Why Do You Stay?

I have a lot of respect for a friend of mine. He is a gay man, warm, charming and loving. For the last two decades, he has also been an active member in our church. Ours is a church with more heterosexual people than not.

I Am a Stranger

Imagine what it’s like growing up in a Christian household and fearing that you might be Gay? There is a ninety percent chance that you have not personally experienced this type of secret inner trauma. Imagine attending grade school only to hear the teacher question

Coming Out as a Child of God

Living in the closet is sort of like staying in the womb! It’s safe! At least we can fool ourselves into believing it is safe. But safe isn’t always comfortable. It’s a struggle between who we are and who we want to be. With how

So, Who’s Coming Out?

Coming out has many connotations for me, and everyday I add some. When we become aware of our individuality, say around puberty, we often wonder who we are in relation to the next person. The answer for some comes easier than for others. The degree

Pride, Shame, Humility

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18 NRSV) On an unseasonably warm (even for Texas) January morning, I was waiting for a bus and saw a man, I would guess in his late 30s, walk by wearing a tank

Coming Out Without Coming On Too Strong

Some Christians really irritate me. You know the kind, those who can work “Jeeezuss” into every conversation. Those who can find a way to give God the credit for everything from a free parking space to a beautiful day. Don’t get me wrong, I always

Feeling Good About Yourself: A Guide to Coming Out

Coming out is admitting to yourself and to at least one other person that you are homosexual. You Cannot Come Out To God. God made you like you are and already knows all about you, loves you and accepts you. God loves you and wants

7 Steps to Reclaiming the Name of ‘Christian’

Until just a few years ago I didn’t know there could be such a thing as a gay Christian. I am now a reformed heterosexist, formerly guilty of homophobic, wrong-headed thinking. I didn’t know about GLBT Christians until I came across magazines such as “Whosoever.”

The Celestine Vision

Fellowship Congregational Church, Tulsa, Okla. Reading for Transfiguration Sunday (Last Sunday after Epiphany): Luke 9:28-36 Early 20th century English writer G. K. Chesterton once defined philosophy as “thinking that had been thought out.” We are influenced, Chesterton went on to say, either by thought that

Meeting Jesus Again

Fellowship Congregational Church, Tulsa, Okla. Reading for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany: Luke 5:1-11  You can always tell what is going on in the United States by what people are willing to spend their money on. Books about religion or the sacred are currently better