Posts Tagged ‘Racial Justice’
The Source Of My Hope For The United Methodist Church
As a young queer and trans person seeking ordination in The United Methodist Church, I am incredibly blessed to have a wealth of role models to look to as I imagine the type of minister I hope to become. This may seem a strange thing to say in a denomination that has written discrimination against…
Read MoreCelebrating All Kinds of Love This Valentine’s Day
After last June’s historic Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, “the love that dare not speak its name,” which publicly outed Oscar Wilde at his “gross indecency” trial in 1895, is finally and forever out of the closet. We were told by religious conservatives if the U.S. legalized such an ungodly act as same-sex…
Read MoreWhy I Can’t Forget My Blackness
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…
Read MoreIf Dr. King’s Dream Had Come True
When I was in the fourth grade, I saw a video of Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech for the first time. As I was nine and we were watching it on a blurry box TV, I didn’t pay much attention to it. That was unfortunate because, as an adult,…
Read MoreHow Breaking Bread With Queer Christians Helped Me Rediscover Radical Love
On Sunday I took communion for the first time in more than a year. I hadn’t been avoiding it deliberately, but I realized just how long it had been as I approached the line to receive bread and wine (juice). I’ve heard the phrases “The body of Christ broken for you;” “The blood of Christ shed…
Read MoreMy Coming Out Helped Me Realize My White Privilege
Five years ago, at Christmas, I went home for the holidays and announced to my family that I was planning on going to seminary. For the most part, my family was excited and supportive of my decision to pursue ordained ministry, but a few were resistant. As it turned out, they felt that my being…
Read MoreGiving Thanks For The Gift Of Revolutionary Love
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there….If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night’, even the darkness is not dark to…
Read MoreDecolonizing Queer Bodies & Identities
A couple of weeks ago I had the great opportunity to participate in the Faith and Family Power Summit in Salt Lake City, UT, organized by the National LGBTQ Taskforce. The keynote address of openly lesbian United Church of Christ Bishop Yvette Flunder challenged me to seek learning opportunities that will sharpen my consciousness around…
Read MoreRe-examining Our Dusty Lenses
Two weeks ago, a young girl was assaulted by a Student Resource Officer at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina. The internet was ablaze with commentary once the video of the incident went public. Outrage and grief overflowed from Facebook statuses and tweets. Particularly for African Americans, and especially for African American women, the…
Read MoreWhat Should White LGBTQ Organizations Do Post-Marriage Equality?
Are we each other’s brother’s keeper? With this June’s historic Supreme Court ruling, Obergefell v. Hodge, that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, many white LGBTQ organizations nationwide have been questioning what to do next. Last month the Harvard Alumni Association and the Harvard Gender & Sexuality Caucus picked up the gauntlet to answer that…
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