{"id":8220,"date":"2012-06-17T10:48:02","date_gmt":"2012-06-17T14:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=8220"},"modified":"2012-07-03T19:18:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T23:18:25","slug":"smart-people-saying-smart-things-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart people saying smart things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Matthew Blake Williams: \u201cWhy gays are going to save the church<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, it\u2019s really not that hard to say why I devote myself to a Church that doesn\u2019t seem to want me around. I do it because I get it. I get what Jesus was trying to do. I get it better than most, because I need it more than most. That might sound arrogant to you. That\u2019s okay. For those of us who are gay and have come to trust Christ\u2019s love despite experiencing a lifetime of hate from Christians, it\u2019s just a hard-earned reality.<\/p>\n

LGBT Christians have a profound understanding of Judeo-Christian story of faith. We believe in the mission of Jesus, in making a way for the outcast. We get it. We understand that that no one \u2013 not the lesbian, nor the Pharisee who excludes her \u2013 is beyond the reach of grace.<\/p>\n

And, of course \u2013 despite the provocative title of this blog post \u2013 it\u2019s not just gay Christians. It\u2019s all of the marginalized and sidelined, the people who don\u2019t see the world in the same stark shades of black and white that the American church prescribes. It\u2019s everyone who tires of the hypocrisy and discrimination and selfish warring done in the name of Jesus and says, \u201cThis is our faith too, and we won\u2019t stand by while it is hijacked. We won\u2019t allow voices of hate to speak for us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shari Johnson: \u201cChristians can change their minds on homosexuality. I know, because I did.<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have learned since then that Cholene knew she was gay ever since she was a little girl. She got the message from pastors, Sunday school teachers, Christian leaders and even her parents that she was an abomination to God and didn\u2019t deserve his love. I have agonized over this. People have said, \u201cBut you didn\u2019t know she was gay.\u201d What difference does that make? Our behavior was unconscionable, not only as parents, but also as Christians.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, she received the message from God himself that he loved her.<\/p>\n

I have had a dramatic change of heart since first learning of Cholene\u2019s homosexuality. Call it a paradigm shift, an epiphany or just plain coming to my senses. Whatever it was, I know this \u2014 God was behind it. I would give anything to have a do-over for those years when we hurt Cholene so terribly, so I\u2019m on a mission to help keep other families from making our mistakes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sarah Posner: \u201cEmbracing the fringe<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

A year after launching 40 Days for Life, [David] Bereit joined the American Life League, long considered one of the fringe players in the anti-abortion movement, serving as national director of its project STOPP, or Stop Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

Shortly after joining STOPP, Bereit blamed the Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which ruled state bans on contraception unconstitutional, for \u201ca tragic moral breakdown in our culture,\u201d adding, \u201cIt is time for Americans to take a long, hard look at the real legacy of the Griswold decision. Although we can\u2019t undo the consequences overnight, we can begin to take back our society one step at a time. The first step is to put an end to the destructive influence of Planned Parenthood, the organization that forced this tragedy upon our nation 40 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally, Bereit told me he opposed the legal precedent that Griswold set, as it laid the groundwork for Roe v. Wade. But when I pressed him about whether he agreed with ALL\u2019s opposition to contraception generally, he paused and said, \u201cI still agree with the position that anything that directly causes the destruction of human life, and there is evidence suggesting that certain birth control devices can have an abortifacient property. I do have opposition to those things,\u201d which he said included birth control pills. He, like other speakers at the rally, repeated the false charge that the emergency contraceptives ella and Plan B, which are covered by the HHS rule, are abortifacients.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Blake Williams: \u201cWhy gays are going to save the church\u201c Actually, it\u2019s really not that hard to say why I devote myself to a Church that doesn\u2019t seem to want me around. I do it because I get it. I get what Jesus was trying to do. I get it better than most, because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-8220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-smart"],"yoast_head":"\nSmart people saying smart things<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Matthew Blake Williams: "Why gays are going to save the church" Actually, it\u2019s really not that hard to say why I devote myself to a Church that doesn\u2019t\" \/>\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\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Smart people saying smart things\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matthew Blake Williams: "Why gays are going to save the church" Actually, it\u2019s really not that hard to say why I devote myself to a Church that doesn\u2019t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-17T14:48:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-07-03T23:18:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/\",\"name\":\"Smart people saying smart things\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-17T14:48:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-03T23:18:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Matthew Blake Williams: \\\"Why gays are going to save the church\\\" Actually, it\u2019s really not that hard to say why I devote myself to a Church that doesn\u2019t\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/17\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-45\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Smart people saying smart things\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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