Organizers and the Kennedy Center have canceled a week’s worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights for this summer’s World Pride festival in Washington, D.C., amid a shift in priorities and the ousting of leadership at one of the nation’s premier…
April Ajoy has the receipts on her journey out of Christian nationalism
When critics accuse April Ajoy of not ever having been a conservative Christian, she shows them the receipts. One of those she showed for the first time at the Summit for Religious Freedom April 6 was a video of her…
The phrase that haunted United Methodists for 52 years is gone
Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the updated Social Principles of The United Methodist Church. Back in 1972, delegates to the first full General Conference of the four-year-old United Methodist Church struggled to adopt a…
Kentucky Legislature overrides governor’s veto on conversion therapy bill
Kentucky’s Republican Legislature supports the discredited practice of conversion therapy so strongly that both houses overwhelmingly overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill to allow the practice. House Bill 495 was proposed as an “emergency” measure to reinstate the…
CBFNC focuses on diversity, inclusion and ‘serving together’ amid trying times
Last week’s annual gathering of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, hosted by Pritchard Baptist Church in Charlotte, centered the theme “Serving Together,” bringing forth unity in diversity among North Carolina congregations in the current political, social and economic…
Yeshiva University recognizes LGBTQ student club, reversing a longtime ban
Yeshiva University has approved a new club for LGBTQ students, reversing a policy that it has spent years defending in court.
The Ken Paxton Cruelty Show continues
Does Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just sit around his office and think of new ways to be cruel? Sure seems like it. The churchgoing Southern Baptist, who was impeached by the Texas House but spared conviction by Trump loyalists…
Judge appears skeptical of Trump ban on transgender service members
A federal judge appeared reluctant March 12 to comprehend the legality of a Trump executive order that bans transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes repeatedly questioned the government’s lawyers for what she…
14 LGBTQ-affirming ministers lose credentials, more face investigation, over beliefs
Grinning before a congregation on the outskirts of Indianapolis, a woman named Rhonda was baptized in a horse trough in 2014 as her girlfriend and kids looked on.
Stakes are high as Supreme Court takes up conversion therapy case
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a Colorado case that addresses one of the most controversial of all debates about homosexuality and the church: Is so-called “conversion therapy” legitimate or abusive? The largely discredited strategy of helping…
Disney, Christianity and the erasure of transgender people
There is an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to erase the existence of transgender people. Since taking office in January, Trump has banned words like “gender,” “nonbinary” and “transgender” from government documents and websites; he’s ordered that all new…
I’m a gay student at a nonaffirming seminary: Why?
Editor’s note: In rare circumstances, BNG will publish an opinion piece without a byline to protect the identity of the author. In this case, all identifying information has been removed to protect the seminary as well. The point of the…