Posts by Believe Out Loud
An Eagle Scout’s Call For Inclusion
I would applaud Boy Scouts of America if it permitted openly gay scouts to fully participate in Scouts. However, the Scouts must also accept openly gay Assistant Scoutmasters and Scoutmasters. Anything less still amounts to a clear, implicit message that homosexuality is an abomination so horrible that it, alone, undermines the full value and integrity of that…
Read MoreInside Out Faith: Accepting The Call To Tell My Story
Ironically, it wasn’t until I came out that I began to discover that being gay wasn’t the end of my relationship with the church. In fact, I couldn’t get those loony Christians to stop calling me. Hadn’t they heard I was queer? What use could I possibly be to the church? In a strange twist…
Read MoreTrans Clergy Building Bridges In Multicultural Ministry
As a child, I was taken to my grandmother’s Baptist church in South Georgia every Christmas and Easter. While I am thankful for those experiences with her and have come to understand just how deeply and beautifully her faith has impacted me, I didn’t feel particularly connected to the church at that time. It wasn’t…
Read MorePeople Of Faith Support Equality In Scouting
This Thursday, 1400 members of the Boy Scouts’ National Council will converge in Dallas to vote on a resolution critical to the Boy Scouts’ longstanding ban on gay members. Many people are speaking out, and GLAAD is making sure that the voices of fair-minded people are heard, including people of faith. 70% of Scout troops…
Read MoreA Pentecost Story: The Spiritual Side of Being Bi
I confess, I cringe a bit at the identification of being “bisexual,” not because it is incorrect. It is very true that I have the capacity to be attracted to both women and men. The problem is how limiting “bisexual” is as a description of who I am as a “bi” person. For me, it…
Read MoreCelebrate Equality & Work For Justice: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO)
What a groundswell! Twelve states, our nation’s capital and several Native American tribes in the United States now have marriage equality. Minnesota was the most recent. Illinois, Nevada and New Mexico are taking steps to join the ranks. So why were two gay men surrounded and beaten in New York City a few days ago? Why did a New…
Read MoreQueering The Pulpit: Exploring Gender & Sexuality In Ministry
Each Sunday, clad in a bright red robe, I step into the pulpit. Before I even utter a word, my body preaches on my behalf. My gendered, queer, dancing, disordered body proclaims the Word before I ever open my mouth. There are Sundays when a congregant might ask me, “Why do you always talk about…
Read MoreAddressing Religion-Based Bigotry
The week of the Supreme Court hearings on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), I had the opportunity to engage with people from across the country—many who supported marriage equality for committed same-sex couples, and many who did not. Of those who did, the reasons were many: “Federalism!” “Equal protection!” “Freedom of…
Read MoreIn Your Absence, I Found Christ
You sit straight up in your pew, white shirt pressed, artificially hiding all of your stains, amen’ing each time the pastor condemns me: “Homosexuals, unnatural, abomination.” You nod your head after each sentence, blindly stamping me a first class ticket into exile: “It’s a choice, you have to be celibate, I don’t agree with your lifestyle.” Your…
Read MoreRoad To Emmaus: Building Relationship With My Mother
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”(Luke 24:32) The Road to Emmaus pericope has become one of my favorites in the biblical canon. The more I read it the more I consider the relational ministry of Jesus, and how relationships play a…
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