Nondiscrimination

The sun is shining on a frozen lake with footprints in the snow.

Finding Home For The Holidays

By pwsbuilder / December 15, 2014 / Comments Off on Finding Home For The Holidays

The Christmas season is a difficult time of year for me. I am always bothered by our culture’s egregious forms of commercialism—and its either lack of or its anemic recognition of other forms for religious holidays like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, and the celebration of the winter solstice during this season. Over the years, as I…

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A dog standing in the water near a tree.

What Calvin Taught Me About God

By pwsbuilder / December 4, 2014 / Comments Off on What Calvin Taught Me About God

This is an abridged reprise of a column I wrote for the September, 1995 issue of the More Light Update, the publication of Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns (now More Light Presbyterians) edited by James D. Anderson. Total attentiveness. Unconditional love. Limited judgment. Irresistible grace. Providential play. T.U.L.I.P. This is what Calvin has taught…

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The art of coming out.

Naked Pastor Publishes Cartoons For The LGBTQ Community

By pwsbuilder / November 6, 2014 / Comments Off on Naked Pastor Publishes Cartoons For The LGBTQ Community

David Hayward (aka the Naked Pastor) recently published a new book: The Art of Coming Out: Cartoons for the LGBTQ Community. As an artist who is often featured on Believe Out Loud, we asked him a few questions about his cartoons and advocacy for LGBTQ equality.  1. Why did you write a book for the…

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A heart shaped book on a table next to a candle.

Love Trumps Law

By pwsbuilder / November 5, 2014 /

You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (James 2:8) Do you know why Jesus got on the nerves of the Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious people of his day? Do you know why those same religious people tended to repel the “sinners,”…

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A painting of a man carrying a cross.

Gay Passion Of Christ Revealed In New Art Book

By pwsbuilder / November 3, 2014 /

Image Detail: “Jesus Goes to His Execution” by Doug Blanchard My long journey with the queer Christ reached a milestone this month with the publication of my new book The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision. The book features paintings of Jesus as a gay man of today in a modern city by New York artist Douglas…

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A mural painted on the side of an old building.

Michigan Pastor Opposes Discrimination Against LGBT People

By pwsbuilder / October 29, 2014 / Comments Off on Michigan Pastor Opposes Discrimination Against LGBT People

I know a fair amount about religion and discrimination. And I know they shouldn’t mix. I’m supporting updating Michigan’s landmark Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals—because discrimination is wrong, and religious beliefs shouldn’t foster discrimination. It’s shocking that in Michigan today, it’s legal to fire someone or…

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A person laying on a bed in a room.

Confronting Echoes Of The AIDS Hysteria As We Battle Ebola

By pwsbuilder / October 24, 2014 / Comments Off on Confronting Echoes Of The AIDS Hysteria As We Battle Ebola

Exactly a decade ago this month I received an email flagged as urgent from Monrovia, Liberia. It was from Lee Johnson, then coordinator of “Liberian Youths Against HIV/AIDS.” “Presently, the HIV/AIDS scourge is deeply eating into the fabric of our society and there is little being done to bring this to a halt. Therefore, some…

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A group of people posing for a photo.

Because You Are, Therefore I Am

By pwsbuilder / September 16, 2014 /

“Because you are, therefore I am,” was the greeting that Dr. Ezra Chitando from Zimbabwe expressed to our amazing group of African scholars, theologians, faith leaders, activists and students at the Thorn Tree Lodge, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Dr. Chitando’s words to us were more than a greeting as they are often spoken in the context…

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A laptop with a rainbow colored keyboard.

“I Had No Idea Your Blog Was Gay”

By pwsbuilder / September 4, 2014 /

After posting the link to my blog, Progressive Christian Reflections, last week on a number of Facebook pages, I took our dog Hobbes to the park and began to wonder what I would write for my next post. I returned to find an e-mail that simply said, “Unsubscribe me. I had no idea that your…

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A man with long hair playing an acoustic guitar.

Millennials, The Church, And Global LGBT Social Consciousness

By pwsbuilder / August 8, 2014 /

Last spring, I wrote about a young woman named Dannika Nash who quoted the Macklemore song “Same Love” in some frank advice to the institutional church on behalf of millennials. She warned that if the church forced her generation to choose between it and their support of LGBT rights, it was going to be disappointed in the outcome. Her message…

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