Posts Tagged ‘biblical interpretation’
Erskine College Releases Anti-Gay Position That Will Inform “Institutional Decisions”
In February, the Board of Trustees at Erskine College, a Christian liberal arts school associated with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Due West, South Carolina, released a discriminatory statement claiming that marriage is “between a man and a woman,” and that sexual relationships between two people of the same sex are “contrary to the will of the…
Read MoreTo Christian Parents of Gay Children
“You want to shove those words back in and put the lid on. But you can’t. Your child is gay. This goes against everything you’ve been taught. It was not what you had in mind, and you instantly wonder where you went wrong.” When you become a parent, you know to expect the unexpected. But…
Read MoreThe Day Love Reigned In Florida
From faiths of all traditions, we clergy stood waiting to be selected like kids on a childhood playground. People from all walks of life had gathered: gay, straight, couples, singles, families with children, black, white, Latino, and Asian. People mingled introducing one to another. All of us there for one purpose, to celebrate and witness the…
Read MoreComing Out: An Ash Wednesday Reflection
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (…) But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which…
Read MoreReflecting God & Rethinking Scripture
Every human being reflects a part of God. God’s divinity is impressed upon our being, regardless of our race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or ability and that invests us all with value. If we are all created in God’s image, we should all be equally valued. That means we as a church need to affirm…
Read MoreFrom The Pulpit: The Names We Must Speak In Church
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of preaching at my home congregation in Pittsburgh, PA. As it was the first Sunday in Advent, I knew that my topic would have something to do with looking to what the Biblical text said about the return of Jesus to inform us about waiting for His…
Read MoreGod Is Bigger Than Everything: Reflections On The Reformation Project
Growing up the thing that fascinated me the most about God was his size. My mother would tell me that God is bigger than everything. She would also tell me that God is everything, which I always questioned because wouldn’t that mean God would even be bigger than himself at times? Yet, my mother never…
Read MoreLove Trumps Law
You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (James 2:8) Do you know why Jesus got on the nerves of the Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious people of his day? Do you know why those same religious people tended to repel the “sinners,”…
Read MoreGay Passion Of Christ Revealed In New Art Book
Image Detail: “Jesus Goes to His Execution” by Doug Blanchard My long journey with the queer Christ reached a milestone this month with the publication of my new book The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision. The book features paintings of Jesus as a gay man of today in a modern city by New York artist Douglas…
Read MoreConfronting Echoes Of The AIDS Hysteria As We Battle Ebola
Exactly a decade ago this month I received an email flagged as urgent from Monrovia, Liberia. It was from Lee Johnson, then coordinator of “Liberian Youths Against HIV/AIDS.” “Presently, the HIV/AIDS scourge is deeply eating into the fabric of our society and there is little being done to bring this to a halt. Therefore, some…
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