Sexuality

A white church sits on top of a field of corn.

Being Gay In A Bible Belt Congregation

By pwsbuilder / March 11, 2014 /

I’ve been in church since I can remember. I was baptized as a baby in the first Pentecostal church that was ever built in America—Keelville Pentecostal Church—in a tiny community in southeastern Kansas. When I was a kid in the early to mid-eighties, our congregation ran somewhere between 60 and 80 people, two-thirds of which…

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A painting of a woman and a man with a cross.

Holocaust Remembrance Day: We All Wear The Triangle

By pwsbuilder / January 27, 2014 / Comments Off on Holocaust Remembrance Day: We All Wear The Triangle

1945: Upon liberation of Nazi concentration camps by Allied forces, some interned for homosexuality are not freed, but required to serve out the full term of their sentences under Paragraph 175. Click here to see the full image. International Holocaust Remembrance Day honors the victims of the Nazi era, including the estimated 5,000 to 60,000…

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A cypress swamp with trees reflected in the water.

We All Lost The Duck Dynasty Debate

By pwsbuilder / January 3, 2014 /

Last week, news reports, talk shows, and social networks were saturated with updates from the great Duck Dynasty debate of 2013. I logged onto Facebook to see comments from both sides—from conservative friends lamenting the persecution of Phil Robertson to queer friends suffering from the hurtful debates circling their news feed. After only a week, Robertson’s suspension…

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A woman holding a baby in a park.

A Letter To My Methodist Daughter

By pwsbuilder / October 28, 2013 /

These are the words I spoke to my sleeping daughter upon returning home from Birmingham, Alabama, this weekend after witnessing the marriage of Joe Openshaw and Bobby Prince, performed by Bishop Melvin Talbert. Dearest child of mine, I wish you could have been there yesterday, as I sat in a church and witnessed history in the making.…

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