The church must demonstrate courage, demand dignity and fight for equality as attacks against religious freedom and LGBTQ people spread throughout the nation, Interfaith Alliance President Paul Raushenbush said.
“The root of the word ‘courage’ is ‘cor,’ or heart,” he said. “Jesus commands us to love and transform that love into courage required to show up for one another, with one another in this time.”
Raushenbush was the keynote speaker at a June 25 breakfast sponsored by Baptist News Global and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists. The event was held in conjunction with the 2025 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in St. Louis.
Paul Raushenbush
He noted the historical significance of an openly gay Baptist minister speaking at such an event. His message mixed his own story of faith development and understanding of his sexual orientation with commentary on current events and a call for Christians to speak up against injustice.
“As the church, we demand freedom for all LGBT people and all those groups that are under threat in this terrifying time in our nation’s history,” he said, noting bills are being introduced nationwide to normalize discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ community and erase transgender people.
“The Southern Baptists just recently passed a resolution that essentially declares war on same-sex marriage and LGBT families like mine,” he continued. “Pride flags in front of churches are being torn down all across the country. Corporations are pulling back from former commitments” to equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
And the federal government has become openly hostile to faith communities considered disloyal to President Donald Trump, Raushenbush said. “The current administration, with its so-called Anti-Christian Bias Task Force, is relentlessly attacking any Christian group that is not in lockstep with an authoritarian, white Christian nationalist agenda. Our freedom of religion is under attack.”
Therefore, CBF and other Baptist and Christian groups must stand up to the wave of hatred afflicting the U.S., he urged. “Our tradition of welcoming all is under attack. and nobody is going to save us but us. Now is the time for courage.”
Raushenbush said his inspiration and courage began with a nurturing family and exposure to a welcoming Presbyterian congregation with a female associate pastor where “I never heard anything negative about LGBTQ people from the pulpit.”
Ariel Merivl and Mark Hays lead music at the event.
His Baptist life began after moving from Madison, Wis. where he grew up, to New York City, where he began attending Judson Memorial Church. “I heard unapologetic, Jesus-filled sermons that didn’t just accept LGBTQ people, but celebrated us,” he said.
As a seminarian at Union Theological Seminary in New York — “where queer people had been presenting for decades” — Raushenbush said he became immersed in liberation theology under professors such as theologian James H. Cone.
Raushenbush was ordained in 1997 at New York’s Madison Avenue Baptist Church with bisexual theologian and activist Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajaje in attendance. The mentor once “gave me his stole, which I wear today to remind me that the time is always right to be courageous.”
Entering into ministry also evoked powerful memories of Walter Rauschenbusch, his Baptist pastor great-grandfather, a leader of the 19th- and 20th-century Social Gospel movement.
“I am grateful for Baptist News Global for all of the witnessing that you do day after day.”
Raushenbush also credited AWAB for the strides he and other LGBTQ people have made in Baptist congregations and ministry: “Before I arrived on the stage, AWAB had been there and made space for me and countless others who have come after me. I and many others have had the extraordinary benefit of growing up and thriving in a faith tradition that fully welcomes LGBT people.”
“I am grateful for Baptist News Global for all of the witnessing that you do day after day, and I am grateful for all of you who are part of a great and continuous birthing of a faithful tradition in love and committed in realizing the beloved community on earth as it is in heaven,” he said. “My talk this morning is guided by a recognition of how much we need both good storytelling and the active work of LGBTQ welcome and affirmation.”
He also acknowledged CBF for making space for a presentation “by an openly gay Baptist talking about openly gay lives as an integrated part of this gathering.” This has been a contentious issue within CBF since its founding in 1992.
And then there is the Baptist tradition itself serving as a witness to what God is doing in the world for and through the contributions of LGBTQ people and their allies, he said.
“Each one of us in this room is here because a community of saints, friends, pastors, parents, children and writers have helped guide us to this moment and to this room where LGBTQ lives and all of our allies are valued and celebrated. At every step of the way, we are accompanied by a loving God who sees us and is well pleased. Collectively, we make up an undeniable living and glorious portion of the Baptist tradition.”
While proud to be part of that heritage, Raushenbush said the tradition must be lived in loving, courageous service to LGBTQ and other marginalized people. “And I’ll be damned if I will allow anyone to take my church or my tradition away from us.”