If you want it. “I don’t want to live in this world anymore.” That’s what the voice in my head said yesterday as I learned of yet another mass shooting in yet another elementary school, taking away the precious lives of more children and those
How long, O Lord, must we listen to the totally bogus justification for marriage inequality that says: “Traditional marriage is between one man and one woman?” I suppose probably as long as we’ll hear all the other old, long-ago-debunked, bogus arguments against LGBTQ people. Historically
A personal paradigm shift Walking home alone, after speaking at my first gay rights rally in 2005, I couldn’t understand why I felt so empty and deflated. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the skills to communicate with a crowd. As a high-profile preacher in
Here’s a message you probably won’t hear at church this morning: You don’t need “church.” That’s right, you don’t need it. At all. You can live and do everything Jesus commanded and modeled without “church.” In fact, often better. With a steeple on nearly every
Right-wing politicians so far this year have proposed more than 325 anti-LGBTQ+ bills around the country, exceeding the previous record of 268 set last year. That’s no coincidence, as if these proposals have just arisen spontaneously from the grassroots. This is a well-funded national, top-down
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? (Hillel the Elder, first century BCE rabbi) The second [great commandment] is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mark
I should not have to write this story, but here we go It’s a personal story that illustrates a sad but powerful truth about LGBTQ people, Christianity, and mental health. I wish I didn’t have to tell the story, but I do, because people who
The Bible is laced with stories of murder. Christianity is laced with stories of murder. Conservative Evangelicalism is laced with stories of murder. Fact, fact, fact. Everywhere you turn, it’s here, there, and everywhere; past, present, and future. Whether intended or not, spiritual, emotional, and
It doesn’t take much awareness to notice that our Universe loves — really loves — diversity. Just imagine what our world would look like if it were all one color. From the bright red of the male cardinal to the subtle colorings of his female
Or, what to do when you drop the dog food I dropped nearly a whole bowl of dog food onto the floor this morning. It was a spiritual epiphany. The breakfast for my 9-year-old German Shepherd, The Lord (because “The Lord is my shepherd”), must