Advancing Equality In Love And Marriage

A wooden block with the word love surrounded by a wooden ring.

Love is one of the things that makes us, as a people, thrive. We love our families. We love our friends. We grow to love those in our communities. We love those in our church. And we even love those who are in our schools. Love is a matter of the heart. Most persons who…

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Today Is Painful, But It Is Not The End

A woman sitting in a church.

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…

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Is Religious Freedom For Everyone?

A man in a suit and tie speaking into a microphone.

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…

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The Freedom To Say “I Do”

I was delighted when I heard the news that the United Church of Christ (UCC) had brought a landmark lawsuit against the State of North Carolina to hopefully overturn Amendment One. According to multiple media sources, the UCC filed a lawsuit to challenge state marriage laws that restrict a pastor’s freedom to exercise their religious…

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A Tale Of Three Bishops

A collage of three priests, one with glasses and one with glasses.

Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby (pictured middle above), laid the mass murders of Christians at the feet of same-gender married couples and Americans: I have stood by gravesides in Africa of a group of Christians who had been attacked because of something that had happened in America….[If the Church of England accepted same-gender marriage,] the…

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United Methodists Gathering For Full LGBTQ Inclusion At Wedding

A man and woman pose for a selfie with their dogs.

Despite their denomination’s policy against gays and lesbians, people of faith from all over California and neighboring states will be celebrating a “Season of Love” this coming May—a call for acts of love and support for full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people in The United Methodist Church. “It all begins with…

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The Radical Reversal

A stained glass window with a woman holding a sword.

The recent news that World Vision USA had decided to honor marriages in all forms—between those of opposite genders and those of the same gender—had many within progressive circles of faith elated. I was one who believed that their decision was prophetic in nature, and that by taking this stand, they were saying to same-gendered…

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When World Vision Blinked

A child sits at a table with a drawing of a truck.

I didn’t go to church much growing up, but that didn’t stop church ideas getting into me. They were just there, like an invisible, odorless gas that you couldn’t help but breathe in until they became part of you, blood and bone. It’s how I learned the Golden Rule, and also how I learned that…

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The Adventist Church’s Denial Is Deadly For African LGBTI People

A group of people posing in front of a brick wall.

Last week, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law a bill that imposes 7-year-to-life sentences for same-sex intimacy, 7-year sentences for those who perform same-sex marriages, and 5-7 years in jail for people and NGOs accused of “promoting homosexuality” or seeking support through the internet or local religious ministers. Once dubbed the “Kill The Gays”…

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