Fernando Alcantar Talks About His Book At Dansbury

By Richard MacTough

 

On Oct. 7, Fernando Alcantar, Author of to the Cross and Back: An Immigrants Journey from Faith to Reason, will present on campus in Lower Dansbury. The start time is 7 p.m.

The presentation is part of LGBTQA’s Coming Out Week as well as a part of the Latino Heritage Month celebration.

To tie the discussion in even further, Oct. 5 will be the end of National Suicide Prevention Month.

Alcantar firmly supports the LGBTQA community and the Trevor project, an organization that works toward preventing suicide from men and women who are not identified as heterosexual.

The community can expect for a brave man to share his story of coming out as gay, something religions, such as Christianity does not agree with.

Whether you are religious or have no such identity, this discussion will be a great learning experience.

Religion can be positive, but Alcantar is sharing why he questions it and longer identifies himself as part of the Christian community.

Diverse discussions are what make college a fantastic experience. According to the author’s webpage, he is also a humanist speaker.  He is about spreading a message of tolerance, understanding and introspection.

Alcantar is a former leader of a couple of churches in Mexico and in The United States.

One thing people should be intrigued by is a man’s courage to leave something that he identified as a majority of his life, and really questioning the practice of religions and saying “is this really ok?”

It is a rare story for someone who was a leader in the Christian community to walk away and become a leader in the non-religious humanist movements that seeks to make everyone equal.

 

He is man looking to support the many that fear to speak openly of religion and their sexuality.

Many fear being abandoned and isolated from their peers, family, and community.

This is not a story about an atheist or Christian. It is not a story about an openly gay or discreetly gay man. The journey isn’t about just his experiences in Mexico compared to The United States. It is a universal story. The presentation is something the East Stroudsburg community should definitely take advantage of.

The book is expected to be released in early November. Meet the man who “came out of two closets.” He is excited and enthusiastic as students to share the journey with him.