Category Archives: Faith & Witness

Person wearing a sleeveless top facing the ocean

Camp of the Misfits: Finding Where I Misfit-In

I was a painfully awkward kid. Truth be told, I’m still a painfully awkward adult. Laughing too loud, in the wrong places, at the wrong times. Trying to fit in with the cool kids and failing miserably. Now, though, being older, I don’t really give

Grapes at a winery in Okanagan Lake, Canada

How To Escape the Ego’s Badlands: Stop Being a Sour Grape

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday Let the broken hearts stand As the price you’ve gotta pay| We’ll keep pushin’ till it’s understood And these badlands start treating us good — ”Badlands,” Bruce Springsteen “Badlands” has long been one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs.

Gay and lesbian students kiss in front of a group of anti-homosexual protestors.

Jesus’ Memo to the Haters: Worry About Yourselves

Ever year about this time, when Lent starts and Christians begin a journey of spiritual reflection on their relationship with God, it seems like there’s just something that adds even more fuel to the homo- and transphobic fire of the evangelical Christian right’s vision quest

Little girl running through a grassy field in a sleeveless dress

Taking Delight in My Neighbor

The first weekend of January 2024 was interesting, in a microcosm sort of way. There were two different but strangely related situations. I’ll start with the second one first because it’s shorter due to it not being a story I want to tell publicly in

Woman standing in front of a neon sign that says Sin

What’s So Original About Sin?

We are originally blessed with light and joy and peace I was taught, from infancy, that I was born with something called “original sin.” Even as a tiny baby there was a stain on me, passed down from Adam and Eve in the garden after

Rainbow colors and heart on palm of hand

Coming Out As, And For, Love

This is a transcript of a sermon I delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia, SC. The audio (which begins with a song I wrote called “One Breath,” sung with my spouse, Beth DeHart) is included and a link to the video is below.

Person Wearing White High-top Lace-up Sneakers Standing on White Line

One Toke Over the Line, Sweet Jesus

A reflection on Lesson 66 from A Course in Miracles: My happiness and my function are one As a Southern Baptist kid, I was raised with a very stern picture of who God was supposed to be, what He (and it was always a He)