About a month ago I got an email out of the blue from the City of Chicago. That’s usually never a good sign…

However this time it was awesome. In it, I was being asked to be one of three judges for the final night of competition for the 58th Annual City of Chicago and Chicago Park District Junior Citizen of the Year Award! The contestants have to be seniors in high school and meet an extensive criteria of grades, civic service and be involved with the Chicago Park District. They were nominated through a variety of routes; through Chicago government officials, regional directors of the Chicago Park District, high school administration, etc. Out of the hundreds that were nominated it has been whittled down to 12 finalists (6 males and 6 females). So this is the cream of the crop! The finals are held at Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears play), and each finalist will have to give a speech and then participate in a public Q&A session, from questions asked by us judges, to score and rank. Previous to the finals, the contestants had to write a number of essays, all of which have been given to us well in advance to read and score. At the end of the night there will be a banquet dinner where the winners will be announced. Each of the top four winners all receive a nice chunk of scholarship money towards their college education, with only one student being named the 2011 City of Chicago and Chicago Park District Junior Citizen of the Year!

Tonight, Friday March 25th, is the night! I mean, what an honor to be selected as one of three judges who get to award extremely deserving young people actual money to better their lives through their college education! When I contacted the organizers back to say yes, I was wondering how I got selected as one of only three judges for this prestigious city-wide event. It turns out that someone who works at the corporate headquarters for the Chicago Park District follows the work of The Marin Foundation, and this blog, and thought because The Marin Foundation’s work is about reconciliation and strengthening community, in addition to the fact that I speak in public all of the time and face my fair share of criticism (so I know what it’s like to be judged), that I would be a good fit! The other two judges are pretty high-profile Chicago folks (one is an official from the Chicago Public Schools and the other heads up one of Chicago’s largest philanthropic organizations), and from what I understand everyone is going to be there tonight – the Mayor and a number of elected officials, professional athletes and the rest of Chicago’s elite!

I’m still floored… Can’t wait to see what happens.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Two years ago today (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) I spoke on Capitol Hill the night before the Inauguration of President Barack Obama.

The event was an official Inauguration event, a series of government sponsored events that led up to the actual Inauguration ceremony of our country’s 44th President. This event consisted of two representatives from each of the major faiths that make-up America, to speak about something that reflects the essence of Martin Luther King Jr and the current state of our country.

It was a huge honor to be there, not just because I had the opportunity to speak on Capitol Hill during such a pivotal time in our country’s history, but because the other evangelical representative speaking was Dr. Vincent Harding, the former speech writer for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr! Here and here are two of Dr. Harding’s recent books. After MLK’s assassination, Harding worked closely with Coretta Scott King to preserve MLK’s legacy, including being the first Director of the only official MLK museum, the King Center, in Atlanta, GA.

I was humbled to find out that the talk that I gave that night (above) impacted the director of the Smithsonian Museum, who was in attendance that evening. Later, I received a document from the Smithsonian asking for my permission to archive my talk in our country’s history depository. Needless to say, I signed it and what you hear above will always be a part of our country’s history. To date, speaking on Capitol Hill with Martin Luther King Jr’s speech writer, leading to my talk being archived in the Smithsonian, the night before the Inauguration of President Obama, has been the biggest honor of my life.

It’s still amazing to me that any of this stuff has even happened. I was just a kid who moved into Boystown with my best friends because I loved them and wanted to seek the truth, because what I heard from the Church world about LGBTs and what I heard from LGBTs about the church world never matched up to any experiences I had in either community. Let’s keep this bridge building movement of reconciliation rolling…

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

This is just amazing! I just found out that Love is an Orientation just won its 5th national book award. Outreach Magazine gave Love is an Orientation their Culture Award for the Outreach Resources of the Year. You can see the release here.

As I was writing this book during May and June of 2008, I earnestly prayed that each and every sentence would be given by the Lord, and used for God’s ultimate purposes in everyone’s life who reads it. My goal was, and always is, impact; not units sold. Yet the Lord has given both – and these 5 awards that my book has won is more than anything I could have even imagined. The impact is being felt, and I couldn’t be more humbled and literally taken back by this whole thing.

I love you all so much for believing so strongly in this bridge building movement. ‘Thank you’ just doesn’t do the intentions of my soul justice.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Wow. This one’s a big one! The widely read and extremely respected publication Leadership Journal has just announced that Love is an Orientation won The Golden Canon Leadership Award for being selected as one of the Best 10 Overall Books of 2009. Here is the release.

I’m speechless. For real.

Thank you all so much for your overwhelming love and support. This is humbling beyond expression for me right now.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Wow. I can’t say anymore than I’ve already said about how unexpected and special this whole book thing has been, both in regards to the impact that it has had and how it has been received by both the GLBT (secular and religious) and conservative religious communities.

Love is an Orientation just recieved its third award, being listed in a group of the Best Overall Books of 2009 by the Englewood Review of Books – here’s their list.

This whole thing has been crazy. Thanks for living out your countercultural call from Christ to build bridges when much of the world doesn’t know what to do with us. Let’s keep on keepin’ on …

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

I just got some awesome news from my publisher. RELEVANT Magazine named Love is an Orientation as one of their Top 20 Best Overall Books of 2009. Here is the release.

So crazy humbling. I never thought this stuff would happen. Wow.

What a great birthday present today.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Enough of the heavy stuff for today after yesterday’s prayer - I need a break, and I’m sure you need one from me too!

I’ve got exciting news that I found out last night:

It’s a major award!

(Unfortunately due to copyright issues I couldn’t post one of the best clips of all time: ‘F-R-A-G-I-L-E … It’s a major award’ from the movie A Christmas Story. But click on the link above and enjoy one of the best four and a half minute movie clips you’ll ever watch!)

I write this because Love is an Orientation just received a 2009 Lime Award from The Christian Manifesto for Best Non-Fiction. Here is the link to the release. This is pretty exciting! My book was actually the only InterVarsity Press book on any of The Christian Manifesto’s award categories – quite humbling.

Thanks for all of you who read it, passed it on and continue to recommend it. It’s literally getting out there because of you, and I’m truly humbled by each one of you for believing so strongly in the Lord’s command to build these bridges. And that’s a dead honest statement.

As a side note, here are a few more reviews I’ve come across: One from Canada, one from Britian and one from the US. If you know of others out there (no matter what they say about my book) please feel free to post them in the comments.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org