People of the Second Chance (POTSC) is a movement created by author and creative, Mike Foster, which works to overthrow judgement and liberate love. POTSC is filled with a bunch of super artsy, cool and rebellious folks.

Their new campaign is Labels Lie: Don’t Use Them, Don’t Accept Them. Their most recent addition is the picture above. They asked me to write an article to accompany their new poster.

Here is my article.

Question: Do you think you can resonate with someone without taking on their labels?

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org 

So when the mail got dropped off at The Marin Foundation’s office today there were 3 huge boxes. The sender was Zondervan. I thought… Here it is! The DVD Curriculums are here! So give me some grace and view the excitement with me of opening the very first copies of our new Love Is an Orientation DVD and Participant Guide.

It officially releases on December 13th.

You can pre-order the DVD and Participant Guide combo pack here.

You can pre-order the DVD by itself here.

You can pre-order additional Participant Guides by themselves here.

I’m popping it in my DVD player right now… Can’t wait to watch it myself as I haven’t seen the final version yet. Awesome!

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org 

The next post in this series on identity in relation to faith and sexuality is from Kevin Harris. Kevin is the Director of Community Relations and the Administrative Assistant at The Marin Foundation.

What? Why do you identify as gay? Aren’t you a Christian?

Bring up the topic of homosexuality and identity (or gender identity that does not adhere to the norm) with Christians, and you may feel like you’re talking about spam. Like the meat, it’s either a mystery to many Christians since our identity is to be in Christ, or it’s met with aversion out of contempt for the unpalatable matter being presented before them.

I fully believe that the redemptive story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection has implications for our identity that are to supersede any other competing claims vying for the foundational basis upon which our identity is to rest. I also fully believe that followers of Jesus have been grafted onto the body of Christ that transcends any other identifier or label (generation, nationality, race, ethnic identity, gender, sexuality, occupation, etc.). However, I do not see how that rules out the use of secondary identifiers. I feel it is very important to root our primary identity in Christ (which I have written about here) and, while I see myself as God’s beloved, I have also seen the need to name and identify my reality as a gay man.

Functioning in a heteronormative society where heterosexual individuals do not have to identify themselves as such or announce their sexuality because it is the norm to which everyone else is compared (and individuals are assumed to be such unless noted otherwise), I have found that it is easy to become invisible as a queer person and have my reality silenced. This is especially true in many Christian circles where sermons and discussions are littered with language that assumes heterosexual and cisgender (assigned gender at birth matches current gender identity) identity and only acknowledges the realities that are deemed as acceptable. A disappointing exception to this is where the LGBT community is mentioned in the context of being solely looked upon as a mission field or ministry project that is deserving of compassion. Attentiveness to such language stemming from a place of heteronormativity and the labels we employ within language are important as they have the capacity to make individuals outside of the heterosexual mainstream feel like outsiders or that they do not belong if we are not intentional about the language we utilize. You can read more about straight privilege that is a byproduct of heteronormativity here. While labels used in regard to sexuality can be limiting and restrictive, I have found that they can be helpful in filtering information, navigating the world, and simply being present in relationships. But if we are going to use labels in regards to sexuality, it is important that we start allowing individuals to define the labels they claim rather than allowing labels to define individuals. The inherent challenge in this is that we are called to invest in conversations and ask individuals what they mean when they use certain words and how they experience the realities they name and claim.

Rather than allowing labels like gay and lesbian to be descriptive and relate reality as it is experienced, belief systems are often attached to them or the labels become sexualized. One such belief paradigm is revealed through the fact that homosexuality is often only spoken of in terms of attraction and desire, or it becomes only sexualized where sexual activity is primarily presumed to be present, being viewed as genitalized behavior. In her book, The End of Sexual Identity (which is a really well written book that I would recommend even though I personally disagree with the main conclusion inferred by the title), Jennell Williams Paris makes the case that sexual attractions and desires are not a trustworthy indicator of human identity and they should not become a part of our identity since they merely refer to attractions as she states that “The sexual identity framework fixates on who people want to have sex with (p 93).” Such a view is a rather simple and reductionistic take on sexuality. Sure, when I talk about being gay that includes being mentally, emotionally and physically attracted to other men. But it goes beyond that to describe how I long to experience the fulfillment of my desires for intimacy with a partner in a more holistic sense than just a physical relationship. Beyond desires, it is indicative of the type of person that I would compliment in a relationship, for the purpose of sacrificing for them and striving to encourage and build up their relationship with God. And while it does not define my experience, it influences how I navigate the world around me and how I interpret some experiences and information. Being gay has an impact on how I relate my personhood to those around me and even the social circles I decide to invest in and surround myself by. The way that I express myself cannot be detached from the reality of being same-sex attracted, at least not in a healthy way. It is interrelated with things like my creativity and other aspects of my personhood. It reaches all the way to my relationship with God since being gay is one of a number of lenses through which I approach and seek to interact with God (regardless of what is correct about etiology and theology).

There was a point in time during college with regards to my sexuality and relationship with God where I prayed on a nightly basis for weeks on end that God would take my life in my sleep since I did not want to be gay. As I sought to push forward from that point and to seek God, I have found (over years) that my experience as a gay man has played a significant role in helping me to develop certain attributes and to further step into caring more about some of the things that I perceive God caring about. Sifting through my own journey over time with faith and sexuality has contributed to developing patience in general and compassion for individuals wrestling with different issues. Being able to have some experience as an ‘other’ in the Christian world (as small as that experience has been at times considering I still possess immense amounts of privilege as a middle-class college educated white cisgender male who can pass as heterosexual without too much difficulty) has helped to deepen my concern for those who are oppressed and marginalized. I may not have been as motivated to seek out the heart of God or learn about how God views me if it were not for the need for support that arose out of living in a heteronormative society. I’m thankful for the ways that my sexuality has influenced my relationship with God and I would not change it to become heterosexual if I could. While my sexuality has not been the only factor in this process by any means as other experiences and people have played significant roles in my journey with God, it has nevertheless been an important factor. Even though I am not currently pursuing or engaged in a romantic or physical relationship, I am very much a “practicing homosexual” as some Christians might say. Thus, in a more comprehensive sense (at least as it relates to my story), sexual identity is more encompassing than who someone is attracted to and wants to have sex with.

I have experienced what it is like to operate out of a compartmentalized and fragmented sense of self as it relates to things like disassociating myself from being gay or “struggling with same-sex attractions” as if they are another occasional temptation as opposed to something intertwined with how I experience, interpret and navigate the world. After experiencing such a divided sense of self and fragmented reality, I want to bring my whole self into my relationships with vulnerability and authenticity. Part of that journey has included reclaiming my identity as it relates to sexuality. Churches are big on being authentic…..except when it comes to naming your reality if you happen to be queer. As I pursue authenticity and sexual holiness, I want to seek that holiness (like any other Christian regardless of their sexual orientation) as Paris describes in her book as seeking to give and receive love with God and with other people in and through my sexuality (p 83). God, the Church, and those that I love do not deserve any less, and certainly do not deserve just a fragment of me.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

So exciting! It’s almost release day for our new Love Is an Orientation DVD Curriculum which is set to release on December 13th (for those of you not in North America it will release January 1 through your respective Amazon sites and the Zondervan website).

This new resource will be for any church, university, non-profit, organization, clinic, community center, small group of friends or individuals interested in what it means to not only elevate the conversation between the LGBT community and the conservative world, but also culturally engage each community through our Living in the Tension (LITT) gatherings—as there will be an entire session devoted to building and sustaining your own LITT group. We are so, so pumped about this new resource and pray it has a huge impact in continuing to spread this bridge building movement! The six sessions will include:

1) Love is an Orientation

2) Building Bridges between Conservatives and the LGBT Community

3) Theology of Bridge Builders

4) Answering the Tough Questions

5) Teens and Sexuality

6) Living in the Tension Gatherings

We also interviewed six LGBT people from around the country, coming from all different theological, social, and political perspectives, so you can get to know them and where they’re coming from by hearing their stories from their perspectives.

We filmed in a dozen locations around Boystown and the city of Chicago, and we’re just really proud of how everything is turning out.

You can pre-order from Amazon here (DVD), here (Participant Guides) and here (Combo Pack).

Here are a few pics from our time filming. I’ll be posting many more from all of our different locations and our different interviews soon…

Looking forward for you to all have a chance to engage with it. Please feel free to post this anywhere you want to start spreading the word!

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Here is a note from OneWheaton’s executive team:

“Since OneWheaton’s launch this past spring, it’s been our privilege to receive an incredible amount of support and positive feedback from many alumni, students and friends. We’ve been moved to know of numerous public and private conversations that have unfolded in the past four months. With Wheaton recently receiving the designation as the #1 LGBT unfriendly school in America, we have been exploring more opportunities to build bridges and open dialogue for LGBT students on campus.

After much thought we are very excited to extend a personal invitation to Wheaton College alumni to join us for OneWheaton’s First Homecoming to be held October 7-8, 2011. On Friday, October 7 we will be hosting a Wide Open Welcome event. Tentative plans are for a

FREE Jennifer Knapp concert at a local Wheaton church with a post concert talkback featuring a panel of LGBTQ Wheaton College alumni.

The prospect of hosting Jennifer Knapp thrills us! She is a Grammy nominated, Dove-Award-winning folk-rock musician who has recently come out publicly and has shown support for OneWheaton’s efforts. After the concert, a “talkback” where Jennifer and LGBTQ alumni share stories and answer questions from current students will lend our faces and journeys to OneWheaton. Our hope is that it will encourage dialogue and support for current LGBTQ students and their friends.

This event will be free to everyone.

But for that to happen, we need help.

Up to now all of OneWheaton’s costs have been sponsored by a small group of us. For those in a position to help us financially, we encourage to visit our website,www.OneWheaton.com, and click on the yellow PayPal “Donate” button on the top of our page. Thank you so much!”

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

A few days ago the BBC World News featured the work of The Marin Foundation in written and audio form! Above is a screenshot I took of the BBC’s home page on their website… And that’s us as the feature story! It’s been crazy since it went live. We have gotten tons of folks reaching out from all over the world. This impact of our story is being felt! It’s such a humbling thing to have happen, and it’s definitely surreal to know that our bridge building message is getting spread across the globe through the most internationally trusted media company in existence. Just unreal.

You can read the full article here

You can listen to the 30 minutes segment the BBC ran on us here (and you have about 30 days to download it to keep it if you want)

Yesterday I got an email from the BBC and they gave me the following, crazy, update about our stories since they went live:

—Our radio segment (which has also been featured throughout America on NPR) is the most listened to segment of any from the BBC World Service

—Our radio segment is the most downloaded segment of any from the BBC World Service

—Our article is the 2nd most shared article of any story on any of the BBC websites

—Our article is the 3rd most read article on any of the BBC websites

I have to thank Christopher Landau so very much. He was the producer of the segment, as well as the writer of the article. Christopher was the one who fought for this story to be done! Even after some higher-ups said no to his initial proposal, he kept at it over almost 1 full year (!!!!) before they finally said yes. And now look what is happening! Brenda and I first met Christopher while I was speaking in London earlier this year. He had read my book when it first released in 2009 and as he said, “kept it in the back of my head to do a story on it for just this time.”

I’m not the most trusting person when it comes to media folks… They never seem to quite tell the truth in how they are going to present or edit something. But Christopher did exactly what he said he was going to do. A stand up man. A balanced journalist. And now a person ever so dear to not only my heart, but the millions his work has reached around the world.

Just absolutely amazing what the Lord is doing with this.

No matter the outcome, faithfulness always wins out.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

As many of you know from Twitter and Facebook I was asked to go to the first day of Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit, as a special guest of Willow, to hear Bill Hybels response to Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks, cancellation to appear at the Summit. I was then asked by the Washington Post to write an article about it. I did. The Post decided instead of the article being “event” specific, they would like different article that focused on broader cultural thematic overviews. That article will be published by the Post soon. In the meantime, the original article, about Willow and Starbucks has been published by my friends at Patheos.

You can read my thoughts about the Starbucks and Willow Creek situation here.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org 

Yesterday there was an article posted on Huffington Post by two young evangelical authors about LGBT activists wrongly using the word ‘hate’ to describe those with a conservative theological framework. I have a few thoughts:

The article was written well with good thoughts. Thoughts that I do tend to agree with. But at the end of the day, coming from who wrote the article, they are just, well, written words. That’s all.

It’s a million times easier to write about something that you don’t have daily interaction with. It keeps you separated. It gives you a buffer. You aren’t fully invested in what you’re writing about. It takes no guts.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the fact that others are starting to go public with their thoughts on a new medium of engagement. I’m all about it – from both the LGBT and conservative worlds. I’m sure those guys who wrote the article are great guys – as I believe one, if not both of them, are represented by the literary agent that represents me.

But it would be like me writing about the environment (one of the article’s author’s area of expertise). Just because I, Andrew, recycle and take public transportation more than I drive, doesn’t make me someone with any amount of credibility to speak to the subject of creation care. What it does make me is someone who does care, is trying hard, and has a platform to toss my thoughts in the arena. Those are all good things. Things that I appreciate.

I just pray the author’s of that article are backing up their easily written, well crafted and articulate article with personal relationships with those in the LGBT community – especially those that don’t agree with them – that challenge their “thinking” and “writing” past thinking and writing and onto real life in real time. Only then will I be willing to listen.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org 

Recently I was asked to write an article for the Journal of Political Theology. This academic journal is the world’s premier journal about the intersection of politics and theology, and members of its editorial board include Cornel West, Miroslav Volf and Walter Brueggeman, among many other well respected and notable commentators and theologians in the world of politics and religion. The article I wrote, that was peer reviewed and published this month, is:

Winner Take All? – A Political and Religious Assessment of the Culture War between the LGBT Community and Conservatives

You can download it for free here. 

I used this amazing opportunity to dive into some new realms of the intersection of theology, social construction and politics. I really look forward to hearing what you all think about it.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

The following post was written by Kevin Harris, Director of Community Relations at The Marin Foundation.

When we look to scripture, we see the way that God sees us in Christ.

Holy. Secure. Loved dearly.

Yet we do not have to search very far to hear the spiritually abuse and biblically unfounded messages that are communicated to Christians that are also a part of the LGBT community. They are all too familiar…..

Sinner. Abomination. Damaged goods.

I’m tired of hearing about and receiving messages from Christians (and those that used to be Christians) that believe that God hates them because of what they have been told by people in the church.

From those that are depressed and contemplating suicide…..

From those that have lost their faith…..

I’m thankful for the letters themselves as I applaud the courage and vulnerability entailed in sharing pain and searching for help, but I’m tired of the bad theology and the lack of compassion that brings them about.

In Luke 17:2, Jesus expresses the seriousness of causing someone else to sin when he stated “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. And though it might have almost caused us nightmares, a part of me is sad that Jesus did not continue to speak in hyperbole about what it would be like for someone to hurt one of his children in a way that contributed to them losing their faith.

In a recent sermon, my co-worker Nathan Albert shed some light on the use of the word “sinner(s)” as it is used in the Bible.

“There are twenty-eight uses of the word “sinners” and thirteen of the word “sinner” in the New Testament. Yet NONE refer to people who have come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus. NEVER is a person with a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ called a sinner. When we have a saving faith in Jesus, God views us if WE actually lived the life Jesus lived and died the death Jesus died.”

So how does God see you?

In Christ you are redeemed and forgiven of your sins (Colossians 1:14) and you can approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12) to find grace and mercy when you need it the most (Hebrews 4:16). You are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1-2) and any charges brought against you (Romans 8:33-34) and nothing can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8:35).

You are an adopted son/daughter of God (Ephesians 1:5), a witness for (Acts 1:8) and co-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17), and accepted by God (Romans 15:7) and hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). You have been justified (Romans 5:1), made alive with Jesus and seated with him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6), united with the Lord and one with him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), and are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and complete in Christ (1 Colossians 2:10).

You are a child of God whom holds you securely (1 John 5:18). You have been bought at a price and belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20) whom you have access to through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18).

You are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) and a member of Christ’s body (2 Corinthians 12:27). You are a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-20), God co-worker (2 Corinthians 6:1), and God’s workmanship (masterpiece, work of art) created in Christ to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). You are the salt and light of the earth (Matthew 5:13-14) and a branch of the true vine (John 15:5) who has been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16).

You have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13) and can be confident that the good work God has begun in you will be brought to completion (Philippians 1:6).

If you are LGBT (whether you are a Christian or not) know that you are God’s beloved, fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God and that God rejoices in and delights over you. May you rest secure in God’s love knowing that who you are is enough. You are loved as you are in all your beauty/brokenness. May that propel you towards God’s heart and the beautiful mystery that is a relationship with the creator of the universe.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

While at Wild Goose Festival, the Odyssey Network asked me, and a few others, some questions regarding an analysis of the intersection of sexuality, LGBT issues and the emergent church. Here is what they found…

Do you think progressive Christianity today must stand with the LGBT community, otherwise they will be nothing other than a new form of fundamentalism?

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Earlier this week I appeared on the Steve Brown, Etc radio program to talk about my story, work, book and beliefs. You can listen to it in its entirety here.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org