My wife Marilyn and I attended the national convocation, featuring powerful programming for the gay community and its allies in the United Methodist Church, at Lake Junaluska in western North Carolina over this past Labor Day weekend. I don’t know when I’ve ever attended a
On Sept 21st, I read in the New York Times that the Vatican, under Pope Benedict, the former Joseph Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is considering the decision to bar all gays, even celibates, from the priesthood. My immediate reaction
A sharp and clearly-drawn dividing line exists between the Christian Right and Left. While the former holds that divine revelation was essentially complete by the end of the church’s earliest centuries, the latter believes that God continues to reveal truth to those faithful enough to
Old wine in a new skin? In 1986 the Office of the Sacred Congregation of the Faith issued “A Pastoral Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.” The signatory of the document was (then) Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
It would be easy for me to write yet another rant about the ungraciousness of the Religious Right. I’ve done it many times before, and will likely do it again. I’m told I do it very well, and it’s pretty much what people expect of
Many straight Episcopal clergy and their spouses with gay family members aren’t all that surprised by what they see going on in the Anglican Communion these days. Members of Clergy Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (CFLAG) see the church behaving as many families do
I have tried to give the Roman Catholic Church and its new Pope a chance; a chance to recover some of its humanity and compassion that has been missing for 26 years when it comes to not only the gay community of the world but
Readings: 6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers
With all eyes, ears and cameras on a new pope, John Paul II, with no disrespect, is slowly becoming yesterday’s news. But during the two week media frenzy that was John Paul’s life, death and burial, I was a bit taken back by the lack
News release WASHINGTON — The leadership of DignityUSA, the organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) Catholics reacted with dismay to the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as the new Pope. DignityUSA President Sam Sinnett said, “The new Pope is seen as the principle author