For our upcoming Living in the Tension gathering on Monday (August 12th), we will be sharing our thoughts about the LGBT issues that we see coming up on the horizon. With conversations about marriage equality commonly garnering the most attention in public circles, are there other issues that are being ignored or pushed to the margins? What is it that influences priorities when it comes to the rights and well-being of certain groups within the LGBT community being focused on... Read more
The following post is from Jason Bilbrey, our Director of Pastoral Care at The Marin Foundation. “I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid.” These are the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, known for his role in ending racial segregation in South Africa (known as Apartheid), just a few weeks ago at the launch of a UN-backed campaign to promote gay rights throughout Africa. “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven,” he continued.... Read more
The following post is from Laura Statesir, Director of Family and Youth at The Marin Foundation. Before I came to The Marin Foundation, I spent five years living in the Dominican Republic working for Young Life. The Dominican Republic is a small country in the Caribbean that shares the island of Hispaniola with the country of Haiti. President Obama recently nominated an openly gay man, James Brewster, as the Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The response from this predominantly... Read more
The following post is from Brent Bailey, a Master of Divinity student at Abilene Christian University. Brent is interning with us at The Marin Foundation this summer, and you can find his blog at oddmanout.net. The authentic life does not come easily for me. My process of coming out as gay took a long time—precisely three years, in fact, since I was sentimental enough to schedule my formal coming out with the anniversary of the day I first opened up to my... Read more
I’ve recently heard the phrase “I don’t trust you” as a reason not to engage with someone in real life, even in a simple conversation. And the I-don’t-trust-you-person’s metric for defining trust? Online. If that is the dominant lens to decide conclusive trust, of course one doesn’t trust that other. They don’t actually know them. I would even go so far as to say it’s a little odd one thinks they can come to a fully decisive trust/distrust decision from purely online... Read more
Taylor Culver is a recent graduate of Northwestern College, interning with us this summer in Chicago. One of the greatest challenges for me in reconciling the components of faith and sexuality was finding a balance between having a concrete answer and living despite the questions I had and still have. As our associate director, Michael Kimpan says, “We are a culture obsessed with answers.” This need for certainty can quickly become consuming, and we open ourselves up to the possibility... Read more
If you have ever wanted to learn practical steps for building bridges between the LGBT community and the church, now is the time! If you read Love Is an Orientation and want to know, “Now what?” here is your answer. Whether you are a pastor, a parent, a youth worker, an LGBT individual, a professor, or someone who is simply interested in knowing how to elevate this conversation, this is for you! This summer, The Marin Foundation will be offering continuing education... Read more
The following post is from Kevin Harris, Director of Community Relations at The Marin Foundation. In working at The Marin Foundation and having conversations about faith and sexuality over the last few years, I’m finding that it can be a bit of a balancing act in maintaing a healthy outlook that can lend itself to engaging in productive ways. The conversations along the spectrum of belief are filled with our hopes and idealistic visions to the sobering and often... Read more
A friend called me up the other day and wanted to talk about how I understand the process of bridge building (if you are not clear on what this process looks like, you can watch this and read this). This friend was having problems entering into such spaces because, as they told me, I just can’t dive fully into “bridge building” because your organization is friends with someone I hate. This is a statement that I have received a few times... Read more
2013 was our fourth I’m Sorry Campaign in Chicago. Well, technically it was the I’m Sorry Campaign’s thirtieth Pride around the world. It’s amazing what one small act of love becomes… Here is a roundup of some of the blogs written by people who attended this year’s I’m Sorry Campaign in Chicago. I’m sure there are others out there as well, but these are the only ones I currently know of. Have a read–they are each powerful reflections about moments... Read more
Love is an Orientation
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