Mayor Pete

March 2, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

Early in the campaign season, Pete Buttigieg made a stop here in Dallas for a big Democratic event. I was asked to deliver an invocation for the evening, which I was honored to do. During Mayor Pete’s keynote speech, he was interrupted at several points by hecklers, in what was clearly an organized plan to […]

Has Homosexual Always Been in the Bible?

October 9, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

In our Methodist tradition, we (wrongly) claim “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” The research behind this story tells us: That does not appear to be true. We are lying to ourselves about what historical Biblical teaching actually said. Before we get into it, and for those who are confused….there’s an old […]

Jesse Jackson Had It Right

August 7, 2019.Reading time 52 minutes.

I voted for Ronald Reagan twice to be president. The next time I could vote, I voted for Jesse Jackson. If I was to write the story of my spiritual, social, and political transformation in two short sentences, those two would be it. Those two sentences are the metaphor for a social transformation that continues […]

Realism, Not Cold Water

June 8, 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

Realism, not cold water. That is my message to all my friends in Metho-nerd land today. For the past two weeks, we’ve had the breaking news of General Conference delegate elections from all across the country. It is fair to call it a “wave election,” toward the Moderate-Progressive side. It’s STUNNING in some places. My […]

An Historic Annual Conference

June 5, 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

Let me provide a bit of context for the past few days in the North Texas Conference. It’s just my one perspective on what felt like an extraordinary few days. (So, take it or leave it…) First, the NTC ordained the first openly lesbian woman in the South. (Meaning: In any conference in the Southeastern […]

Our Open Letter to the LGBTQ+ Community

March 17, 2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

Let me pause for a brief moment and reflect on this day when 177 of my clergy siblings here in North Texas have signed on to an open letter addressed to the LGBTQ community that appears in today’s Dallas Morning News. Let me tell you what I remember… I remember a “Day of Listening” in […]

The Height of Hypocrisy

March 16, 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

This week, the New York Times ran a story that proves corruption and cheating among African delegates to the recent General Conference of the United Methodist Church. The story promised follow-up stories to come. I hope they do follow up. Because there are a host of issues that have needed to be addressed for at […]

“We Know What We Know” About Methodism

March 2, 2019.Reading time 20 minutes.

“Demography is Destiny” — Auguste Comte Thursday afternoon a United Methodist clergy colleague called me while I was driving to church. I spend a lot of time in the car these days. We talked for about 25 minutes. He was pretty amped up. He told me he’d stayed up until 3 am the night before, […]

Methodism: Post-Mortem and Pre-Vitae

February 26, 2019.Reading time 16 minutes.

This week’s General Conference #gc2019 is the result of a slow-moving train wreck that’s been happening in the United Methodist Church for some thirty years. Most centered in my mind today are all those who are experiencing pain, most especially of all, my dear Methodist LGBTQ friends across the denomination, and all of those who […]

Straightsplaining in the UMC

February 21, 2019.Reading time 14 minutes.

For three years, the United Methodist Church has been engaged in a denomination-wide process of “straightsplaining” to the LGBTQ community. Actually, you could make a strong case that we’ve been straightsplaining since 1972. What is “straightsplaining?” Go ahead, Google it. It’s exactly what you think it is. It’s the rainbow flag community’s version of “Mansplaining.” […]