Posts by pwsbuilder
The Black Church: Bold Enough To Affirm LGBTQ People?
The recent VH1 segment, Out in Hip Hop: What Happens When Your Church Doesn’t Accept You; and the recently released BET documentary, Holler If You Hear Me: Black and Gay in the Church reminded me of what I hear over and over again from Black LGBTQ people who experience a loss of connection to the essential social/spiritual network…
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 MoreWhitewashed, Reconciled, & Thankful
The Lakota creation story has the People springing forth from a hole in the ground somewhere in the Black Hills. That idea resonates with me, perhaps because there are many holes in what I know about my heritage. A hole in the ground is as good a place as any; I am very rooted to…
Read MoreMy Life As A Gay Mormon
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…
Read MoreU.S. Bishops’ New Agenda Betrays Catholic Church
As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) concluded its annual meeting last week, it revealed itself as grossly out of touch with both grassroots Catholicism and Pope Francis. Though some objected, the strong majority of U.S. bishops set forth an agenda that has little to do with the Gospel of Jesus. Further, the new…
Read More10 Transgender Christians Share Their Journey Stories—Part II
As Transgender Awareness Week comes to a close, we pause today to honor the journeys of transgender and gender non-conforming people of faith by sharing the 10 journey stories below. These blogs are all written by transgender people of faith, a majority of whom identify as Christian. While these stories share the perspectives of individuals,…
Read MoreHistoric Congressional Forum Addresses Transgender Violence
In an important step towards ending violence against trans people, the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus hosted a forum this Tuesday that brought together advocates and community leaders, including Harper Jean Tobin, the Policy Director for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). NCTE joined fellow LGBT activists and advocates to discuss how to address soaring levels…
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 MoreWhat Happened When I Wrote A Letter To My Archbishop
A few days ago, I got a letter from my archbishop. I couldn’t even wait to get up the stairs to my apartment. The envelope was torn long before I keyed myself into the door and I even scrambled to take a picture of the fact—wind-tossed hair, lacking makeup, it didn’t matter to me. I…
Read MoreAlly Is Action, Not An Identity
You may think you are an ally, but you are wrong. You cannot be an ally. You can only act in allying ways, or you can avoid doing so. There is a big problem in progressive circles; often, you see people prioritize being seen as an ally more than acting like one. This is only…
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