Recently in Christianity Category

I have met a lot of progressive Christians, so I know we exist. Yet we're not seen or heard as often as conservatives. I wondered why.

Evangelicalism on the outs, says author

Could this be the end of Evangelicalism as we know it?

I grew up in an Evangelical church. I believe that Evangelicalism done well can be powerful and good. Unfortunately, it has largely been done poorly, viciously, and cruelly. Many evangelical groups have taken the easy way of creating an enemy and fighting against it, rather than using the church to heal and grow individuals to be caring members of society. The former is easy but weak, the latter is more difficult but hardy.

Like the financial giants made up of easy money in the form or bloated, empty investments, there are many churches that are filled with lots of people who haven't been given what they need to be part of effective communities of faith. And so there will be a huge contraction, recession, perhaps even depression.

The real tragedy here is not in the collapse of giant churches and the loss of income for their pastors. It's in the disillusionment and spiritual homelessness of the people who went to these houses of worship looking for something meaningful and came back with emptiness.

Whether these people seek another Christian community, another religious community, or a non-religious community, they are going to be looking for something to hold on to. I urge those of you who will be meeting these people to not hold their previous affiliations against them, and to instead embrace these brothers and sisters of ours as they seek to remake their worldviews. They will be very vulnerable, and they need the love they may - or may not - have shown us.

Let us be the example many Evangelicals could not.

On a Christian denominational discussion board, a person who is gay said

the Christian church is the stated enemy of the gay community

and a person who is clergy in that denomination said

Or do you mean the gay community is the stated enemy of many Christian churches, the UCC & MCC excluded, at least. 

Which got me thinking:

"What might it look like if someone wanted to treat Christians the way gay people are treated?"

My church is Plainfield Congregational United Church of Christ, part of the Eastern Association of the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ.

There have been reports of child molestation by church leaders. Firearm discharge inside churches seems to be on the rise.

With these and other recent events, any organization would do well to examine their security policies. Yet for churches, we might well consider the theological basis of our choices.

For Christians, there is the example of the one who walked with lepers, the lame, adulterers, prostitutes, people with boils, the demon possessed, women with chronic bleeding, and tax collectors. Yet we also have a duty to protect those who are vulnerable.

How do we live grace and faith in God's protection, while caring for those around us?

I'm in seminary because I have an irresistible, irrefusable call to ministry. Despite the fact that I would not choose myself for such a vocation, I cannot seem to resist the compelling force to walk this path. And, rather than telling me how foolish I am, many people who know me encourage me to persevere, saying they see in me something that tells them I have a true calling. Yet every time I try to follow this path, I hit insurmountable obstacles.

When I finally realize how impossible this is for me, a divorced, transsexual lesbian (now in my forties), with yet somewhat traditional and orthodox theology, I come to my senses and stop.

And then comes the intense feeling of loss. Some time later, perhaps six months or a year, I realize I cannot say no to this call. No matter how difficult, how impossible, how ridiculous it is, it is what I must do.


Now I have hit another immovable object. I have to stop. And yet the call is an unstoppable force.


I know the fault is in me. Either I am failing to understand how God is speaking to me, or I am failing in walking the path God has set before me.

And it makes me very sad.


I do not blame God. I blame myself for the failure - even for the failure to see where I have failed.

I cry out for help. I pray that God will grant me whatever I need to do God's will - whatever that will may be. I pray I will be made into the person God has dreamed me to be.

I pray for wisdom to know which way I should go - not the destination, but for the place to plant my next step.

I pray for the humility to accept whatever task to which I may be set.

I pray for the courage to do whatever I must do.

I pray for the strength to overcome the obstacles which I must overcome.

I pray for the acceptance that there are obstacles I was never meant to overcome.

And I pray that my love would always increase, to always care for the others I would find on my way, and for the grace to forgive those who I feel have harmed me, no matter how I felt I was harmed.


I don't know what to do, but at least I have the humility to admit that.