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 

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

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

I was recently alerted by a good friend to the 9/11 Walks happening all over the world this Sunday, September 11th, on the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I believe these interfaith walks are an important step to continue moving our culture forward in its healing and our constant, and intentional, pursuit of reconciliation. We must show love in tangible, measurable, expressions of unconditional behaviors.

I have already signed up for the walk in Chicago, and if any of you are interested in the Walks in your local community, go to the following links:

9/11 Walk hompage

Find a Walk in your Country or State

Organize a Walk in your Country or State

Hope you can join in!

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

The other day when I was writing my article on Howard Schultz, Starbucks Founder and CEO, regarding his cancellation of a speaking appearance at Willow Creek, I saw him on CNN talking about his disgust with the partisan politics happening that is ruining our economy, and country. Schultz, live on TV, said he was a registered Democrat, and is not only dissapointed in Obama, but decided to not give any money to political campaigns until our country’s economy turns around and politicians start governing without the constant finger-pointing, fighting and engaging in the skilled art of argumentative tactics of five year olds trying to talk their way out of getting punished.

I saw an article today that Schultz has put his money where his mouth is and signed up over 100 other CEO’s who have pledged not to donate any money to political campaigns. Wow. That’s freaking sweet.

If money is seemingly one of the only things that speaks to a majority of politicans these days, then let’s speak right back to them by not contributing. You can join Schultz’s Facebook group regarding this non-giving campaign. And here is the campaign’s website for more information. I’ve already pledged to not contribute.

Politicians logic for most of my life has been: The more money given, the more change that can be created. Well, it hasn’t worked. It’s time to create change doing to opposite.

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

I don’t get how the US government can’t stay within a budget without grossly exceeding it every year.

When regular businesses spend all their money and can’t pay, they get shut down (unless you’re a huge bank with lots of ties to the White House, but that’s another thing I don’t understand that frustrates me to no end).

When regular people spend all of their money and can’t pay their bills they get evicted or foreclosed and end up on the street.

When our government spends all of their money they just raise the debt ceiling and go further in debt to, let’s say, China.

One day China will come-a-calling for their money. All of it. And its interest.

And when that happens our country and its economic sustainability is going to be screwed anyway.  We’ll probably have to go to war because China won’t be so happy with whatever excuses we come up with. So why not clean up our own house right now?

We’re already in a recession (even with our Federal income at $2.7 trillion!). We’re already going to have our taxes raised; again. We’re already trillions and trillions of dollars in debt. Why not stay within a budget? I’m talking about a real budget. Not those government-pretend-budgets that can be loaned against over and over and over again.

I know their main argument is, “If any part of our (Federal or State) government collapses we (our country or individual State) will turn to chaos.

Is this not already chaos?

CNN shows that every single State is in debt. My State, Illinois, and California, are the worst! Billions of dollars in debt!

Sure, it could get worse. Anything, could always get worse. But this default // raising the debt ceiling // borrowing against pension stuff is ridiculous. We need to dramatically cut our spending to stay within a budget that will actually yield savings, not debt. So you might be asking yourself, well, Mr. Smarty-pants, how then would you cut our spending to do such a thing.

Thanks for asking. Here are the 4 quickest ways I see this happening:

1. Get the masses of troops and military equipment out of Iraq and Afghanistan:

We can still assist their governments in organizing themselves, their infrastructure and their sustainability diplomatically without having full artillery on site. We’ve tried the other way, and look where that has got us.  We’ve spent more money on military than the rest of the world combined. From what I understand, a new plan by Defense Secretary Robert Gates would save us $100 billion. That’s if his warning is actually listened to.

2. Cut foreign aid:

The US gave $25 billion in foreign aid last year. The next country is Germany, which gave $13 billion. It’s one thing to support the world’s economy when we’re in the black or close to it. It’s another to do it when our dollar means nothing and our country owes other countries more than the amount of money there is in the entire world put together. The United States also must stop paying for everyone else’s Olympics (See most recently Greece and Brazil). Our foreign aid must be prioritized to the poor countries with nothing – no food, water, infrastructure; and those that suffer natural disasters. Anything else is not needed at this crucial point.

3. Stop forgiving foreign debt to our country:

This is not the Bible. The United States of America is not run through a Christian worldview. It’s run like biblical Rome. Or Babylon. Our country is a capitalistic business. Our country can’t be the forgiver of debts while simultaneously being the governor of war. China will collect on its loans to us. Do you ever see them forgiving our debt?

4. Keep politicians and government employees accountable for their spending:

Too many private jets, expensive meals, shopping sprees, “discretionable funds”, golfing, etc. If politicians are supposed to speak for the people, let them live like us too.

Now I know my 4 ideas are simplistic in nature, and if they were to be accomplished there would have to be many more nuances involved. It has to start somewhere, and these leaders need to be held accountable. Though, I understand accountability is hard when our politically polarized and power-hungry country and its leaders continue to work in the same metric regardless of who is in charge. I can only pray clarity comes to this situation.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

There has been a big court case going on in England regarding a gay couple who sued the owners of Cornish Bed & Breakfast because the gay couple was denied occupancy based on the owners of Cornish B&B’s Christian faith. You can read the story here. The ruling just came down this week that it was unlawful for the owners of the B&B to deny service to the gay couple based on their Christian beliefs. The gay couple, who sued for 5,000 pounds, won 1,800 pounds in damages. If you want to read in extreme detail about the case from a British legal perspective, go here. But what I want to talk about is the scenario if this situation happened in America, in an American context.

So let me set the fictional scenario:

A gay couple takes a trip to a cute little bed and breakfast on Lake Michigan in Geneva, IL. The owners of this B&B, which we’ll call The Inn, are a straight, married Christian couple with conservative Christian values. They have run The Inn for a number of years and still work at The Inn on a daily basis.

In taking the reservation The Inn didn’t realize it was a gay couple, as the reservation was made under just one person’s name. There has been a rule at The Inn for a number of years saying that they have the right to deny service based on their Christian values, and there has never been any issue with that rule. But when the couple showed up to check in, the owners of The Inn, who were working behind the front desk at that moment, saw they were a gay couple, asked them if that was the case, and then denied them service – explaining to them that their faith believes that same-sex couples go against biblical law and thus, cannot stay at The Inn – and all of their money was refunded on the spot.

The gay couple then sues for discrimination based on sexual orientation. The remainder of this post are some of my thoughts regarding a potential scenario like this one…

Within American law there is such a thing as a Religious Exemption. The simplest way to define it is that religious entities are exempt from having to abide by certain federal law when it conflicts with their religious belief system. The best example of such an exemption is that Catholic hospitals are exempt from having to perform abortions, and cannot get in legal trouble for denying abortion requests, even though abortions are legal in the Untied States. 

The separation between Church and State provides for such exemptions to take place. Though there are many twists and turns when it comes to the details of the public policy of ‘religious exemptions’, here is what I see as my thoughts of what is fair to the Church and fair to the State:

Registered churches, charities and NGOs that are legally documented as having a religious affiliation should be able to dictate their own hiring and service practices based on their registered religious beliefs.

Hiring is defined as: Once a person is hired in a full time position, regardless of gender, race, disability or sexual orientation, they are mandatorily given full benefits of insurance, 401k, pension, etc. In essence the registered church, charity or NGO would have the right to hire individuals according to their theological belief system. The same is true for the service practices—e.g. Catholic hospitals have the legal right to not perform abortions.

If you are not a registered church, charity or NGO but rather just a person of faith running a company, organization or institution, those entities’ laws and service requirements must align with the Federal regulations of equal protection and anti-discriminatory practices. Though the owner might be a person of faith, their for-profit entity does not fall under the religious exemption for registered churches, charities or NGOs and thus, must fall under the non-exempt rules and regulations for hiring and service.

Therefore that gay couple would have every legal right to sue for anti-discrimination and win. However, if that B&B was a Christian retreat center that governed their hiring practices and service under the religious exemption as a church, charity or NGO, they would then have every right to deny service under the exemption.

Thoughts?

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

On Wednesday December 22, 2010 at 9:15am President Obama will be signing a bill that repeals Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

It’s about time.

Personally, I don’t believe in war. I don’t believe in killing. I don’t believe that the only way to keep peace is through violence. I don’t believe in retaliation (even though my mind goes there at times). As my buddy Shane Claiborne says,

“American needs the Amish to run Homeland Security and Jesus for President.”

I’m reading an impactful book right now by Tony Campolo: Choose Love Not Power: How to Right the World’s Wrongs from a Place of Weakness. It says everything I’m thinking about war and its implications in power. I’m tired of the slogan:

If only I (or a country or a group or an organization) were in control everything would be better.

That’s not how cultural or economic stability can ever be facilitated over the long haul. Regardless of my thoughts, our world works through a filter that believes the only way to have influence is through gaining power. All of this to say, though, if gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people choose to join the military, it just doesn’t make sense to deny them that choice.

I sure don’t want to fight. I don’t want to retaliate through violence. I don’t want to search for weapons of mass destruction. I don’t want to be the big brother fighting other people’s or countries battles. I don’t want to rule the world through war to gain the control of oil. And I don’t believe Jesus would want any of those things either.  

All that any of those things have gotten us are a bunch of enemies (which we ourselves called the Axis of Evil – thanks Bush), trillions of dollars of debt to China and everyone else because we keep taking unnecessary loans and printing more money (thanks Obama) and who knows what’s next…

Here is another post I wrote about this topic last year, speaking to some hard-nosed military lifers.

We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, and if free and brave are defined by some people (including LGBTs) as an ability to join the military, then that is their right to do so. It was a ridiculous rule in the first place that President Clinton said he had to instate due to bi-partisan pressure (PS – since when do President’s fully give in to the other party’s demands?). So it’s long overdue that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is now history.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Starting today I am flying to Geneva, Switzerland to speak to the United Nations at their International headquarters – specifically through the UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS. Since May 2010 I have been involved in on-going discussions with UNAIDS surrounding what it means to build bridges with conservative faith communities, as well as on the topics of faith, sexuality and HIV/AIDS.

This past July I took my first trip with UNAIDS to Vienna, Austria where I spoke to a number of world leaders connected through the UN on the broad topic of what it means to seek reconciliation with the ‘other’. It was an unreal experience, and it made me quickly realize that there is a whoooole different and bigger world out there that could care less about faith and how that intersects with anything, really. But it looks like it went so well in Vienna that I got invited out to the UN’s International Headquarters to continue these discussions further.

I am looking forward to this week to meet with and speak to more folks curious about what this bridge building lifestyle looks like. I just pray that I can represent this Movement and you all, to the UN/UNAIDS executives and other leaders from around the world, with honor and dignity in such a way that they will, if nothing else, respect what we’re all about. While I’m out there I’m also excited that I have the opportunity to speak with the heads of the World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Advocay Alliance.

As always, I will try to blog about my experiences. However my track-record from these types of trips show that probably won’t happen. So in my place I will have The Marin Foundation’s Director of Community Relations, Kevin Harris, and Director of Pastoral Care, Nathan Albert, blog in my place.  Looking forward to talking soon.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Today is Monday October 11th, National Coming Out Day, and The Marin Foundation is holding our next Living in the Tension Gathering. Tonight we will host Dr. Tony Campolo who will be speaking on the topics of Faith, Sexuality and Politics. Our event will be held at Roscoes, the historic gay bar in Boystown. It’s free and starts at 7:30pm CST, so bring your friends. It’s going to be a great night. Here is the link to the event.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org