Spiritual abuse: What is it? A preacher, his face distorted with rage, shouts anti-gay slogans from his pulpit into a television camera. A mother quietly tells her son that he is no longer her son because he has just revealed that he is gay. She
If I were to describe my childhood in one word, it would have to be dysfunctional. I was literally the product of adultery. At the time my parents met they were both married and had families of their own. Shortly after, they “fell in love”
Crucifying Zacchaeus The response by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community to the recent John Paulk incident, in which Exodus board chair John Paulk was discovered sipping drinks in a gay bar, has been venom-filled, entirely un-Christian, and damaging to the cause of
John Paulk in Wonderland During the past year, homophobic religious and political forces have accelerated and intensified their unrelenting attacks against homosexuals with ads in newspapers, magazines, and television. John Paulk and his “former lesbian” wife Anne have become symbols of the “ex-gay” push for
After twenty years of marriage, I left home, at my wife’s request, because of my being “mentally homosexual.” There had been few homosexual experiences — only a couple of encounters during my younger years. I was 53 years old, very much a believer in the
This article is an excerpt from the book From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People and Those Who Love Them, compiled and edited by Roberta Showalter Kreider, with a Foreword by Peggy Campolo, published by Chi Rho Press. I was
Webster describes a label as “a descriptive or identifying word or phrase, a brand.” We brand things and people everyday. One of my favorite pastimes is to go to the park or mall and people-watch. It’s a cornucopia of labeling. There goes a fat person,
“Choice” — and how both gay and religious leaders perceive it — is a key word in today’s noisy national debate about gay rights. The issue focuses on the American Psychological Association’s quandary on how it can offer “reparative” therapy to gay people without seeming
As answered by a gay Christian biologist I have written this for those whose guilt has been etched deeply by the official positions of various Christian denominations as well as for those whose pain has been exacerbated by the unkindnesses shown to them through the
I am a straight woman who has been on a long journey. I have been a Christian since the age of five. I married at the age of 27 and very shortly realized I had made a mistake. I was in a very abusive relationship