Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

John Shore

To a Gay Anti-Christian Activist Who Suddenly Converted

by in LGBT

A friend of mine is a gay artist who, up until a few days ago, was a tireless and fairly high-profile opponent of Christianity. His world recently changed when he realized that, despite his “hard-won atheism,” he was rapidly becoming a Christian.

“I’m sitting here listening to Jars of [bleeping] Clay and weeping,” he wrote me. “Mother[bleep]er! Where is this [bleep] coming from? And why am I okay with it? God[bleep] it.”

Knowing my history (see I, A Rabid Anti-Christian, Very Suddenly Covert), my friend asked for some advice about the phenomenon he was experiencing. That advice (which he was kind enough to encourage me to here share) was/is:
Hey, buddy.

Up until my freakish conversion experience I, like, you, basically loathed Christianity; I considered it at best appallingly stupid. Same as you thought!

That God. S/he sure is … seriously intrusive.

Anyway, yeah: I have some idea of where you’re coming from, and perhaps a bit of what you’re experiencing.

I’m certainly aware of your concern that becoming a Christian will mean having to give up aspects of yourself that you hold dear. Please put that fear to rest. Of all the things that becoming a Christian means—or issupposed to mean, anyway—one of them is not getting absorbed into the giant Borg of Christian Conformity.

Exactly the opposite is true, in fact. God desires you to be more of who you are, not less. God made you exactly the way you are. And God is… [Read more…] about To a Gay Anti-Christian Activist Who Suddenly Converted

The Christian right and pornographers: brothers in arms

by in Uncategorized

We’ve all heard the anti-gay vitriol spouted by Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, and all the other right-wing Christian leaders who make their fortunes hectoring and persecuting LGBT people.

What, really, makes such Christians tick? What defines their ethos? What is the true taproot of anti-gay Christianity? Underneath all of their posturing and hyperbole—even underneath their belief that they are only being true to the Bible—what core conviction is really informing the Christian right’s condemnation of homosexuality?… [Read more…] about The Christian right and pornographers: brothers in arms

Why The Not All Like That (NALT) Christians Project works

by in LGBT

On behalf of the small but passionately dedicated team responsible for The NALT Christians Project, I want to thank everyone who has helped make our first week such a tremendous success. Most of all, I want to thank the (as of this writing) seventy-five people who have taken the time and effort to make a NALT video. One of the craziest things about ushering this project through its first whirlwind week is that neither I nor my partners have even had time to personally respond to those good people who, throughout the week, continued to make us cry through the sheer power of their NALT video testimonies.… [Read more…] about Why The Not All Like That (NALT) Christians Project works

My dog in the fight for LGBT equality

by in LGBT

The day before yesterday the Not All Like That (NALT) Christians Project launched like a space shuttle. It’s already been written about by TIME, The American Prospect, The Advocate, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and others.

Which means that in the last two days I’ve done … I dunno, six interviews. (And this Monday morning will be discussing The NALT Christians Project on MSNBC [!].) Throw in the fact that since Tuesday I’ve been at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, Resort and Synapse-Frying Universe (the view from my window of which I just snapped the photo below, because holy cow have I quickly learned how to use my iPhone), and I’m having myself quite the week.

One of the things I’ve been asked a couple of times now is the question that a radio host yesterday put to me in this way (and I’ll let you know when that show is airing): “John, what’s your dog in this fight? You’re not gay. Why do you care so much about the issue of LGBT people and the church?”

I care for two reasons. First, I care because I’m a normal, moral human being, and it’s flat-out wrong for a majority population to victimize a minority population. Everyone with a conscience is morally obligated to defend anyone who is being persecuted and bullied. Defending the unjustly victimized is what it means to be a moral person.

Secondly, I am a Christian. And that makes me loyal to the Bible. And I’m tired of the Christian right forever claiming that LGBT-affirming… [Read more…] about My dog in the fight for LGBT equality

Introducing The Not All Like That (NALT) Christians Project

by in LGBT

Along with Dan Savage (founder, It Gets Better), and Wayne Besen and Evan Hurst of Truth Wins Out, I’m proud to this morning announce the launch of The Not All Like That (NALT) Christians Project. Inspired by and modeled upon It Gets Better, The NALT Christians Project is a platform from which LGBT-affirming Christians can proclaim to the world their belief and conviction that there is nothing anti-biblical or at all inherently sinful about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.… [Read more…] about Introducing The Not All Like That (NALT) Christians Project

When Bad Christians Happen to Good People

by in Christian Issues

For years before I (suddenly and out of nowhere) became a Christian, my wife Catherine and I used to study and practice Zen. One morning we were walking toward our car after a night spent sitting zazen at a Zen center with a dozen or so other would-be Buddhas. (Zazen is Zen meditation: you sit; you close your eyes; you try to disconnect from your thoughts; you try like crazy not to sneeze, cough or itch; you endeavor not to panic about the fact that after about a half-hour your whole lower body is so asleep you wouldn’t flinch if your thigh suddenly got harpooned.)

As we were approaching our car, we saw that a guy who had just pinned a flyer to our dashboard was now doing the same to the car parked behind ours. He gave us a friendly wave. “I hope you don’t mind me leaving one of these on your car,” he said cheerily.

I unlocked the passenger side door so that Cat could get in. “No problem,” I said. But what he apparently somehow heard me say instead was, “Please come over and talk to us.”

“It’s for a nearby church,” he said, coming over to talk to us. He was maybe thirty, fit, and clean-shaven, sporting an orange baseball cap, a winning smile, and a slight gleam in his eye that was somewhere between a little too friendly and crazy. “It’s called Calvary Chapel. Ever heard of it?”

“I haven’t,” I said. I closed Cat inside the car. Tucked under my arm was my zafu, the round pillow Zenners use to sit upon whilst trying to merge with The Great… [Read more…] about When Bad Christians Happen to Good People

“I lived 30 years alone”: A Christian lesbian grandmother tells her story

by in LGBT, Uncategorized

Here is a letter I got in response to the call I put out on my blog awhile back asking for the personal testimony of gay Christians:
I am a 72-year-old Christian mother and grandmother. I had a wonderful career as a teacher for every age, from pre-school through college. I served as a member of our church council, as a Sunday school teacher, as a Vacation Bible School superintendent, and I have been on mission trips to every continent. My hobbies are studying, reading, travel, genealogy, gardening, and dogs.… [Read more…] about “I lived 30 years alone”: A Christian lesbian grandmother tells her story

The Ultimate Hat-Trick of God in Four Sentences

by in Christian Spirituality

The idea that God is the ultimate hat-trick—that he is, at once, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is something that has always confused and challenged … well, anyone with a normal, binary-style brain.

But we have only to look at the opening of the New Testament’s Book of John to learn all that we could want to know about the triune nature of God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
And there it is. That’s … the whole three-portion enchilada, right there.

I believe that what John is expressing there is that God exists in three ever-present simultaneous modes: Absolute and unchanging, exuberantly creative, and within the heart and soul of every person. He uses the word God to refer to the absolute and unchanging aspect of God’s reality, Word to refer to the exuberantly creative aspect of God’s existence (by which, as we shall see, he means Jesus), and light of men to refer to God as the Holy Spirit.

Badda-bing, badda-triune nature of God.

Let’s break down John’s words to look at them more closely:
In the beginning
That’s the Big God, God the Father/Mother/Everything, eternal and unchanging—the same one, if you’ll note, that with the exact same words opens the Bible: In the beginning, God created the heavens and… [Read more…] about The Ultimate Hat-Trick of God in Four Sentences