Rev. Joe Parramore: Love Your Neighbor As You Love Yourself
Rev. Joe Parramore has a straightforward approach to following Jesus: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” A self proclaimed adrenaline junky, Parramore believes that living his faithful life is all in the attitude and approach.
As the President and Founding Pastor of New Journey Ministries, Parramore has led on issues concerning the LGBTQ community since before he could remember on non-discrimination, hate and violence.
Parramore has played an instrumental role in the passage of the Jacksonville Human Rights Ordinance and worked vigorously on the passage of Florida’s Competitive Workforce Act.
“We have seen overwhelming responses of support from engaging voices from the community of faith,” Parramore reports. “I hope that my work will continue to empower the LGBTQ community and its allies and affect those that have been misguided by tortured theology.”
This work does have challenges. Christian nationalism and white power, privilege and control have given Parramore the challenge of “negating and inoculating against [toxic] misinformation.” These complex spaces are the difficult areas where true change needs to come.
In spite of all this complexity, Parramore still has hope. “There are more commonalities that we share as a community of faith than there are differences,” Parramore said. Through this work, “I hope humanity will gain a new perspective of the Christian faith and its evolution.”