Blogs
Greater NW Pride: Pope Francis and the United Methodist Church
10/22/2020
Pope Francis and The United Methodist Church This is not the blog I was going to post this week. But one thing that I’ve learned in writing newspaper columns and personal essays is to go with the flow of the news when big events happen. The other blog that I was working on will be great next week as well. The big news yesterday, October 21, 2020, happens to be Pope Francis making a pastoral move in the movie, “Francesco,” in which he says, on camera, that “homosexuals have a right to be ...
Greater NW Pride: Happy National Coming Out Day!
10/12/2020
Happy National Coming Out Day! Yesterday, October 11, 2020, was National Coming Out Day! My Facebook and Instagram accounts, along with Twitter feed, have been full of stories of coming out starting on Saturday night, Oct. 10, and are still popping up this morning on Oct. 12th. National Coming Out Day started in 1988 to mark the anniversary of the first LGBTQIA+ March on Washington, DC, and is a day of affirmation, acceptance, and sharing the truth of one’s life with family and friends....
Greater NW Pride: What the Church Can Learn about Welcoming LGBTQIA+ People from “Schitt’s Creek”
10/6/2020
What the Church Can Learn about Welcoming LGBTQIA+ People from “Schitt’s Creek” When I am in a period of doing some concentrated work and need a diversion and blow off steam, I often turn to TV comedies to get me through a certain span of concentrated times. During seminary, it was the televised version of “M*A*S*H”. In coming out of the closet and working in an insanely intense homophobic environment, it was “Will and Grace.” Transition from North Carolina to Oregon? "Modern Family." ...
Greater NW Pride: A Program Update
9/30/2020
A Program Update: Trailer to “Called to Love One Another,” an LGBTQIA2S+ Folx OR-ID Conference Wide Event, And Looking Forward to 2021 In mid-March 2020, six months ago, the world around me, and the way of life that I had taken for granted, came to a stop. We closed the Conference Center building, “until further notice” because of COVID 19. Working from home on our computers became the new norm. The major projects I was working on with “Q Camp: High School,” an all LGBTQIA2S+ camp for high ...
The Church Talks about Death! Part 1
9/30/2020
The Church Talks about Death! Part 1 - Advance Directives
Greater NW Pride: Happy Bisexuality Visibility Day!
9/23/2020
Happy Bisexuality Visibility Day! Yep, you read this correctly: Happy Bisexuality Visibility Day! While not readily advertised or celebrated in many churches, there are many people who would self-identify as bisexual, or perhaps pansexual, on this day, were our churches a safer place to be “out” and part of a community of faith. What or who is a bisexual? After all, it is the “B” in the LGBTQI+ alphabet. A person who self-identifies as a bisexual finds one’s self romantically ...