Posts Tagged ‘Religious trauma’
Living The Resurrection: My Church’s First LGBT Program
It was Saturday afternoon at 3:38 pm: the doors to the auditorium had been open for 18 minutes, and we already had a filled room. We talked about streaming in one overflow room, but we ended up with three rooms. This was the first program Andrews University, the flagship institution of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA)…
Read MoreWhen ‘Non-Denominational’ Really Means ‘Homophobic’
Because I didn’t know how to tell her, my mother was one of the last people I came out to, but it’s funny—she’s always been the first to have my back. My mother would never let anyone shame her son—even her own church. Not now, not ever. That unwavering support was demonstrated yet again last…
Read MoreBeyond Our Comfort Zones
We all have our comfort zones. Sometimes we decide it’s time to step out, and we just take a leap and hope for the best. Sometimes we’re so afraid of stepping outside of these comfort zones that we never really experience all that life has to offer us. There are even times that we don’t…
Read MorePraying For Our Enemies
I remember the first time I heard the name Fred Phelps. Five days before I turned sixteen, Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked in Laramie, Wyoming. One day after I turned sixteen, Matthew Shepard died. Like many of you around the country, I was glued to the news reports. Enter: Fred Phelps. The first I heard of…
Read MoreWhen World Vision Blinked
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…
Read MoreWhere Do I Go?
I was sitting in Rev. Vance Rains’ office at the Florida State Wesley Foundation the first time I said the words “I’m gay” out loud to any other living human. I specify because of the countless memories I have of telling people in dreams, and also prayerfully informing my deceased grandmother, who I firmly believe…
Read More“We’re Nothing Like Fred Phelps”: An Excuse That Can No Longer Be Used
“As a pastor who has served a church where Fred Phelps protested, I have experienced the vitriol he spewed throughout his life. But if my tradition has taught me anything, it has taught me the power of forgiveness. May his funeral be filled with signs that read ‘you are a beloved creature of worth;’ may…
Read MoreA Prayer For Fred Phelps
In the wake of news that Fred Phelps—famed for picketing funerals with signs of hatred toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people—died, I want to take this opportunity to release this statement of prayer for Fred Phelps and his family. Members of the Metropolitan Community Churches do not celebrate the death of Fred Phelps.…
Read MoreThe Adventist Church’s Denial Is Deadly For African LGBTI People
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”…
Read MoreSilent No More: Denouncing “Christian” Voices Of Hate
When I read that President Museveni had signed the hateful anti-LGBTQ law in Uganda, the first words that came to mind were from the opening song in “Les Misérables.” It’s called “Work Song.” Prisoners in a work camp are expressing their hope and their despair. One sings, “I’ve done no wrong, sweet Jesus hear my…
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