News release WASHINGTON — Responding to votes by leaders of the United Methodist Church that called homosexual relations “incompatible with Christian teaching,” forbade ordination of openly gay or lesbian clergy and prohibited same-sex union ceremonies, members of Dignity/USA expressed sorrow, and pledged to stand with
News release LONG BEACH, Calif. — Eighty-one people were arrested on June 25, 2000 during a peaceful protest by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) individuals and their families, friends, and allies outside of the opening worship service of the 212th General Assembly (GA) of the
Gentle Spirit Christian Church, Atlanta, Ga. Readings: Isaiah 56:3-8, Matthew 23:29-40, Acts 11:1-18 Before I came to Gentle Spirit Christian Church, I spent a few months church shopping. My criterion for a good church was a place that I would feel totally comfortable. “I’ll know
Suffering Cover Stories Our Contribution to Suffering By Rev. Vera I. Bourne None of us are called to be “Messiahs” for no matter how great our need (either subconscious or conscious) for self-sacrifice, or how obsessive this belief may be. God’s gift at Calvary provided
Suffering is always associated with pain, and what a God-given blessing pain can be at times. Pain is always the “alert” signal that something is not as it should be in our bodies, relationships, spiritual journeys or emotions. For those whose nerve endings fail to
Lord, show me, I’m on my knees, even though my soul bleeds, I still believe, Feel like Job ain’t got a thing on me, won’t You tell me please — why God why God why God why God why? The above are lyrics I wrote
Everyone in my family has their own story of personal suffering. How they may have been beat out of a good job by someone less skilled, or wronged by that snip of a policeman who ticketed them for speeding. When I was a child, I
One of my Biblical heroes is the prophet Jeremiah. But boy, I would not want to have had his life! For his life, like Paul’s, was a series of horrible events that would probably cause even the most mature believers to rethink their commitment to
During a rather difficult time in my life, when I had been praying consistently for a broken relationship to be restored, I recall mentioning to my rather conservative Christian father that God seemed to be responding to my prayers with silence, as the woman who
As a man who is a follower of Jesus yet sometimes wears a dress, I have found that most church people would automatically condemn people like me as sinners in need of repentance. They wouldn’t want us in their churches until we cleaned up our