Blogs
Greater NW Pride: On Writing As a Gay Man
9/12/2019
On Writing As a Gay Man In the recent documentary of the life of the late-writer Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I was struck by a quote about who her audience is in terms of who she is writing to in her novels and essays. I was struck by her candor: she writes to and for black people. It made me think about who I write this blog to and for: I write this blog to and for straight cisgender people, not for LGBTQ+ per se. That’s because this blog is part of the United ...
Greater NW Pride: Amateur Sports and the Church
9/4/2019
Amateur Sports and the Church This Sunday morning, Sept. 8, 2019, I’m going to be preaching at Hillsboro United Methodist Church at 10 am, and I’m looking forward to it. I enjoy my time visiting UMC churches as the LGBTQ+ Advocacy Coordinator, visiting congregations and seeing what is happening in and around the Conference. I’m also signed up to be paddling with my Dragon Boat Team, Golden Dragons, and there is a Grand Master Race (over 60 years-old) at 10 am that morning as well. I’ll ...
Greater NW Pride: Called to Love One Another: A Video Documentary Project
8/29/2019
Called to Love One Another: A Video Documentary Project “Called to Love One Another” is a video documentary project that collects the stories of three congregations and pastors who have been on a faithful pilgrimage of movement towards being an open, affirming, and reconciling congregation, along with the story of three LGBTQ+ United Methodist Church members, whose pilgrimage is a movement from the closet to being open and a members of a local United Methodist Church. In both movements—the...
Inspiring Generosity
8/26/2019
Summer’s Over: Time to Read Imagining Abundance Here's what the cover looks like. And so it goes. Summer. We hardly knew ye. The end of summer makes me think of two things: 1. What is the “Song of the Summer”? 2. What book should I be reading this fall to make me a wee bit smarter? I know that you’ve been on the edge of your seat speculating about the official “Song of the Summer.” Well folks, some of you thought it might be “Baby Shark” but you would (sadly) be wrong. No,...
Greater NW Pride: Queer Pride Camp Reflections
8/21/2019
Queer Pride Camp Reflections On Sunday afternoon, Aug., 18, 2019, after a weekend together with each other, I drove a van full of queer young adult campers to a restaurant in Redlands, just down the “hill” from Camp Sky Meadows in the San Bernardino Mountains, where we were all part of Queer Pride Camp, a first camp of its kind in the United Methodist Church’s Western Jurisdiction. Twenty-six all-queer campers and eleven staff—all the camp leadership staff were queer—had a fabulous time ...
Greater NW Pride: What "Pose" Teaches Us About Being Church
8/14/2019
What Pose Teaches Us About Being Church On Tuesday, Aug., 13, 2019, I read a Facebook entry by the Rev. Anna Blaedel—an openly queer United Methodist minister—who was facing an investigation and possible trial by the Iowa Annual Conference into her ordination because homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, and she is a “self-avowed and practicing homosexual” (Book of Discipline, Paragraph 2702.1[b]). In all honesty, as an openly gay Presbyterian pastor, I even cringe as I ...