Jeff Hiller

Stick around, everyone.

The big payoff for the audience.

Yeah, sure.

I definitely did not.

I was going to say I didn't love myself, but I didn't even like myself.

I did kind of think I deserved it because... Deserved to be bullied?

Yeah, yeah.

And deserved to be hated because I did sort of...

think I was bad, inherently bad, because I was gay and because I was, you know, girlish and chubby and, you know, not attractive in the conventional sense.

Yeah, I did pick on myself quite a bit.

But I have to tell you, I didn't do it nearly as badly as some of the other kids.

I got the gold medal there.

You hear the word evangelical, and it sounds pretty right-wing, but the ELCA is actually the...

slightly more progressive arm of the Lutheran Church.

There are different factions.

And so when I was growing up, that church was really a lot about

Social justice and being called by God to help people.

Not because we are required to help people in order to get into heaven or whatever.

We have grace for that.

But because we are given this wonderful gift of life from God.