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"My own life and attitude has been profoundly changed by listening to the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people and their families. My conviction became very strong that in some way a forum must be provided for us to tell our stories. Finally, I realized that God was asking me to make it possible for some of these stories to be heard." - Roberta Showalter Kreider from the introduction of "From Wounded Hearts"
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Roberta Showalter
Kreider grew up with the traditional view of homosexuality. For fifty-eight
years, there wasn’t any need to think much about the subject, because
she thought her church had all the answers she needed.
Two weeks before he died, her youngest brother revealed to her that he
was a gay man and was dying with AIDS. His words: “My sexual fantasies
have always been with men,” were burned indelibly into her memory!
It was a long and painful journey until she realized that what she had
been taught about homosexuality was false, unfair, and cruel. Armed with
that knowledge, Roberta and her husband Harold, a retired Mennonite minister,
became advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.In
her books, From Wounded Hearts and Together in Love, Roberta has provided
a forum for their GLBT friends to tell their faith stories.
Roberta Showalter Kreider was born during a huge snowstorm on April 3,
1926, in a farmhouse near the small town of Inman in McPherson County,
Kansas. Her three older brothers remember they were sent upstairs
to play and when they came down they had a baby sister. Two
young cousins took a team and wagon across the fields to meet the doctor
to bring him the remainder of the way. Roberta arrived before the
doctor did.
Her preacher brother, who later became a psychologist, often asked her to teach the summer Bible school in several states, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama, beginning after she was a freshman in high school.
There was a shortage of teachers during World War II, and after one semester of college, Roberta was granted an emergency certificate to teach. She and a friend boarded with a local family and taught in a two-room country school near Meade, Kansas. The first year she taught grades one through four and the second year she moved to grades five through eight, so another friend could teach the lower grades. As the upper grade teacher, she also served as principal. Janitorial services were shared by both teachers.
In April 1946, Roberta married Harold Glen Kreider, a farmer's son from Palmyra, Missouri. He was ordained to the Christian Ministry in the Mennonite Church in 1950. Harold finished college and seminary when their children were in elementary and secondary schools. The couple served in pastorates at Palmyra and Hannibal in Missouri and Osceola and Goshen in Indiana. Harold served two terms as interim pastor in a team ministry at Perkasie Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania.
In 1983, they moved to rural Sellersville, Pennsylvania, where they remodeled an old stone house with their daughter Evelyn and son-in-law Nelson Martin. The Kreiders live in the first floor apartment and the Martins and their three children live in the two floors above.
Roberta has always enjoyed books. When Harold was in seminary she worked part-time in the seminary library and after they moved to Pennsylvania, she worked part-time in the Resource Center of Franconia Mennonite Conference for seven years. Homemaking has always been top priority for her. The couple has three daughters, four grandsons, and one granddaughter.
In their retirement years, Roberta and Harold are involved in seeking justice for their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender friends and enjoy the many friends that God has brought into their lives.
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