Oklahomans for equality

Faith in Crisis

Special Note: this group will stop meeting at the end of May 2008.
  • Is your spiritual or religious faith in crisis at least in part because of your sexual orientation?
  • Are you struggling to maintain your faith in light of religious beliefs that conflict with being gay?
  • Have you experienced oppression from religious or spiritual communities for your sexual orientation?
  • Do you question your status with God and/or your religion because you are gay?
  • Are you angry with God for painful experience encountered in the church or through your religion?
  • Do you wish to hold on to your faith and the religious beliefs and practices from your childhood, but believe you are not able to because you are gay?
  • Would you like to know others who share these and similar kinds of struggles?
  • Would you like a safe and supportive place to discuss these concerns and learn from how others are coping with them?

OkEq offers a support group for those experiencing religious/spiritual crises or questioning related to sexual orientation and identity. This group will provide a safe, confidential environment for sharing questions and concerns, supporting others, learning from others’ experiences, and collaboratively exploring religious/spiritual crises and ways to manage, cope, grow and heal from such experiences. This group is open to the LGBTQ community and their friends, family, and allies. Participants are to be 18 and older.

Faith in Crisis meets at the Equality Center the second and fourth Saturday of each month, from 3-4:30pm. For more information, contact Deputy Director Mana Tahaie at programs@okeq.org.


Faith in Crisis Facilitators

Dr. Chad V. Johnson

 Chad V. Johnson received his PhD from Pennsylvania State University in counseling psychology. He received his master’s in school psychology from Trinity University and bachelor’s in psychology from Texas A&M University. He is an Assistant Professor of Human Relations at the University of Oklahoma, as well as a licensed psychologist (Iowa). His research and clinical interests include social justice, the interface of spirituality and psychology, group psychotherapy, and body-oriented and experiential psychotherapies.




Rev. Tamara Lebak

 Reverend Tamara Lebak is the Assistant Minister at All Souls In Tulsa and is an independent consultant with change management experience that focuses on maneuvering between multiple levels of system. In her ministry as well as her consulting, Tamara integrates her training in Gestalt Organization and Systems Development, conflict management, appreciative inquiry, and community organizing in diverse racial and economic settings. She has been a chaplain at a maximum security prison and a university hospital, a French and epistemology teacher, and a singer in a rock and roll band. Tamara has worked with numerous educational, religious, community and non-profit institutions including the National Park Service and the Africa division of the World Bank.