Spoiler: Your average affirming church might be resting on its laurels With every passing moment, it becomes increasingly less revolutionary for a progressive Christian congregation to label itself as some combination of open, affirming or welcoming. Denominational schisms notwithstanding, more and more Christians are saying
Lent is supposed to be a time when Christians engage in reflection, remembrance, and repentance — a practice I wholeheartedly embrace. But just one week into it, I’m already finding it hard to maintain focus amid the now-daily headlines chronicling the mounting societal backlash against
[The passing of former Pope Benedict XVI] marks what is, I hope, the end of a long, painful era for LGBTQIA+ Catholics, our families, and the entire church. (DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke) Pope Benedict XVI, who served as pope from 2005 until his historic
Please don’t rehab ‘God’s Rottweiler,’ who pushed cruelty Pro tip: If you subscribe to a faith system that isn’t centered around loving and caring for other human beings, then you’re not really religious, you’re just in a hate group. (Text of a popular Internet meme)
Let’s talk about what Progressive Christianity is and how it’s reshaping U.S. churches A bunch of North Carolina congregations just left (disaffiliated from) the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. As a child sitting through fierce anti-gay sermons in the American
The 2022 Violence Against Women Act, which Congress re-authorized in March, includes the first federal grant program specifically designed to serve LGBTQ survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence. The new funding could lead to expanded trans-friendly services to which pastors and laypeople can refer
No surprises here The recent release of that 300-page report of widespread sexual abuse and its cover-up by leaders and ministers in the Southern Baptist Convention (America’s largest Protestant denomination) is only a surprise to people who’ve been in denial about the millennia-long history of
Here’s a message you probably won’t hear at church this morning: You don’t need “church.” That’s right, you don’t need it. At all. You can live and do everything Jesus commanded and modeled without “church.” In fact, often better. With a steeple on nearly every
The Bible is laced with stories of murder. Christianity is laced with stories of murder. Conservative evangelicalism is laced with stories of murder. Fact, fact, fact. Everywhere you turn, it’s here, there, and everywhere; past, present, and future. Whether intended or not, spiritual, emotional, and
The long-awaited justice for R. Kelly’s survivors finally came last month when a New York federal jury found him guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking. For nearly 30 years, underage black girls and their families have tried to bring Kelly to justice. Now the question