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LGBT-Friendly Church is Not “Christian” Enough?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ver affirmed, which is one of love for self and others and a dedication to service in the world.” Well, suffice to say, I was informed that following Jesus’ teachings of love and service were not, indeed, enough to be considered a “real” Christian church. This infuriates me. As a member of a group of people who have been excluded, denied membership and generally shunned by Christian churches around the globe, to be summarily dismissed by a website…

About That “Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage”

By Sarah Posner

…he signers claim is “God’s law.” At the heart of the pledge is not a plea for justice, but a plea for a legal system that yields to their religious views. A plea, in other words, to subvert the Constitution in the service of subverting the Constitution; to undermine the Establishment Clause in the service of depriving certain citizens, deemed sinful by a particular religious view, of equal protection of the law….

Turn On The News: Ending Zoom Church is a Great Idea for a Column — Provided You Completely Ignore the Disability Perspective

By Daniel Schultz

…ationships. For others, such as the Kenyan man who now joins a colleague’s American congregation for worship online, or the parishioner of another pastor who worshiped by Zoom while confined in a locked inpatient psychiatric ward, it can provide a way to connect that was previously unthinkable. It might be properly cautioned that this risks making worshipers just another form of atomized consumer in a global society already fanatically devoted to…

Nuns on the Bus: 2700 Miles, Nine States, and a Rock Star DC Welcome

By Mary E. Hunt

…onal Church to back it up, the Fortnight (whose idea was that for a catchy American word?) seems to have fizzled. One event in Boston, for example, featured a large stage, dozens of bleachers, and eight speakers lined up to address the crowd. The audience numbered about 30. Even Timothy Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, on the kickoff day of the Fortnight, only gathered 250 people. The nuns got that many in small towns across the…

Seventh-Day Adventists & Gay ‘Cures’; Legal Victory for Kenyan LGBTs; Political, Religious Leaders Spar on LGBT Issues in UK; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Rick Estridge, the vice president for overseas finance for Catholic Relief Services, is gay and married. “It is increasingly difficult to take CRS seriously as a Catholic organization,” Lepanto Institute president Michael Hichborn said in a press release. Hichborn may be the organization’s only member; no other names are listed on the institute’s website, and posts to the organization’s Facebook page are written in the first person. Tom Price, the…

Catholic Archbishop Takes On Jesuit Magazine’s Slam on “Ecumenism of Hate”; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ebrants’ right to refuse to marry same-sex couples. At the moment, wedding service providers such as civil celebrants, or businesses such as florists or caterers, cannot legally refuse to provide their services to any couples seeking to marry. But 49% of Australian Christians oppose a law change that would allow civil celebrants to refuse their services to same-sex couples on the ground of conscientious objection. Conservatives in the ruling coali…

A Journalist in Church, Hiding in Plain Sight

By Andre Tartar

…as that feared moment of ‘the call,’ normally issued toward the end of the service by the pastor who, throwing his arms out, would ask: “Are there any among us here tonight who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts?” Tears streaming down their faces, the spiritually lost would step up, experience a sobbing jolt as the pastor lay his hands on their heads, and receive their church membership slip. Unprepared to forsake what was a stil…

Australian Church Leaders See Marriage Vote as Battle for Soul of Australia: Global LGBT Recap 10/30

By Peter Montgomery

…s,” said Mambosasa. Just days later an NGO, the Community Health Education Services and Advocacy (CHESA) centre, was suspended on the same charge and accused of organising a workshop at the Peacock hotel. CHESA and ISLA insisted they were merely coordinating a “legal consultation” to challenge a government decision to limit the provision of some health services. In February, Tanzania provoked criticism notably from the United States after announci…

John McCain: No God But Country

By Kathryn Lofton

…try, who believes he would serve it well, who believes that he is the best American for the job. And since all Americans are assumed to be, at base, Judeo-Christian, then it is no lie at all to say that he is, at base, a good Christian man. And so he is. A good Christian man. He says it, and we have to believe him. We, the scholars. You, the voters. We believe him against the evidence because it feels better to believe that his life—his survival,…

Bishop Says Gay Couples Cannot Be Part of Parish Life; Does Rising Evangelical Political Power in Brazil Contribute to Anti-LGBT Violence?; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…reds of television and radio stations they have purchased in recent years. American-style Pentecostal congregations are also playing an increasingly muscular role in Brazilian politics. Evangelical voters have helped send more than 60 lawmakers to the 513-member lower house of Congress, doubling their numbers since 2010 and making them one of the most disciplined blocs in an unruly and divided legislature. Jean Wyllys, Brazil’s only openly gay mem…