Name: Evan Johnston
Age: 44
Hometown: Tampa, Fla.
 
Evan Johnston distances himself from a man in a red T-shirt yelling “SODOMY is a SIN,” through a megaphone.
 
 “You know what? I don’t even agree with what they are saying,” he said in calm voice. “I don’t like confrontation.”
 
The 44-year-old evangelist from Tampa Bay Word of Faith church carries a large sign on a foot-long stick with a verse from the Bible. It reads, “Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25-26.”
 
The reason why Johnston preaches is simple: “I want to get the attention of people. Once you rile them up, then you give them the mercy and love of God.”
 
Johnston looks intensely into the eyes of his onlookers, so they can feel what he is preaching. He speaks in biblical metaphors, often comparing his work cleansing sinners to the work of Jesus. But he chastises his fellow Christians who push away gays instead of embracing them.
 
Johnston is dealing with his own moral dilemma: Can a person be gay and Christian?
 
“I have a sister who is gay,” he stumbles.
 
“I can’t bless what God can’t bless. He created sex in the context of a man and a woman,” Johnston said. “But I still love my sister
Evangelist with a lesbian sister