Last Friday, I attended the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s 30th anniversary gathering at First Baptist Church of Greensboro, N.C. The theme of “thriving together” took on particular interest to me as a young seminarian because of one of…
Searching for Grace: Worst-kept secret
This is the third of a five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ. Previously, Paul made the difficult but necessary decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and…
Nex Benedict death ruled suicide, setting off a new round of suspicions and denials
Nex Benedict died by suicide a day after a fight with bullies at their high school, according to a medical examiner’s report released March 13. The 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death has drawn international headlines for a month now, cited by…
PRRI finds small declines in Americans’ support for LGBTQ rights, although a majority still affirm
Americans of faith contributed to a small decline in overall support for LGBTQ rights in 2023, even as most U.S. adults continued to oppose discriminatory policies and practices aimed at gender and sexual minorities, according to a new study by…
God, sex, gender and politics
A redlight recently stopped my progress through snow falling heavily on the smalltown equivalent of Times Square. Gold letters across the courthouse façade proclaimed, “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Trusting both God and my all-wheel-drive Subaru, I felt awe and excitement…
Why can’t we just ‘BE KIND NOW!!’?
Thanks to a kindness art campaign going on at our local elementary school this month, I have received multiple notes from my youngest child with a rainbow drawing and one simple command: “BE KIND NOW!!” These BE KIND notes came…
Divorce, double standards and debates on same-sex marriage
One of the most helpful books I read while wrestling with the topic of same-sex marriage was a book on divorce. As a gay Christian trying to discern whether Scripture might allow for the possibility of same-sex relationships, I wanted…
To queer or not to queer, that is the question
When it comes to debating LGBTQ inclusion in the church, most folks think the debate is only about whether gays and lesbians can be Christians and whether they and their B, T and Q cohorts should be allowed full participation…
On Nex Benedict, invisible students, Easter Sunday and Trans Day of Visibility
Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student from Owasso, Okla., died Feb. 7. The cause of death remains undetermined. While tragic that a teen died, many fail to see the significance of what occurred. The focus of numerous reports centers on…