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

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 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

The Marin Foundation team is very excited to announce that we have officially signed a contract with Zondervan Publishers to produce a six session DVD, with a Participant Guide, on building bridges!

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 – where there will be an entire session devoted to building and sustaining your own LITT group.

We are so, so excited about this new resource and pray it has a huge impact moving forward to continue spreading this bridge building movement! It is currently scheduled to release in January 2012, and I will be keeping everyone up to date on our progress throughout this new experience. We are blessed to enter into this partnership with Zondervan Publishers, who have been the driving force behind making this resource a reality. They are the publishing leader in producing high quality, mass-market DVD curriculums (Rob Bell’s NOOMA series, NT Wright, Tim Keller and Gabe Lyons among others), and we are humbled they believe so strongly in us and our bridge building work. We have a conference call with them next week, and will be solidifying the scheduling, session titles and content. So stay tuned for the breakdown for all of that.

In the meantime, is there anything you would like to see us cover in the DVDs and participant’s guide? We want to make this as practical as possible and would love your thoughts.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org