We’re Not Supposed To Be Here

A statue of a man in front of stained glass windows.

Have you ever felt like you’re not where you’re supposed to be? I’m not talking about misreading directions and getting lost. I’m talking about being in a place, a dynamic, a behavior where your gut tells you, “I’m not supposed to be here.” Recent storms ravaged Houston. Christ United Church of Cypress was flooded; their…

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Faith Leaders Launch Bilingual, LGBTQI-Affirming Trauma Support Network

Will listen with love orlando.

Launching in response to the devastating killings in Orlando, the “Will Listen With Love” Project is a national support network comprised of pastors, therapists, spiritual directors and community support providers who have volunteered their time to offer safe and affirming space for grieving members of the LGBTQIA community and their allies to be heard. Unlike…

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A Christian Mom’s Call To Do The Right Thing

A woman and a child walking on a beach at sunset.

As a mother of a gay son, I don’t think you can really understand where an LGBTQ person is coming from unless you come from a place of intense love. I don’t know that the LGBTQ issue would have registered much on my radar if I didn’t have someone whom I loved intensely struggling with…

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Why I Can’t Forget My Blackness

A group of people sitting at a table.

The discomfort of being THE black guy in the room is something that I have to negotiate over and over again. Often/especially in progressive and/or queer political spaces, I am one of very few people of color—it seems that there are places where the demographic “count” to cover all bases means that there’s one of…

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When Expanding Our Table Isn’t Enough

A brown bun on a napkin on a table.

As people who believe that Christianity has room for the LGBTQ community, we can be zealous about our efforts to win people to our side. We want people to understand that God truly does love everyone, that the Bible isn’t just a queer bashing book, and that people don’t have to throw away their faith…

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For God Is Love

A blurry image of a street at night.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8 Do we really believe that scripture? I believe this verse would serve us well to consider in its literal…

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What I Love About The U.S.A.

A collage of people with beards and smiles.

As I look upon the faces and read the names of the 14 people murdered during a holiday party of colleagues serving the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, I am reminded of why I love the United States of America. I see men and women of diverse national and racial and ethnic ancestries.  I see…

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My Life As A Gay Mormon

Two men standing in front of a sign for the church of jesus christ later day saints.

As a gay Mormon, I make my home in the borderlands. In a theology that says every man must be married to a woman in order to be with God and progress in heaven, gay Mormons are anomalies. No one quite knows what to do with us. For a while, the answer was to serve…

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Leaving The Catholic Church & Finding My Way Home

A woman walking in a park.

In the spring of 2014, I found myself in the last place I’d ever expected—the dark, close-set box of an old confessional. The wood muffled all other sounds as the priest slid open a little screen before me. I knelt down and said I couldn’t remember the last time I was there, and I began…

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