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 […]

“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.” […]

“A great time to be alive…” (My Eulogy for Jack Evans)

July 2, 2016.Reading time 24 minutes.

Jack Evans was truly a larger than life human being who, along with his husband George, got too live through momentous and positive changes for LGBTQ people. I have said many times, say it again now, Jack and George have taught my wife and me a lot about what it takes to make a relationship […]

Signs That Are More Than Ink On Paper

June 16, 2016.Reading time 25 minutes.

When I was a kid, there was a program called “Helping Hands” that was supposed to help kids feel safe. The idea was that families would put a paper sign inside the front windows of their house. The sign was a very simple hand print. The theory was that if a kid was ever walking […]

Of Bathrooms and Johnny Manziel

May 13, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Eric’s video message for this week, talking about the fake danger of Trans people and bathrooms, verses the very real dangers of domestic violence.

Conversation with Morgan Guyton

May 4, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Morgan Guyton is on a book tour for his great new book, “How Jesus Saves The World from Us: 12 Antidotes to Toxic Christianity.” We did a short interview about the book, focusing on the chapter, “Outsiders, Not Insiders,” talking about a bit about General Conference, and what it’s like to be straight allies of […]

Message To General Conference Delegates

May 2, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Friends, This blog is a message to delegates to the upcoming United Methodist General Conference. If you are a delegate, I hope you’ll watch it. If you know a delegate, I hope you’ll forward it to them. The primary message is this: “Restructuring” or “Reframing” will not help solve the intractable conflict over LGBT issues […]