Over the Rainbow

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Over the Rainbow

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September 25th, 2008

Ray Boltz

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How many of you are familiar with the award-winning Christian musician, Ray Boltz, who produced several albums over the course of the '90s and early '00s before quietly retiring in 2004?

He's come out as homosexual, and his ex-wife is heavily involved now with Soulforce and he's thankfully been blessed with a supportive family.

If you're not familiar with his work, here's a sample of one of his songs...

The Stones )

And the Washington Blade article, saved for posterity )

February 27th, 2008

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I am really thankful to find an asylum like this. I have been running from organized religion and Christianity in general. I have had a lot of people telling me how wrong I was for the only reason of me liking a female. I recently just started going back to Church. I know one thing: I cannot be happy without God.

January 31st, 2008

For the Bible Tells Me So

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I went to a preview screening at my church tonight of a rather good documentary film by First Run Features called For The Bible Tells Me So.

Can the love between two people ever be an abomination? Is the chasm separating gays and lesbians and Christianity too wide to cross? Is the Bible an excuse to hate?

Through the experiences of five very normal, very Christian, very American families -- including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson -- we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. Informed by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.


It will be available to the public Feb 19th, and can be preordered now.

December 21st, 2007

Good news on the Toledo front

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Toledo's domestic registry open for business

December 21, 2007 -- Despite protests, the registry is approved for unmarried couples.

The controversial domestic registry has been up and running in Toledo for just a few hours.

Already a few couples have stopped by One Government Center to sign up. At noon, four couples had registered as domestic partners.

Toledo city council passed the ordinance establishing a domestic partnership registry back on November 21.

After the ordiance was first introduced, several groups and people including Bishop Leonard Blair spoke out against it. The bisphop said creating an ordinance allowing unmarried couples to receive benefits typically reserved for married couples devalues the institution of marriage.

Despite the outcry, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner signed off on the ordinance.

Registering as domestic partners would give couples the opportunity to utilize their partner's health insurance benefits if their employer recognizes the partnership.

Anyone who wants to register can do so Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. on the 21st floor of One Government Center.
(Copyright ©2007 WTVG-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

November 23rd, 2007

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A distressing hate crime against two gay men and the reaction on ChristianLeft.

November 20th, 2007

all God's children

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Today is apparently a day to remember transpeople/genderqueer people who have been killed by hate violence, so I felt obligated to post. Trans issues are near to my heart, because quite apart from the noble idealistic "everyone deserves to be loved and respected for who they really are" sentiments, I've had to think recently about my relationship to gender. I've always identified with male characters in books, mostly only wanted to dress in men's clothing, tried on boys' or gender-neutral names, and generally spent a significant portion of my life being unsure about my own gender. I've gotten used to other people thinking that I'm a guy -- recently, a relative I hadn't seen in years mistook me for my elder half-brother -- and to getting funny looks, even questions in women's bathrooms. I always brace myself, going into bathrooms.

Sure, just recently I've had confirmation that being a woman is as important to me as not having to be feminine, but still, I have a great deal of connection to those issues, particularly since I recognize that other people's perception of me is such that transphobia can potentially hurt me. And it frustrates me that a casual poll on a GLBT social networking site showed that a full quarter of all respondents didn't consider trans issues relevant to them, and that high-profile GLB activists and even the Human Rights Campaign were willing to drop transgender protections from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to increase its odds of passing. The trans community is comparatively tiny, very much discriminated against, and very vulnerable, and that so many people are willing to leave it to fend for itself is shameful.

Jesus said* once that at the end of the world, everyone will be called up before God, and divided into two groups. One group, God will praise, saying that: "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." They will ask when, and God will tell them: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Then God will tell the other group that they, having not done these things, are damned, and when they ask when they failed, will say: "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

I don't know if I believe in a concrete heaven and hell after death, but I do know I believe in this image of the righteous and the unrighteous, and it's just a pity that this particular teaching of Jesus isn't much more commonly known. In this case, turning my back on the trans community, so small and vulnerable as it is, would be like those who let God starve in the parable. And I promise you, trans community and God (for you cannot be separated) that I will not do that. I will stand with you until the phrase "trans ally" is meaningless because there are no more enemies.

(Crossposted to [info]spacelogic. Thanks to BibleGateway.com for quotes -- the story starts at Matthew 25:31 for anyone who wants to look at it in more detail, and these quotes are from the New International Version of the Bible.)

* Probably. While some of the things Jesus is alleged to have said may have been invented because they matched what early Christians wanted to believe, this particular story goes against the notion of justification by faith alone, which was quite early a popular belief, and is thus reasonably likely to be true.

October 27th, 2007

Jesus affirms a gay couple?

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From our days in Sunday school, many of us are familiar with the Gospel story where Jesus healed the servant of a Roman centurion...

There are a lot of other great articles on this site, and an Amazon link to a book that interrogates the Biblical text from a same-sex perspective.

And I tell ya, even before I knew that people were in same-sex relationships or even knew what gay was, I always just assumed Ruth and Naomi, and David and Jonathon were items. My little fanficcy 'shipper heart totally OTPed them. :D

(Link found via this thread in a Dumbledore is Gay wank report on F_W, might be relevant interest because a major Yahoo!Group was deleted by a Fundie over the news.)

September 13th, 2007

In Heaven's Eyes

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I can't find the MP3 anywhere or I'd upload it, but earlier while digging around my lyric files, I came across a song I'd completely forgotten, and right now, it's hitting hard. I thought some of y'all might appreciate it too. ♥ (it's crossposted to 2 places, so apologies if you see this twice.)

In Heaven's Eyes )

August 26th, 2007

Hello.

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My name's Bethany. I'm 19 years old and I live in a small town in Wisconsin. Eau Claire has 61,704 people and there are many religious faiths as indicated by the 70+ churches, but most of the people I've come across are either Christian or Catholic. A lot of my queer friends here are atheists or Wiccans. I honestly haven't met that many people who are Christian and gay, but I know they exist. I actually have met three gayboys who are Catholic, so that does say something. If someone wants to believe something, they will, despite what their church says.

Epic Life Story! )

July 27th, 2007

my last post

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that was supposed to be a prayer request. My system crashed, and when it reopened, I posted the whole thing here, not my IJ. *rolls eyes*

Can ya'll pray for Grandma Anna Mast, and her family? Leena -one of her daughters, especially. She is very emotional, and has been to the Amish mental facility in Indiana a couple of times for nervous breakdowns.

grandma Mast

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Grandma Mast (Anna) is in the hospital. They took her last night - I am beginning to hate the sound of the squad going north.

The family has been told to stay near home. I was supposed to take some of them to visit family only 20miles away. They are staying home. Her grandson that lives at home is not at work today, and the mill is right across the street.

I know she has been sick, hurting, and ready to go for a long time. "Granma" and I have had discussions when I drove her. She is looking forward to no more pain, no more needles, no more tests. Reaching her heavenly reward. And she deserves it. She is so calmly spiritual. So confident.

But still, it's hard to know she may be gone by the time I finish writing this! OTOH, how many times have I said she won't probably make it home, only for her to get better?

I wish I could have driven her 1 more time. I bought this seat cover thingie with Linux-style Penguins on it. It's slippery, so she would be able to just slide into the car. She would have adored it.

July 14th, 2007

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As promised in the comments of the last post, I found my old Ponderings of a Gay Christian.

Hmm, I seem to have been annoyed when I wrote it. LOL.

July 12th, 2007

Welcome to the community

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We're now open for business. I'm your moderator -- at present, the only one. In time, with growth, more will be added as needed.

For the time being, membership is open, and the posts are not auto-friendlocked. At a later time, I'll put it to vote for the community to decide if it should continue to be that way, provided that trolls are absent or kept to a minimum. This community should be a safe and comfortable place for all of us.

Gay or straight, you're welcome here. If you don't support the idea that homosexuals can be Christians as well, you're still welcome, as long as you don't attack members. Questions are always welcome, as are prayer requests.

Now, a bit about me, the founder of the community... Read more... )
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