{"id":4954,"date":"2013-01-02T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/?p=4954"},"modified":"2013-01-02T10:57:09","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T16:57:09","slug":"another-great-honor-for-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Great Honor for Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Michelle from Maladjusted Media<\/p>\n

As it was happening we were living in the moment. We had no idea this picture was even being taken. A woman who I didn\u2019t know came up to me a few minutes later<\/a> and said, \u201cHey, I got some cool pictures of what just happened. Let me send them to you!<\/em>\u201d I just thought this was going to be an amazing memory that a few of us shared about what love means to us at The Marin Foundation.<\/p>\n

Amazing what the internet does. Since this picture was first posted on my blog<\/a> it has been viewed almost 30 MILLION times<\/strong>! Didn\u2019t see that one coming\u2026 You can read the backstory of the picture here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In June 2012 this picture was listed by BuzzFeed<\/em> as the #1 Picture That Will Restore Faith in Humanity<\/a>\u00a0\u2026 the single greatest distinction The Marin Foundation\u2019s work can be labeled as \u2013 Restoring faith in humanity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And now\u2026<\/p>\n

The uber popular image sharing site Imgur<\/em>, most notably associated with Reddit<\/em>, named our picture\u00a0#7 on the list of Best Images of 2012<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 right behind Olympian McKayla Maroney\u2019s famous \u201cNot Impressed\u201d photo (which by the way, I\u2019m obsessed with the hilarious McKayla Is Not Impressed memes<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The folks at Imgur reached out to me to ask for a few sentences about the picture. Here\u2019s what I wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

The idea for the apology came from a gay employee of my organization, The Marin Foundation. He knew how much shame he had to endure in many church circles, and also how much it meant for him to have people sincerely apologize to him. So we gathered a group of straight and LGBT Christians and went to the Parade. We had no idea what would happen, or that this picture was even being taken. And today this picture means so much because it stands for something bigger than any of us\u2013it stands for actually living a faith worth living and loving how Jesus commanded us. As author Chris Heuertz says, \u201cEverything in moderation except love.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On a side note, in the description of the picture the editors at Imgur<\/em> called The Marin Foundation a \u201cChristian LGBT advocacy group\u201d making steps for \u201cequality.\u201d The mission of The Marin Foundation is to build bridges between both<\/em> the LGBT community and conservatives, which isn\u2019t necessarily described in the spirit of the labels written. But in my understanding of the editors\u2019 statements, I very much agree that\u00a0The Marin Foundation does tirelessly advocate for the equality of all people as loved children of God \u2013 a message that too many who proclaim Jesus have not not lived into when it comes to our LGBT brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n

As always, Much love.<\/p>\n

www.themarinfoundation.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Marin Foundation’s now twice viral photo, Christians Hugging a Man in His Underwear at Chicago’s Gay Pride, has been viewed 30 million times since first being posted on my blog. It has also recently been honored in two major outlets “Best Images” lists – one best of 2012 and one best of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1306,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,168,127,120],"tags":[129,278],"class_list":["post-4954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bridging-opposing-worldviews","category-culture","category-lgbt","category-the-marin-foundation","tag-faith-and-homosexuality","tag-im-sorry-campaign"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother Great Honor for Love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Marin Foundation's now twice viral photo, Christians Hugging a Man in His Underwear at Chicago's Gay Pride, has been viewed 30 million times since first being posted on my blog. It has also recently been honored in two major outlets "Best Images" lists - one best of 2012 and one best of all time.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Another Great Honor for Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Marin Foundation's now twice viral photo, Christians Hugging a Man in His Underwear at Chicago's Gay Pride, has been viewed 30 million times since first being posted on my blog. It has also recently been honored in two major outlets "Best Images" lists - one best of 2012 and one best of all time.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love is an Orientation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-02T15:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-02T16:57:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/files\/2013\/01\/Michelle-13-682x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Marin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Marin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/\",\"name\":\"Another Great Honor for Love\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-02T15:00:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-02T16:57:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ea2c5dcf314688ae571cb498de383f\"},\"description\":\"The Marin Foundation's now twice viral photo, Christians Hugging a Man in His Underwear at Chicago's Gay Pride, has been viewed 30 million times since first being posted on my blog. It has also recently been honored in two major outlets \\\"Best Images\\\" lists - one best of 2012 and one best of all time.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Another Great Honor for Love\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/\",\"name\":\"Love is an Orientation\",\"description\":\"Exploring the active engagement of bridging opposing worldviews\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ea2c5dcf314688ae571cb498de383f\",\"name\":\"Andrew Marin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fd31eb40136f158f531a79dad9c4ffd?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fd31eb40136f158f531a79dad9c4ffd?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Andrew Marin\"},\"description\":\"Andrew Marin is President and Founder of The Marin Foundation (www.themarinfoundation.org). He is the award winning author of two books and a DVD curriculum, and his new book Us Versus Us: The Untold Story of Religion & the LGBT Community, will release June 2016. Since 2010 Andrew has been asked by the United Nations to advise their various agencies on issues of bridging opposing worldviews, civic engagement, and Christian involvement in reconciliation. He is currently based St. Andrews, Scotland where he is researching and teaching at the University of St. Andrews, earning his PhD in Divinity. His research focuses on the theology and praxis of social reconciliation between victims and their perpetrators. Andrew is married to Brenda, and you can find him elsewhere on Twitter (@Andrew_Marin), Facebook (AndrewMarin01), and Instagram (@andrewmarin1).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/author\/loveisanorientation\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Another Great Honor for Love","description":"The Marin Foundation's now twice viral photo, Christians Hugging a Man in His Underwear at Chicago's Gay Pride, has been viewed 30 million times since first being posted on my blog. It has also recently been honored in two major outlets \"Best Images\" lists - one best of 2012 and one best of all time.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Another Great Honor for Love","og_description":"The Marin Foundation's now twice viral photo, Christians Hugging a Man in His Underwear at Chicago's Gay Pride, has been viewed 30 million times since first being posted on my blog. It has also recently been honored in two major outlets \"Best Images\" lists - one best of 2012 and one best of all time.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/","og_site_name":"Love is an Orientation","article_published_time":"2013-01-02T15:00:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-02T16:57:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/files\/2013\/01\/Michelle-13-682x1024.jpg"}],"author":"Andrew Marin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew Marin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/","name":"Another Great Honor for Love","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-02T15:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-02T16:57:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ea2c5dcf314688ae571cb498de383f"},"description":"The Marin Foundation's now twice viral photo, Christians Hugging a Man in His Underwear at Chicago's Gay Pride, has been viewed 30 million times since first being posted on my blog. It has also recently been honored in two major outlets \"Best Images\" lists - one best of 2012 and one best of all time.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/2013\/01\/another-great-honor-for-love\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Another Great Honor for Love"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/","name":"Love is an Orientation","description":"Exploring the active engagement of bridging opposing worldviews","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ea2c5dcf314688ae571cb498de383f","name":"Andrew Marin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fd31eb40136f158f531a79dad9c4ffd?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fd31eb40136f158f531a79dad9c4ffd?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Andrew Marin"},"description":"Andrew Marin is President and Founder of The Marin Foundation (www.themarinfoundation.org). He is the award winning author of two books and a DVD curriculum, and his new book Us Versus Us: The Untold Story of Religion & the LGBT Community, will release June 2016. Since 2010 Andrew has been asked by the United Nations to advise their various agencies on issues of bridging opposing worldviews, civic engagement, and Christian involvement in reconciliation. He is currently based St. Andrews, Scotland where he is researching and teaching at the University of St. Andrews, earning his PhD in Divinity. His research focuses on the theology and praxis of social reconciliation between victims and their perpetrators. Andrew is married to Brenda, and you can find him elsewhere on Twitter (@Andrew_Marin), Facebook (AndrewMarin01), and Instagram (@andrewmarin1).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/author\/loveisanorientation\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveisanorientation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}