Straight-Friendly

A devotional blog for LGBT and other alienated Christians--with occasional personal observations.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Hang On...

Traveling on business today... Will catch up with everyone tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!

Tim

Posted by Tim at 10:36 PM

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God Without Pronouns

For two-and-a-half years, Straight-Friendly has struggled with inadvertently assigning gender to God by pronoun usage. Opting for the pervasive "He" in keeping with scriptural texts has been the norm, despite its inherent patriarchal flaws. As of 10/18/10, "God," "Christ," and "Holy Spirit" will be freed from gender bias by eliminating any pronouns referring to them. ("Jesus," the Man in Whom God is fully revealed, will remain as is, with His divinity underscored by capitalization.)

Our Creator has no gender. Saddling God with pronouns that undermine that truth undermines our awareness that God is revealed in all of us, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or orientation.

(For more details, see Revealed in Us.)

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About Me

Tim: Chicago, IL; I'm a gay Pentecostal preacher's kid who gratefully managed to survive coming out of the closet with my faith intact. Over the years, I've met dozens of other GLBT friends who were less fortunate. This blog is for them--and tens of thousands like them. I pray that something here will encourage all of us to renew or strengthen our commitment to Christ. This starts by looking to Christ for acceptance, not those claiming to speak for Him. Instead of waiting for fellow Christians who reject us to become "gay-friendly," I hope and believe that we can overcome our issues by becoming "straight-friendly"--loving them as Jesus told us to do. On the personal side, I'm a writer who lives in Chicago with Walt, my partner of 20 years. Cody, our mischievous yellow longhaired cat, and his little brother, a black Egyptian Mau, Max, know no end of ways to keep things hopping around our house. tgwolfe91159@gmail.com

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Finding Community

This is Lake View Presbyterian Church, my church. What’s wrong with this picture—and would be wrong with any picture of my church—is that it fails to capture the genuine spirit of community that lives in its walls. It’s where more than 300 believers of all ages, colors, backgrounds, and orientations come together in worship and service. It’s a hub of learning, listening, and loving—of living. It’s an organism engaged in relentless dialogue with the world—inside it, around it (namely, Lakeview-Boystown, Chicago’s largest gay neighborhood), and the world at large. And most of all it is where my soul finds its home.

And, OK, this is an overt plug for LVPC. If you live within driving distance and seek an authentically balanced, caring, and welcoming community, I can’t recommend it highly enough. But it’s also a testament to the importance of finding community. It may be possible to sustain one’s faith without fellowship. But I’m not so sure it’s possible to grow without Biblically sound teaching and the company of committed, compassionate believers.

If you’ve not yet found a nurturing, welcoming faith community, I encourage you to begin or continue your search. Below you’ll find a list of churches (including LVPC) that asked to be linked here. One may be near you. If not, thousands like them all over the world are listed on gaychurch.org. Make the effort to explore those near you.

Your soul needs a home.

GLBT-Friendly Church Listings

Body of Christ Church of God, Largo, FL
Bridgeport United Church of Christ, Portland, OR
Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches
Child of the Wind
Expressions Community Fellowship, Oklahoma City, OK
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, NY
First Congregational Church, Salem, OR
First Presbyterian Church of Austin, Austin, TX
First Presbyterian Church, Elizabethton, TN
gaychurch.org
Gilead Presbyterian Church, Carmel, NY
Glade Church, Blacksburg, VA
Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Menomonee Falls, WI
Hammond Street Congregational Church, Bangor, ME
Hilton Christian Church, Newport News, VA
Hope United Church of Christ, Naperville, IL
Immanuel United Church of Christ, Streamwood, IL
Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY
Lake View Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL
Mayfield Congregational Church, Sycamore, IL
Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond, Richmond, VA
Metropolitan Community Church, Brisbane, Australia
Metropolitan Community Church, Charleston, SC
New Hope Metropolitan Community Church, Santa Rosa, CA
New Song: A Disciples of Christ Faith Community, Kansas City, MO
Palo Cristi Presbyterian Church, Phoenix, AZ
Park Central Presbyterian, Syracuse, NY
People of Hope Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN
Redeemer Lutheran Church, Neptune, NJ
Resurrection and Hope Ministries, Oak Forest, IL
St. John United Church of Christ, Kankakee, IL
St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, NY
St. Luke's Community Church, Jacksonville, FL
St. Luke's Episcopal, Minneapolis MN
St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Ithaca, NY
The Parish of Saint Paul Episcopal, Newton Highlands, MA
The United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY
United Christian Church, Austin, TX
United Church of Paducah, Paducah, KY
United Church of the Valley, Murrieta, CA
Westminster Congregational Church, Spokane, WA

GLBT Christian Blogs, Sites, and Allies

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