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Church Vitality
Greater NW Pride: There's a Difference
9/4/2020
There’s a Difference When I was a music therapist, one of the songs I sang, in a circle, with a mixture of students who were living with a disability and those who were not disabled was “Alike and Different.” The ditty went like this, with clapping hands of course, and was a chant: “Alike and different, alike and different, we are alike and different!” At the end of the chant we would turn to the person on our right and say how we were alike, and on our left, how we were different. And then ...
Greater NW Pride: God’s Abundant Love for LGBTQI2S+ People
8/24/2020
God’s Abundant Love for LGBTQI2S+ People I was delighted to read of the actions of a Carmelite nun, Sr. Monica Astorga, in Argentina who did the Godly thing of opening up a housing complex specifically for transgender women. I wasn’t the only one who was delighted of this news. Last week, Pope Francis responded to an email from Sr. Monica, informing him of her latest project—the establishment of this housing for transgender women in Argentina, and the Pope, in a handwritten message, told ...
Greater NW Pride: Cancel Culture, Transgender Lives, and the Church
8/20/2020
Cancel Culture, Transgender Lives, and the Church One of the popular phrases today in modern culture is “cancel culture.” What is cancel culture? It refers to, “the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming” (dictionary.com). In the current politics of this land, there...
Greater NW Pride: Performative Allyship and LGBTQI+ People in the Church
8/10/2020
Performative Allyship and LGBTQI+ People in the Church This is kind of one of the “terms” or “new words” for 2020: performative allyship. Definition and description of performative allyship: First, allies are helpful. An ally is someone from a non-marginalized group who uses one’s privilege to advocate for a marginalized group. Being an ally is a good thing. In the LGBTQ+ community we welcome and appreciate our non-LGBTQ+ allies. Second, performative allyship is problematic. It is ...
Greater NW Pride: Being a Person of Faith, Queer, and Civic Minded
8/4/2020
Being a Person of Faith, Queer, and Civic Minded I am part of the Portland Interfaith Clergy Resistance (PICR) group. There are around 100 + of us. Feel free to join us. The group started to come together in Portland during the Black Lives Matter protests that started soon after the death of George Floyd in May 25, 2020. There are several friends in the movement who are clergy and queer who were noticing how some in the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) were especially brutal to people ...
Greater NW Pride: They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love
7/30/2020
They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love One of my favorite storytellers is the Seattle-based sex-columnist Dan Savage, with his Savage Lovecolumn that appears in various free weekly publications, like the Portland Mercury. In an interview on the website salon.com, Amanda Marcotte talked with Dan Savage about the power of stories in an article, "Dan Savage Knows a Great Sex Story When He Hears It." Savage told her that “people like to hear other people’s stories. Particularly other ...
Greater NW Pride: Happy Non-Binary Gender People Day!
7/15/2020
Happy Non-Binary Gender People Day! Actually, Non-Binary Gender People Day was yesterday, July 14, 2020, which is the day I began working on this blog posting. Like so many other birthdays and anniversaries in life, I am belated in this celebration. Nevertheless: Happy Non-Binary Gender People Day! In a world of binary (false) choices—male and female, Republicans and Democrats, pink or blue, us and them—breaking through the façade that there are only two choices, there are those who are ...
Greater NW Pride: Hate Crimes, LGBTQ2S+* People, and the Church
7/7/2020
Hate Crimes, LGBTQ2S+* People, and the Church On June 29, 2020, Christian Council, an Oklahoma City realtor, was beaten up and left unconscious by two people, Amery Dickerson and Bennett Stone, who used anti-gay slurs as they hit him in the head. I have seen pictures of Christian’s beaten face on several of the LGBTQ+ sites that I go to daily, e.g., Towleroad.com, Queerty.com, and Advocate.com. Christian and a friend arrived at his home in an apartment complex. As they tried to park the...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moments: Marriage Equality Anniversary
6/28/2020
Pride Month Moments: Marriage Equality 5th Anniversary! I begin with a note of personal privilege: Christian and I are getting ready to get married in the summer of 2021. We figured out the place we plan to get married in Portland. It will be an outdoor, garden wedding, so probably July. We are praying to God that the pandemic will be over by then. The two witnesses have said yes, along with an officiant or two. A list of who we would like to invite grows daily. There’s family, and ...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moments: Black Transgender Lives Matter and Tony McDade
6/23/2020
Pride Month Moments: Black Transgender Lives Matter and Tony McDade A few weeks ago, I posted about the story of Stonewall Inn and Marsha Johnson, a transgender woman of color who is seen as one of the lead figures in the Stonewall Inn riot that began the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Actually, there were two transgender women of color: Marsha Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who, on June 28, 1969, fought back against police harassment, sparking a week of rioting. And in the last few weeks, another...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moment: Transgender Rights, Title VII, and the Church
6/17/2020
Pride Month Moments: Transgender Rights, Title VII, and the Church Dear Church (Yes, that is Church with a big “C” so I mean universal Church), In this Pride month, on Friday, June 12th, and on Monday, June 15th, two important decisions were made by parts of the federal government--the executive and legislative branch, and judicial branch--which the Church should sit up and take notice of, because it is going to have an impact upon the life of congregations. Remember, the decision made ...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month People: The Prophet, Larry Kramer
6/11/2020
Pride Month People: The Prophet, Larry Kramer When I think of LGBTQ+ activists, and was considering the position of LGBTQ+ Advocacy Coordinator with the UMC folks in the OR-ID Conference, one of the first people who came to mind was the writer, playwright, and HIV/AIDS activist, the late-Larry Kramer. Larry Kramer died a few weeks ago, and his presence in this world is deeply missed by many of us. Larry Kramer was a prophet in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible sense. Consider the following...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moments; Stonewall Inn Riot
6/4/2020
Pride Month Moments: Stonewall Inn Riot June is “officially” Pride Month in the United States. The usual salutation is “Happy Pride!” as we see and great each other within the LGBTQ+ movement. Happy Pride! In a pre-COVID-19 world, we would be getting ready for all the Pride parades, lunches, parties, festival booths, picnics, and firework displays. Rainbow bunting and flags would be festooned everywhere in large cities and small towns across the US. And in my role as both organizing ...
Greater NW Pride: Resisting Evil: Violence Against LGBTQ+ People Around the World
5/26/2020
Resisting Evil: Violence Against LGBTQ+ People Around the World In the United Methodist Church (UMC), the Baptismal Covenant begins with these words, “Resisting evil…” While the UMC is in the midst of struggling with the way of moving forward, together, with some wanting the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy and same-sex marriages in UMC buildings, while there are others in the church who do not want these things, nevertheless there is continued violence being perpetrated against LGBTQ+ people ...
Greater NW Pride: Come Out
5/22/2020
Come Out! In the last week, I’ve had two opportunities to publicly, on pod-cast and television, “come out” as a gay man, again. It’s a weird kind of phenomenon that non-LGBTQ+ people don’t get, simply because non-LGBTQ+ people didn’t and don't have to come “out” in a largely non-LGBTQ+ society. The norm in non-LGBTQ+ societies is most everyone is non-LGBTQ+, unless someone is otherwise, um, out about being LGBTQ+. Otherwise, it is not known or a "secret," in which only your mom and ...
The Rush to Re-Open: A Theological Reflection
5/18/2020
Rev. Tim Overton-Harris reflects on what worship really means while gently questioning the eagerness with which we yearn to return to worship spaces during a pandemic.
Greater PNW Pride: What CNN's Anderson Cooper Might Teach Us About Being Church
5/13/2020
What CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Dad” Might Teach Us About Being Church There is no other comparable experience like becoming a parent. It is simply overwhelming. Being present at the birth of my children, holding their mom’s hand, breathing with her through her contractions, being in the birthing room, cutting the umbilical cord of both children, and then holding them in my arms as their mom was taken away to be cleaned up, is seared into my memory. While their mom had nine months to ...
Greater NW Pride: Giving Blood, Plasma, and Discrimination Against Gay Men in COVID-19 Pandemic
5/5/2020
Giving Blood, Plasma, and Discrimination Against Gay Men in COVID 19 Pandemic Last week’s blog covered discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in health services. One person wrote back the same day I posted the blog, asking, “How are LGBTQ+ people being discriminated against in terms of health services?” Here’s how gay men in particular are currently discriminated against by health services in the US: your Red Cross bloodmobiles and blood drives, many of which are sponsored by your friendly...
Greater NW Pride: First, Do No Harm and LGBTQ+ People
4/29/2020
First, Do No Harm and LGBTQ+ People While our divided and undivided attention is focused on the local and national response to COVID 19, it is important to remember that in other parts of the government, business is being done in our name. Several offices have not shut down, even if people are obeying a shelter-in-place order. And works of justice, or injustice in this case, are proceeding as if there was no COVID 19 pandemic. For example, the Trump administration removed a policy put ...
Greater NW Pride: Christian Privilege in the COVID-19 Pandemic
4/21/2020
Christian Privilege in the COVID-19 Pandemic In writing this blog, I write it as a white, cisgender, Christian, gay, able-bodied, middle-class man in a partnered relationship. I am a living intersectionality of many “privileges” in this American life. Admission: Being white, cisgender, middle-class, partnered, and male is an enormous privileged class in Portland, in which being gay is, in some circles, even more of a privilege than being non-LGBTQ+, save for some churches and denominations....
Greater NW Pride: Holding Hands
4/14/2020
Holding Hands Since one of the first days that he showed up in my life, my partner Christian has reached out and held my hand in public. The first time it was in the Portland Saturday Market, and it was fun in its novelty, and sweet as a romantic gesture. We have held hands when walking in airports around this country, cafes, in Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Universal Studios-Orlando, in Boston, Atlanta, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Salem, Massachusetts. Why do we hold hands? It is a ...
Greater NW Pride: Rainbow Time!
4/8/2020
Rainbow Time! One of the news items that received much buzz on social media, e.g., news websites like Huffpost, Daily Kos, Joe My God, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, along with main stream press/media like network television was the rare appearance of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen gave a rare addresses to her nation and the Commonwealth. It was outside of the usual end of year/Christmas addresses, which is to be expected annually. There have been only five times during her reign that she has given such a ...
Greater NW Pride: Idaho, People who are Transgender, and Transgender Day of Visibility
3/31/2020
Idaho, People who are Transgender, and Transgender Visibility Day March 31 is international Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). This is an annual event dedicated to celebrating people who are transgender and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. It is also a day to celebrate the contributions people who are transgender bring to society. Happy Transgender Day of Visibility! And Idaho wanted to show us how to celebrate this day by two new laws ...
Greater NW Pride: Blame the Pandemic on the Gays
3/25/2020
Blame the Pandemic on the Gays In surfing the mainstream media websites, Face Book page, and Instagram stories, along with listening, watching and reviewing National Public Radio (NPR) PBS News Hour, all who are covering the presence of and strategies for dealing with the Coronavirus COVID 19 pandemic, one of the old red herrings brought forth by certain so-called “evangelicals” (aka, extreme religious right/Christian fanatics) has come roaring back. It is the proposition that “homosexuals...
Greater NW Pride: Learning to Be Body of Christ in the Age of AIDS and COVID 19
3/19/2020
Learning to be Body of Christ: The AIDS Crisis and COVID 19 Living in this time of a world-wide pandemic of Coronavirus COVID 19, one of the similar stories that has come forward to teach us about how to survive this pandemic where we live are stories of the early days of AIDS, when no one even knew how it was transmitted. A picture of the AIDS virus is above. People like activist Peter Staley and playwright Larry Kramer, along with many others, with much of their stories captured in ...