GRACE AND PEACE

These words are found in St. Paul's opening greetings in all his epistles.  Yet he is often targeted as the most homophobic of all the Biblical writers.

I believe that grace is the defining word of the Christian faith, and that for LGBT Christians to have the gift of grace is to find the peace which has eluded us everywhere else.

Grace abounds!  Peace is found!

"God's word for us is always an invitation, not an ultimatum."  Download PDF file, 3pp.; or Listen to MP3 recording (9:30 mins).

Across the board, God’s voice always calls to us, with love, to come home, to come to our senses, to accept love, to seek peace, and to show mercy to others. The voice of God isn’t saying, you must do all those things or you are damned. The love of God is not an "or else" kind of thing.

"The shortest distance between two points of view is to tell the truth."

"Coming Out:  What it Means, Where to Start, Why it is Important."  Download PDF file, 8 pp.

Almost all of us who are homosexual, bisexual or transgender—and who grew up or spent a significant part of our lives in a religious context—have suffered some dissonance, conflict, and pain.  One way in which we coped with inner conflict was in thinking we were keeping it a secret from God.  If we thought about it we hoped either God didn't notice, or didn't mind.  More often, when we thought about it, we stopped thinking about God for a while (as if there were two separate, parallel universes!).  But what inner peace and self-respect we lost in the process of keeping it a secret!  Without it ever escaping our heads, without it ever crossing our lips, it was tearing us apart inside.