Category Archives: Congregational life
Meditation on a Theme
Constance Merritt’s brilliantly crafted villanelle has great resonance at this moment we are living in. It invites reflection that will empower us for the work of resistance and renewal. Her poem teaches us that we must create a world …
Treading Water: The United Methodist Church’s Latest Plea
As I watched the business of the 2016 General Conference of the United Methodist Church, my mind flashed back to my childhood. I remembered being a lifeguard. I used to teach people how to tread water. This was …
Queer flesh and worship respectability
Following the memorial service for Daryl Coley, I stood in awe at the numerous social media posts, re-posts and comments — both of B. Slade’s virtuosic performance of Donald Lawrence’s “When Sunday Comes” and the video clips of …
Some LGBTQ people don’t or can’t embrace Christianity
God’s love is for everyone; Christianity is not, and that is okay. As people who believe that Christianity has room for the LGBTQ community, we can be zealous about our efforts to win people to our side. We want people …
The Black church: Bold and bad enough to accept and affirm
The Black Church has been a strong pillar of the community. I pray that it will have the courage not only to accept, but affirm its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender children. The recent VH1 segment, Out in Hip Hop: …
CeCe McDonald: Finding Myself, Finding My Spirituality
Crucial in my journey was this learning: Our communities’ internalized teachings and fear mongering tactics are inflicted upon black bodies to keep us oppressed. We too often uphold traditionalism and bible binaries without interrogating our own internalized hatred (racism, homophobia, …
Maybe Same Sex Marriage IS God’s Will
We are not the same America. We are not the same America that we were 20 or even 10 years ago. For decades, civil liberties framed the discourse about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) justice. Now marriage, a union …
Praying While Black
Even as the Confederate flag is removed from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds, shock waves are still echoing off the walls of our institutions after the June 17 Charleston Massacre. The funerals are over and people will carry on, but …
Laying my burdens down: Embracing Black, Queer Christians in the church
In February, Black LGBT activists Wade Davis, Tiq Milan, and Darnell Moore hosted a #ThisIsLuv town hall forum in Washington, D.C. #ThisIsLuv brought the Black Queer community together and showcased the support and love that we receive from our friends …
When is “enough” enough?
Recently, some African American pastors who came to “heckle” me changed their minds and instead asked me what they could do to move the conversation about moral equality for LGBT people in the Black church forward. I appreciate their honesty …