As if it were not enough to have Anne Graham Lotz and Marjorie Taylor Greene warning of God’s judgment on America through a solar eclipse, some in the Religious Right lost their minds over the weekend in two other social…
An oft-quoted biblical scholar changes his mind on LGBTQ inclusion in the church
Hang up your tweed jackets and lower your spectacles, people, something big just rattled all us scholarly types. Richard B. Hays has changed his mind on LGBTQ inclusion, and there are layers to this conversation. In 1996, Hays released Moral…
Searching for Grace: Bend or break?
This is the final in a five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Rev. Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ. In previous episodes Tommy Branson, a gay man and a lifelong member of Paul’s…
Top issues for United Methodists’ Global Assembly taking shape
Delegates to United Methodists’ first worldwide legislative assembly in five years will consider three major issues known as “the three Rs” — regionalization, Revised Social Principles and removal of “harmful language” against homosexuality. This General Conference — technically considered the…
Two things can be true at the same time
In case you missed the controversy, Easter Sunday and Transgender Day of Visibility fell on the same day this year. Oh, the horrors! Conservative evangelicals — many of whom who believe transgender identity is not a real thing — saw…
This is how unhinged Focus on the Family has become
Thirty years ago, when my wife and I were parents of newborn twins, James Dobson was considered the go-to expert for Christian parenting. What we didn’t know then is just how wrong some of his advice was. Dobson was required…
One year after the Club Q mass shooting, none of us are the same
It’s been more than a year since a man armed with an AR-15-style rifle walked into a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs and opened fire. It was Nov. 19, 2022, the day before Transgender Day of Remembrance. Club Q was…
Searching for Grace: Haunting question
This is the fourth of a five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Rev. Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ. In the previous episode, a lifelong member of Paul’s congregation contracted HIV/AIDS. In spite…
The church faces a three-dimensional decision
Three cultural-biblical issues intertwine today to hold the Christian church in knots of conflict. Part of that conflict concerns whether the three cords are cut from the same cloth or not. These strands are race, gender and sexuality. From a…