Methodist Blogger Morgan Guyton gives the best understanding of what Leviticus 18:22 meant and what it might mean for us today. Here's a snippet:In 1956, United Methodists decided that Paul’s admonition in 1 Timothy 2:12 not to “permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man” had an appropriate application in the... Continue Reading →
Making a Case for Being Open and Affirming
The church where I'm the Associate Pastor (First Christian Church in Minneapolis) is considering becoming an official Open and Affirming Congregation in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The congregation has a long history of welcoming gay and lesbian folk into the life of the congregation, so in many ways they have been a living... Continue Reading →
Repost: Why Gay Marriage IS a Big Deal
I wrote this post originally back in 2009 on my political blog, NeoMugwump. Some things have changed since then, such as Washington State moving towards the legalization of same-sex marriage. In light of the upcoming vote this November in Minnesota to define marriage as between a man and a woman, I thought about digging up... Continue Reading →
Repost: Gay, Emergent and Missional
From 2007.... In starting to make my way around the Emergent and Missional circles, I've started to notice two things especially about the Emergent movement: It tends to be really, really white. There is not a lot of talk on being gay. I will get back to topic number one another time, but I wanted... Continue Reading →
Lillian Daniel, Adam Copeland and the SBNRs
My last post created a lot of comments on Facebook. A colleague of mine disagreed with the article and me for the attitude against those who consider themselves "spiritual but not religious." Actually, I was agreeing to a short article written by UCC pastor Lillian Daniel and her comments have received a bit of criticism... Continue Reading →
Can We Just Be Church?
The writer of this blog post is writing from a Methodist perspective as well as from a local viewpoint, but I think there are a lot of people who feel this way: Generally speaking, there is a perception in Springfield that there are only two options in choosing churches. The first I will call “evangelical.”... Continue Reading →
Repost: The Old Man and the Queen
This post is from 2008. One note: when this man dies, I will be at his funeral. And I will cry. As several denominations struggle with the issue of gay pastors, I am reminded of something that happened to me a few years ago. I had just graduated from seminary and was doing my CPE... Continue Reading →
Graceful Conversation
I think in our day and age, we are losing the act of conversation. It's kinda odd, in this time when we have so many ways of talking to each other, we really don't talk to each other, at least we don't talk to people who we happen to disagree with. Instead, we stay in... Continue Reading →
"My Gay Marriage Harms Nobody"
The following piece is something I wrote for the political website FrumForum as a response to another author concerning the passage of same sex marriage in New York State. On September 15, 2007, I got married. It was a pretty normal, run-of-the-mill event — as weddings are. It was held in a small, picturesque Episcopal... Continue Reading →
The Clockwork Pastor 