After reading four books by Bishop John Shelby Spong, I have decided to reevaluate the first of his books that I read, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture. As you can tell from the title, this book was written
Read the rest of the series Gentle Shepherd Metropolitan Community Church, Phoenix, Ariz. Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered, but a maze of passages, through which we must seek our way, lost and confused, now and again
What’s a shepherd to you? I guess if you are a long time Christian, you have plenty of images to answer that question with. It’s a popular motif in the history of Christian art and symbolism. It’s also the number one metaphor for our spiritual
“The difference between persons and groups of persons is not that some are victims and some are not: we are all victims and all dying from lack of compassion; we are all surrendering our humanity together.” (Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness
“God Hates Fags!” “Matthew Shephard is Burning in Hell!” “No Tears for Queers!” Those were just some of the signs being held aloft by the protesters at this year’s Gay Pride Parade in Atlanta. The protesters had come all the way to Atlanta from their
“There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, no greater misfortune than having an enemy.” — from the Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell Being a member of an oppressed group in this day and age is
When most people think of terrorism, they usually think of foreigners invading their land, especially the incident on Sept. 11. The disturbing truth is terrorism has been plaguing the LGBT community for decades resulting in acts of discrimination and violence. A number of murders of
Are the children really free? Can two people of the same sex live in committed, loving relationships with the blessing of God? This is the question that Rev. Jeff Miner of Jesus MCC of Indianapolis and John Tyler Connoley set out to answer in their
The one choice you can make today to create the beloved community Individually and as a queer community, the time has come to make a bold and decisive commitment to the most congruent and effective means to create change that we can muster given our
Taking the Bible seriously, but not literally There’s nothing quite like the topic of homosexuality to quickly spark a fiery storm of scriptural proof-texting. Both sides marshal all their scriptural evidence. The conservatives whip out their six “clobber” passages and bang them with a hysterical