doesn’t make sense to me,” de Jesus said. “When Jesus was preaching the Gospel, he never said, ‘Only the straights shall eat at my Father’s table.’”

However, due to local church autonomy, the Tilfords could place conditions on Ott’s deaconship, de Jesus conceded.

“They have the right to take that position. But in my opinion, they capitulated to political correctness rather than embracing the Gospel of love,” he said.