Posts Tagged ‘LGBT-Affirming Religious Voices’
Because You Are, Therefore I Am
“Because you are, therefore I am,” was the greeting that Dr. Ezra Chitando from Zimbabwe expressed to our amazing group of African scholars, theologians, faith leaders, activists and students at the Thorn Tree Lodge, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Dr. Chitando’s words to us were more than a greeting as they are often spoken in the context…
Read More“I Had No Idea Your Blog Was Gay”
After posting the link to my blog, Progressive Christian Reflections, last week on a number of Facebook pages, I took our dog Hobbes to the park and began to wonder what I would write for my next post. I returned to find an e-mail that simply said, “Unsubscribe me. I had no idea that your…
Read MoreA Catholic Nun Devotes Her Life To LGBT Rights
How could Sister Jeannine Gramick have known that meeting a handsome gay stranger named Dominic at a house party on Spruce Street in West Philadelphia would completely change the course of her life? Dominic strode up to her. He was a baptized gay man who had left the Catholic Church because a priest told him…
Read MoreKeeping My Church A Safe Place For The LGBTQ Community
My church, First Church Congregational in Rochester NH, has been “Open and Affirming” (a designation of the United Church of Christ) since 2002. The designation means that we make a specific commitment to welcome the LGBTQ community, to recognize the hurt that had been done to that community by the institutional church, and to work…
Read MoreStill, In One Peace
I believe we can be strong, hopeful, and secure, while discovering how to live each moment, confront every struggle, and handle any adversity. In doing this, we are able to find ourselves living Still, In One Peace. Many of you will know the painful struggles and adversities through which we hope to find ourselves still…
Read MoreWishful Thinking
Surprisingly, Yale Law School professor Dan Kahan has found in a recent study that beliefs about such things as evolution and global warming are not necessarily based on ignorance, but often on a knowledge of the scientific facts that are wilfully resisted because of a person’s political or religious identity and affiliation. In other words,…
Read MoreGay Games 2014: Sponsored By Cleveland’s United Church Of Christ
A generation of young Americans is rejecting Christianity because they widely perceive it to be anti-gay and, as such, “shallow,” “anti-intellectual,” “insincere,” and even “hypocritical.” That wasn’t the finding of some ultraliberal gay group, but rather the conclusion reached by conservative Christian pollsters, the Barna Group, who conducted a groundbreaking study in the mid-2000s and found…
Read MoreOperating Like Jesus: Discrimination Is Not A Christian Value
It’s no wonder that my LGBT friends have often questioned my sanity when I have talked about my Christian faith. They were even more surprised when I eventually decided to go to seminary. Why would I want to be part of a religion that has caused LGBT people so much pain, and that has contributed…
Read MoreQueering Iconography: Why I Wrote And Painted Holy Women Icons
As a scholar of Art and Religion, I have long known the power of images to evoke spiritual meaning, providing believers with a visual entry point into faith. As an ordained queer woman, I have also long known that much of iconography excludes anyone who looks and loves like me. Though there are surely some…
Read MoreOne Size Does Not Fit All: Pastoral Care For LGBT Seniors
I’ve found myself a part of people’s lives in a profound way while providing spiritual care as a chaplain for the past three years. While working in hospice and hospital settings, I have been privileged to be invited into the most delicate and precarious of times. I’ve held the hand of the dying, I’ve comforted…
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