This is the third in a series of posts challenging the sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender hierarchy/ binary teachings of Pastor Harvey Turner, Lead Pastor of Living Stones Church, Reno, Nevada. [Harvey is not alone in his teachings. Many conservative churches teach these principles, inclusive of members of the Acts 29 network, co-founded by now-shamed and fired Mark […]
This Sunday, attendees of the Living Stones Church, Reno, Nevada will hear a sermon partially focused on gender. Deuteronomy 22:5 is one of the proof texts being used to discuss gender so that hearers might be “biblically faithful and compassionate to those struggling with (gender dysphoria).” […]
If a person who lived before the turn of the 20th century were asked about their sexual orientation, they would have been bewildered by the question. Though a wealth of literature depicts same-sex behavior as far back as the ancient Greeks, people at that time would not have understood terms or concepts like “heterosexual” or […]
In 1896, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) founded a new strain of psychology and called it psychoanalysis. Most of his theories, resolutions, and treatments linked to assumptions he had formulated about various stages of sexual subconsciousness, from infancy through its progression during childhood and into adulthood. Most mental illnesses, he speculated, began with sexual abuse, fear […]
[FREE AUDIO: downloadable audio. The conversation at the intersection of faith and sexual orientation and gender identity within conservative Christian circle is often quite contentious. We would not think of ignoring scientific and medical advancements in our use of technology, assessment of cancer, or even growing crops. Yet, the same devotees of modern progress, ignore what is […]
I’m never surprised when someone who claimed not to be gay suddenly announces that, surprise, they actually are gay. Like I’ve said many times before, I haven’t met a so-called ex-gay man I didn’t think was still gay. Not one. It’s one of many reasons I left the Christian Right and the advocacy work I […]
On a lovely October evening, I spent three delightful hours talking with Dr. Kenneth Lewes, a pioneer who challenged the American Psychoanalytic Association’s (APsaA) stances on homosexuality in the late 1980s. Dr. Lewes had already graciously given me over two hours of his time on a phone call several months before and had fact-checked a […]
This is one of six stories is in the chapter of the book “Walking the Bridgeless Canyon – Repairing the Breach between the Conservative Church and the LGBT Christian Community.” (May 2014) A Biblical case for same-sex marriage is based upon the covenant, selfless, sacrificial requirements of Ephesians 5 and the one flesh demand for covenant of Genesis […]
Ted Hayes was born Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in East Tennessee in the 1930s and 1940s; Tennessee was ground zero for fundamentalist Christianity. After serving in the Korean War, he earned his degree in chemistry at the University of Chattanooga. When he announced to his family that he was going to enter Southern Baptist Theological […]
The two objections I hear most in withholding full equality for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (glbt) community are: “being gay is a choice,” and “being gay is a result of destructive family dynamics or early negative sexual imprint.” Both these objections inherently label being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender a “behavior” and not […]
Casey, sixteen and gay, was being bullied by two students at his high school in Ohio. His youth pastor, a friend of mine, helped to secure a restraining order to protect him, but the principal downgraded the severity with a weaker solution. He let Casey come to the office five minutes before classes ended and stay […]
Forty years ago, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities tumbled out of the closet at Stonewall, never to go back in again. Stonewall conveniently produced a replacement for the now-gone communists; after all, nothing unites people like a good ol’ fashioned enemy! Gay people became the new devil to be protected against. “Hide your […]
Mockery should never come from the House of God. Never. As the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities find more acceptance in churches and in society, still left in the shadows and in the back corners hidden from our kind considerations are the transgender people. I am witnessing them become the next target of religious […]
Page to be constructed with stories of several high profile men and women who have been leaders/participants in Exodus and other reparative therapy treatments. I wanted to find out first hand what Exodus actually does and to see for myself success stories of men and women who have gone through Exodus. I personally contacted Alan […]
I have been involved in advocacy for the glbt Christian community for over five years; I offer these observations that I hope you will consider as valuable insights to help bring understanding.
