Category Archives: The Church

St. Peter’s Square, Vatican, Rome

LGBTQ+ Catholics Run Point in Truth-Telling About Pope Benedict

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)

Methodist church

N.C. United Methodists Leave Church in Huge Win for LGBTQ+ People

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

Man in church pew. By Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

How Churches Can Support Transgender Survivors of Abuse

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

Floating man

You Don’t Need the Church

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

Woman with piercings

Conservative Evangelicalism, Are You Going to Kill Me Too?

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

Hands waving

The Black Church Was One of R. Kelly’s Enablers

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

Saints Sergius and Bacchus

Sergius & Bacchus: Sainted Same-Sex Military Couple

In LGBTQ+ History Month it’s worth recognizing how difficult it is not to read modern prejudices or hopes back into the lives of famous characters. Before the 19th-century category of sexual orientation labelled “homosexuality” was invented there wasn’t a way to categorize those we’d today

Screenshot of BYU valedictorian Matt Easton from ABC4 news coverage about his 2019 coming out

Mormon Homophobia Clashes With Love at BYU

As I confess a secret vice Mormons (members of the LDS Church) tend to be some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. In fact, I have a secret vice to confess in that respect. But first… Let’s talk about the LDS Church’s cruel homophobia problem. Let’s

Sunbeams passing through church windows

Puerto Rico Conference of Catholic Bishops Incites Anti-Trans Hatred

Bishops incite anti-trans hate A friend of mine in Puerto Rico tipped me off the other day that the American territory’s Conference of Catholic Bishops was endorsing a massive street protest against local political efforts to make the island safer and more legally equitable for transgender