Our congregation went through 18 months of intense study, prayer and dialogue about LGBTQ inclusion, and we have the scars to show for it. And we would have had scars regardless of which way the decision went. But we are better for choosing the good over the easy.
CBF & LGBTQ Baptists: Thanks for the Illumination
Illumination makes things clearer for those willing to look where the light is shining. And these are a few lessons I’ve learned from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Illumination Project.
Does breastfeeding in church cross a line? Not for these ministers.
The notion that men will be distracted by breastfeeding may say more about the over-sexualization of women’s bodies than about the alleged inappropriateness of breastfeeding in public.
Can we talk about sexuality?
Can we talk about sexuality? Recently a pastor in Kansas has been challenging my school and me personally on our position concerning our faithfulness to Scripture concerning human sexuality. It reminds me of the sustained conversation in Southern Baptist life…
Following Christ in our public and political lives
I get nervous about declarations that our current times are the “most” anything in human history. So I hesitate to say our current situation is the “most” critical time to engage contemporary issues in the church.
Joyless about ‘Amoris Lætitia’
The Catholic Church, a multi-century institution, moves at glacier speed. Pope Francis’s recent post-synodal apostolic exhortation finally moved the Church into the 20th century. Like his earlier apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Francis attempts a joyful evangelical call for a…
Trade ‘the talk’ for transparency in sex ed, Baptist minister says
LeAnn Gardner shares a lot of uncomfortable information with the churches she visits. For example, she tells the parents of young children that those kids will almost certainly have sex before marriage — and chances are very good they will cohabitate…
Clergy performing same-sex marriages: A new twist on a subject that makes us squirm
Baptists of most ages will cringe at the rest of this sentence, but here goes: Sexuality is in the air. This subject makes us squirm more than a too-long sermon on a too-hard pew in a too-hot church. But as…
We need covenant parenting in covenant communities
Often, as we discuss sexuality and marriage, the word covenant comes up—specifically whether marriage should be a covenant between a man and a woman or whether LGBT friends have the right to enter into such a covenant. When we limit…