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Junior high and high school are tough years for us all: learning how to be a student, trying to claim some independence, and watching our bodies change can make the best of us feel two inches tall. For LGBTQ youth, though, these years are uniquely challenging. Like an ever-looming rain cloud, insecurities and questions about…
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Nicholas Coppola, the gay man who was stripped of his involvement with his local Roman Catholic parish, delivered 18,603 signatures with GLAAD to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, requesting to be restored to full engagement with his local parish. The signatures were gathered through the social justice organization, Faithful America, in less than…
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When I started coming out in the fall of 2009, I knew that I had a long and uncertain road ahead of me. I was a sophomore at Harvard, and although college offered me a supportive environment, home did not. My conservative church in Kansas took a dim view of same-sex relationships, and I was…
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“Religious liberty” is the buzzword of those who are trying to stop the now nearly inevitable legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Recognition of same-sex marriages, they argue, will constitute a real and immediate threat to the religious liberty of people and churches who oppose it. I’m not sure what they think is about to happen.…
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Christy Pessagno is a videographer with THEY bklyn working on the independent documentary Out of Order, which follows the journey of three queer members of the Presbyterian Church (USA). I once had someone ask me if I thought of myself as an activist. For a split second I felt ashamed that I couldn’t answer ‘yes’ to this question.…
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As pastors and church leaders, we are granted special access to the joys and hurts of God’s people. But much too often we abuse that privilege in God’s name, by promoting God’s love with conditions and wrath with fearful living. We unfairly judge people, make them wrong, and exclude them from being shown hospitality in…
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This piece is an excerpt of a sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Sidney Fowler at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C., on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013. Very early last Tuesday morning, several hundred folks gathered from around the US at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation here in DC. An Interfaith…
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In many ways, it was a typical morning. Brothers playing in the sunroom, TV on in the background, a list too long of things to be done. The daily routine interrupted when a playful hug-and-giggle fest led to an unintended crash and burn. Out came my “Mommy the Comforter” hat – a hat which I wear all too often…
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I no longer have a job. I used to work as a chaplain at a trauma hospital. I didn’t lose my job because of poor performance or lack of ability. I lost my job for following the Queer Jesus and supporting marriage equality. On Palm Sunday, I called my supervisor to ask if I could…
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A reflection for Holy Saturday, and for all those who wait. We wait together for the resurrection, having witnessed our Savior’s suffering with the women at the foot of the cross. We wait together for our own healing, having witnessed our Savior’s death at the hands of human failings. Jesus’ very presence on the cross…
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