Joining drag queens on TV show costs Indiana pastor his job

By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The Rev. Craig Duke has been a Methodist minister for three decades, building a reputation as a staunch advocate of LGBTQ inclusion. His pastoral duties have now been terminated — the result of a bitter rift surfacing in his Indiana church. The divisions flared after Duke sought to demonstrate solidarity by appearing in drag alongside prominent drag queens in the HBO reality series “We’re Here.” Duke says he thought most of his 400-member congregation at Newburgh United Methodist Church shared his inclusive views. He was taken aback when a prominent congregation member, soon backed by other churchgoers, circulated emails attacking him.