Christianity
On Monday, Dr. Tony Campolo, well known evangelical activist, educator, speaker, and founder of Red Letter Christians released a statement on his blog announcing his official change of heart and mind on inclusion of gay couples in the church. In the statement he says: While I have always tried to communicate grace and understanding to people on both sides of…
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In her keynote address at The Reformation Project’s D.C. Regional conference last November, Rev. Allyson Robinson exhorted Christians in the affirming Church to consider and overcome the “temptation to power,” the temptation to think the LGBT issue is the only gospel issue we should focus on. She asked what kind of Church will we become,…
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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…
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Throughout my first year of seminary, I often had conversations with a good friend living overseas. While our conversation topics ranged from politics to cultural differences to vacation locations, one of our most popular subjects to discuss was religion. We came from two completely different backgrounds-he is a white straight British male who is no…
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An oily black smudge on my forehead and my fingers looking like they’d cleaned a chimney were the indicators Ash Wednesday night that Lent had officially begun. The 40 days of Lent require fasting for the ones who claim to be followers—disciples—of Jesus. Fasting in westernized Christianity suggests that we give up something, that we…
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Four years ago I didn’t think it was possible to be both Gay and Christian. Those identities were diametrically opposed in my mind. To be gay was to have adopted a false identity rooted in sin and to be Christian was to find one’s identity in Jesus Christ alone. So any attempt to mesh these…
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Almost every professional medical association condemns “reparative therapy” as both dangerous and ineffective when applied to changing a person’s sexual orientation. Recently the practice became banned and illegal in California, New Jersey and Washington D.C. with pending legislative actions against its practice in a number of states. I experienced first hand almost six months of…
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“We don’t support that, religiously.”- Carla Alcorn (remark from an interview following the suicide death of her seventeen-year-old transgender daughter) People sometimes ask me why I “came out” as a transgender man and United Methodist clergy. There is more than one answer, but today the quote above from the mother of a seventeen-year-old transgender daughter…
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Donate today to support the movement for Christian faith and LGBTQ equality! As we bring 2014 to a close, we are proud to present the 10 most popular blogs published at Believe Out Loud during 2014! From examining the impact of spiritual abuse to proclaiming that discrimination is not a Christian value, this list represents…
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A few weeks ago, I had the honor of preaching at my home congregation in Pittsburgh, PA. As it was the first Sunday in Advent, I knew that my topic would have something to do with looking to what the Biblical text said about the return of Jesus to inform us about waiting for His…
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