Posts Tagged ‘Social Justice’
I Will Not Be Bullied By My Church
“F**got!”- the big boys yelled across the school yard. You try to avoid eye contact, mindful that you’re about to burst into tears. You get home and run up to your room to hide your bruises and drown your broken heart with loud music. You shut out your parents, who might not call you names,…
Read MoreChanging The Conversation On Catholic Church Workers’ Rights
It seems as if every few months, and sometimes weeks, Bondings 2.0 covers the story of a Catholic church worker who lost a job in an LGBT-related dispute made public. There are more than fifty such cases since 2008, but there are signs of hope as ecclesial forces increasingly resist these firings. Augustinian Father Paul Morrissey…
Read MoreWhy I Advocate For LGBT People Of Color
Every Sunday, many African American gays worship in churches that preach hate and prejudice against them. We sit in silence in the pews even though we are tithing members of the congregation. After Antonia Pantoja, my partner and colleague for 30 years, died of cancer in 2002, I came to understand just how much the…
Read MoreWhere Have All the Black Men Gone?
A few weeks ago I was stunned by a front page New York Times article headlined, “1.5 Million Black Men, Missing from Daily Life.” As troubling as the recent deaths of young black men at the hands of law enforcement have been, they serve as tragic examples of a larger trend of our own “disappeared,”…
Read MoreThe Wholeness Of The Body Of Christ: Marriage Equality, Christian Unity, & Mainline Decline
Last month, Adam Hamilton shared this post about marriage equality in the United Methodist Church. Hamilton is a public figure, an authoritative voice not just within his own denomination, but within all of mainline Protestantism. He’s a popular author and speaker, and having grown his church to ‘mega’ status—mostly unheard of outside of fundamentalist circles—his voice carries.…
Read MoreRev. Dr. Gerald Trigg: A Lifetime Of Biblical Obedience
Rev. Dr. Gerald Trigg was a minister who not only understood, but lived Biblical Obedience through his support of civil rights and later LGBTQ advocacy. He died at 81 years old this week but he left a life-long ministry of social justice work that speaks well of this United Methodist leader. In 1963, Rev. Trigg…
Read MoreRally At Supreme Court Represents Larger Debates On Marriage Equality
Two years ago, the day after our engagement, Thos and I stood at this very place in front of the Supreme Court. We took an active part in a rally on front of the steps of the United States Supreme Court on the day oral arguments were heard for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)…
Read MoreBlack Pastors Launch African Tour To Counteract Rick Warren’s Anti-Gay Movement
Spearheaded by The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM), its founder and presiding Bishop Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder and executive director, Bishop-Elect, Pastor Joseph Tolton, the organization’s international outreach ministry The Fellowship Global (TFG) has launched a month long tour of key African nations where LGBTI communities continue to experience extreme discrimination and persecution. These countries include:…
Read MoreEaster Is About Seeing Those At The Margins
For many Christians, Easter is one of their high holy holidays. It’s their religious bedrock that not only anchors them in their faith, but it also shapes and governs them in their view of the world. I’m one of them. The author and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis eloquently captures it for me when he wrote…
Read MoreThe Queering of Jesus: How I Reclaimed My Faith
Today my mother has called me to ask what it is I plan on doing for Good Friday. She knows it has always been my favorite religious holiday of the year and is sure I have made plans. Hearing her voice, a ripe fruit bursting with all that good news and Baptist tabor, only makes…
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