Will American Catholics embrace love? As I cope with the Sunday-morning death of my father, thoughts of religion and spirituality occupy me. As extended family gathered around his deathbed last week, I reflected on my membership in a large Irish-Catholic clan. While much of my
Reading about the pending schism of the United Methodist Church, the denomination I grew up in, was a cold but oddly hopeful reminder to me of just how truly glacial the pace of change in the institutional church will be for LGBTQ+ people. Here we
When Aaron finishes making atonement for the Holy of Holies, the Tent of Meeting, and the Altar, he will bring up the live goat, lay both hands on the live goat’s head, and confess all the iniquities of the People of Israel, all their acts
A survey was done among members of the Metropolitan Community Church, a largely LGBTQ denomination. One of the questions posed was whether it was in the Metropolitan Community Church that they heard for the first time that they were beloved by God? The answer was
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV) Determining what makes a church or faith-based organization successful is based on the needs of the community, the passion of
Can evangelical Americans sleep through this one too? A personal first-hand story: David P. Gushee’s address “Ending the Teaching of Contempt against the Church’s Sexual Minorities” delivered at The Reformation Project Conference in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 8, 2014 (Photo by Rev. Steven Parelli) The
Listen to the podcast interview Imagine it: The Evangelical Christian church in America is a place of extravagant welcome for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians. Not the kind of welcome that we have right now. You know, the one where we’re welcome to sit
What do we do when our number comes up? Waiting, after all, is not an end in itself; we wait because one day – at least theoretically – our number will be called. It will be our turn. Then the wait will be over, and
The public is getting used to headlines like these: “Evangelical Leader Preaches Pullback from Culture Wars” and “Southern Baptists Sounding Full-scale Retreat in Culture War?” The former is from The Wall Street Journal and the latter from Renew America. The theme has become a constant
As I’ve often contended, there are two venues in which civil and sacramental rights for LGBT people must be fought: the courts, and homophobic churches the influence of which cannot be underestimated. In the latter venue, peaceful and continual picketing during services of selected homophobic