Posts by Believe Out Loud
An Evangelical Transformation: Powerful & Unique
Now as he [Saul] was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get…
Read MoreCrossing The State Border: From Married To Single In An Instant
I want to begin my musing with a little history. In June 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Black woman, and Richard Loving, a White man, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws. Shortly after their marriage, the Lovings returned to Virginia and established their marital abode in Caroline…
Read MoreWhen Our Daughter Came Out
Four years ago our daughter came out to us as bi. She was 20. My first thoughts were that we’d never be the same in the church. No kidding. My daughter is telling me something very intimate and scary, several thoughts are going through my head, and I am a little surprised to realize that…
Read MoreThe Family Secrets In My Grandmother’s Bible
My grandmother’s Bible is in remarkable shape, considering it’s spent almost 20 years shuttling between cardboard boxes, garages, and basements, and traveled more than 1,000 miles from Florida to New York. Its soft leather cover is free of cracks, its maroon handles show no strain, and its zipper opens smoothly. But the book inside is…
Read MoreToday Is Painful, But It Is Not The End
In June 2013, Mary Ann Barclay was removed from her ordination process by her United Methodist Board of Ordained Ministry after she married a woman. After being reinstated in December 2013 by Southwest Texas Bishop Jim Dorff, Barclay interviewed before the board this week and was not recommended for commissioning. The following is her statement on this…
Read MoreHow A Conservative Catholic Girl Became A Producer On A Gay Web Series
I write this blog with some hesitation because it feels as if I am straddling some sort of battle line and I risk upsetting my comrades on both sides. That being said, let me tell you my story. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio to parents who were both wonderfully Catholic and wonderfully Ohioan. Both…
Read MoreIs Religious Freedom For Everyone?
Tony Perkins (above), president of the Family Research Council and frequently-booked anti-LGBT extremist pundit, recently announced that unless you are an orthodox Christian, then you are not entitled to religious freedom. Furthermore, he claims that you can only be considered an orthodox Christian if you do not believe in LGBT equality. So, in short, religious freedom…
Read More“Jesus Preaches In The Temple”
It took Douglas Blanchard’s painting “Jesus Preaches in the Temple” and Kittredge Cherry’s reflections on his series of 24 paintings of Jesus’ life, The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision, to remind me that scripture says several times that Jesus taught in the temple in the midst of the Passion narrative. Of course, most of us remember that when Jesus…
Read MoreFinding God In Transition
From my teens to my early twenties, I was a good Catholic boy. I went to mass several times a week, which included playing guitar with two different church choirs. In college, I even went to Protestant Bible studies to hear the Word of God. When I was 18, I began to explore becoming a…
Read MoreTrans-forming Love: New Ways Ministry To Advance Transgender Education And Justice
As marriage equality and, broadly speaking, lesbian/gay equality become widespread, LGBT advocacy has begun focusing more on the “T” of the common acronym. New Ways Ministry and other Catholic institutions have begun to help church members better understand this community. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 84% of Catholics agree that lesbian/gay legal protections…
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