Religious Backgrounds

a friend of mine wrote yet another blistering commentary on his FB page today. He has been through a lot of trauma over the fact that he is gay. These last two years he has and is finally accepting it. The difficult part for him that I share with him - our journey included our private battles to accept our sexual orientation in the context of our religious beliefs. He tried marriage twice - to his credit, the second time he was honest w/his wife about his same sex attractions, and they vowed to help him through it, fight it... but I get the impression his wife put that on the back burner or completely off the stove (like my wife did). To make matters worse, he was a minister of music in a large Baptist church. He has confessed his shame for the damage he had done to others in the strong stand he took against any form of homosexuality, and he hid his own attractions and kept himself in his closet. Two Decembers ago, he confessed to his wife that he had a slip. This woman who vowed to help him kicked him out of their house - he came home after work to find his belongings in the front yard - his church let him go. He lost income, a home, some of his family and a lot of friends. Afterall, he was deep into sin and everyone knew it now. Instead of retreating, he took a hard look at his life and decided he'd had enough of the lies... since then he has been about the business of writing public commentaries on his FB page, trying to call out religious bigots while confessing that he was one, too. I gotta hand it to him. I am not that bold.
In the process of trying to correct a problem that's not really a problem at all and to find balance between our beliefs and what others believe, we thought they cared about us, too, and to reach a place where we are at peace - we can go through a lot of pain, unnecessary suffering and humiliation, rejection.
My friend has a hard time letting go of this. In fairness, he's suffered worse than most I've heard about. After awhile, we have to put it aside and stop playing the same old tapes over and over in our heads. Maybe he is reaching someone, and they are thinking twice - or maybe he is solidifying their bigoted views even more by his refusal to repent and continue to rub it in their faces. It seems therapeutic for him - possibly to undo all the harm he feels he's done in his past role in the church.