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 

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

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 

There’s a bold young man named Charles Peters – from Liberty University none the less – that created Heretic Press. It was originally supposed to be a project for one of his classes, but through the wonders of the fluency of college students’ use of the interwebs, it has quickly taken off into so much more than that in its content and extreme popularity!

On the second “official” issue, the work of The Marin Foundation is featured as the cover story. In there Charles asked me to talk about some stuff that I don’t really speak too much about in public. But I thought, whatever, let’s just keep it real and do this thing.

You can find the full issue in PDF here

You can find the overview of Heretic Press with its past issue here

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. I sincerely pray that Charles and Heretic Press continue being a much needed voice of those who ride the edge of the American sub-culture of Christianity!

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Tonight, May 12th at 8pm Central, I will be live on America’s most listened to Christian radio program – The Frank Pastore Show.

You can listen live here.

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

The LGBT site MyOutSpirit recently wrote a really special (in my mind) article comparing The Marin Foundation’s work in the neighborhood of Boystown to a number of other incarnational organizations focused on love, including Mother Teresa’s work in India. You can read the full article here.

MyOutSpirit gets us. They see that we’re here in Boystown not trying to change anyone’s orientation, but rather living out our faith as best as we know how – through Jesus in love. It’s not our job to convict or judge … it’s ours to love. Thanks MyOutSpirit for recognizing that and being bold enough to say it as well.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Dr. John Corvino wrote an article at 365gay.com about LGBTs being defined by their sexuality instead of a number of other facets that make up a person’s fully identity. John contacted me before he published the article because in it he writes about The Marin Foundation and the infamous Chapter 2 of my book.

He and I have met in person and corresponded before, even hanging out for a few days earlier this year. He knows of my broadening perspective on what I’ve been told by my LGBT friends (and those on this blog too…who I consider friends as well ). With that in mind he asked me to write some thoughts for him and the article regarding that process. Although I wrote too much and he didn’t have room to include all of my thoughts, he asked if I could post them here in full so he could link to them from his article. You can read his article here. And here are my full thoughts in response to his question:

It is sometimes difficult for people in the LGBT community to grasp the truth that what I wrote in that section came directly from what many of my LGBT friends and people I know in Boystown told me over the years. Since I wrote that chapter three years ago my thoughts have changed. I wish I would have added more qualifiers before and after I wrote that section; however, today, the reason my thoughts have changed are also directly related to my LGBT friends and people I know in Boystown and around the country describing their connection between their identity and sexual behavior in a different manner than they did even a few years earlier. As I’ve said many times before, I’m not gay. I’ve never had a same-sex attraction and far be it for me to sit from the outside and comment on matters that I have no personal experience with. What I write and speak about comes from the large LGBT community I have close relationships with – from all shades of the spectrum from the far left to the far right. Regarding LGBT identity, sexuality, thoughts and opinions, I very carefully make sure that when I’m in conservative evangelical circles I am doing or saying nothing more than an honest relaying of thoughts, stories and experiences from people in the LGBT community, and what they think important enough for me to communicate to conservatives about. Let’s be honest, if a gay Christian man in a committed relationship and I stood on the same platform and said the exact same words in the exact same manner with the exact same cadence, who would a conservative evangelical audience listen to? Because they would listen to me doesn’t make the situation or the institution right, it just makes it that I must humbly listen and learn more intently to the LGBT community and be responsible to put forth a message that is accurate and representative of as much of the community as I can communicate. One of my main checks and balances is that my inner circle consists of a number of LGBT people (Christian, non-Christian, partnered and single) who hold me accountable. But just as culture shifts, so do words, concepts, politics, perceptions, experiences and cultural norms. My role as a bridge builder is to try to keep up with the ever-moving and evolving times of the differing worldviews, experiences and filters of each community and the disconnect that follows those variations. Sometimes it proves right, sometimes it proves wrong. But the faithfulness to the fidelity of relationship never changes.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

The Marin Foundation just launched our brand new website! We are SO EXCITED about it! Take a look around and let us know what you think…

Check it out here

I also have to thank Adam McLane from McLane Creative who came up with, and implemented an absolutely brilliant design! Adam put so much time and effort into our new site, and without a doubt makes the online presence of The Marin Foundation totally awesome! Thanks Adam!

I’d also really like to thank Darren Calhoun at Quick Click Media and Michelle Gantner at Maladjusted Media for allowing us to use some of their out-of-this-world photography.

We implemented every one of your suggestions from the blog post a few months ago when I asked what you would like to see on the new site, so I hope you enjoy it!

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Here is the link that Ron Sider, President of Evangelicals for Social Action, a professor and director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on Jim Wallis’ really well read blog about my book.

He gave some praises as well as some critiques. I thought it was an interesting article.

What do you all think? Any questions for me about what he wrote?

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Dr. Robert Gagnon (who wrote this book and this book), Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, just published a 24 PAGE critique of me, my work, my book and everyone who is associated with me. Here is the introduction to his critique (italics are mine):

 ”Andrew Marin’s book, Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community (2009) has been gaining some traction in evangelical circles. Having just finished reading the book I am stunned that an evangelical press like InterVarsity would publish such a fatally flawed book - and that persons such as Scot McKnight (a New Testament  professor at an evangelical university, North Park) and a certain Michelle Strombeck of Moody Broadcasting Network (a conservative evangelical organization) would provide endorsements for it. (A foreword by Brian McLaren is not surprising since McLaren had already surrendered to a homosexualist view. The same applies to Tony Campolo, whose enthusiastic video endorsement is posted on Marin’s site.) Although I have read some interviews of Marin and got reports back from acquaintances about Marin’s claims, I’ve ignored his book until now because, frankly, I didn’t think his book would have much of an impact on evangelical Christianity. However, a recent puff piece on Marin by Heather Sells for the conservative Christian Broadcast Network has convinced me that it is time to respond (“Christian’s Outreach to Gays: I’m Sorry,” 8/20/10).”

Here’s the kicker to his 24 page document, those 24 pages are just Part 1. No, seriously, they are. You can see it in full here. I greatly respect and appreciate all of the time Gagnon must have put into this work. He went to quite the lengths, especially if this is only Part 1.

But there was one big red flag for me. Gagnon publicly posted the following, and please read what Gagnon wrote about himself very carefully:

“I have written extensively on homosexual practice for a decade now, with two academic books published and many scholarly articles and articles for a general audience. I’m widely recognized as the world’s leading authority on the subject, certainly from a ‘traditional’ (i.e. scriptural) perspective. Yet CBN never asked me for a comment on Marin’s work, much less ever devoted an article on my work.”

I think that says enough.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Religion Dispatches just published an article on the inclusion (or lack their-of) of the Transgender community with Christians as well as gay rights groups, written by author Becky Garrison, in which I was quoted.

You can read it here.

I’m extra excited because Becky will be here in Chicago next week and we’re going to get to hang out and talk.

Here is Becky’s new book and an entertaining recent video interview she did with TheOoze.tv

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org