or "Telling of the great things that the Lord has done for Us…"
The last couple of weeks have provided me with an opportunity to think again on the dangers of being controlled by the crowd, of being conformed to the spirits of our age rather than allowing our minds to be transformed by the working of the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago in the “new” Orthodox liturgical calendar we read Luke’s version of Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac who was possessed by Legion, so called because the forces that were driving this poor man were many. The appearance of this reading in the lectionary was providential, as it reminded me of the readings offered by René Girard and adapted to a gay audience by theologian James Alison.
May 18, 2013 marked another graduation day at Lancaster Theological Seminary, as well as the end(?) of the LTS Allies website.
While the Facebook fan page still exists and the seminary’s DSpace server still hosts a range of lectures and sermons from the event variously known as GLBT Week, LGBT Week, and Queer Week, the scanned copies of items found in the LTS physical archives are no longer available.
The Allies site was a labor of love whose time (at least for now) has passed. As I prepare for my qualifying exams, I am no longer able to be primary curator and technical support.
However, should anyone at the seminary wish to revive the site in the future, I did make an archival copy that can be resurrected with hosting and the domain registration.
For several years now LGBTQ activists have annually applied for a permit for a Pride celebration in Moscow.
And each year, their request is rejected…
And each year, in an act of civil disobedience, the activists attempt to hold some sort of demonstration anyway.
What I find most disturbing about this year’s video is more of the same: Eastern Orthodox Christians who show up at the protests to participate in violence against against the activists.
From signs declaring that "Moscow is not Sodom," to cries of "Where are the militia (police)? They’ve caught a Sodomite!" to chants of "Sodom won’t pass!" it is clear that these folks are short on actual biblical knowledge, but long on zeal…
Others add rhetoric about the corruption of children and the fate of other civilizations that have already fallen as a result of allowing homosexual activity… The discourses of heterosexism are in full array. And like their Western counterparts, it’s not really about any individual argument — each of which can easily be debunked — but about the endless barrage of interchangeable charges and accusations designed to stoke fear and prevent any real dialogue with real people about their real lives… Instead, all we get is caricatures of evil.
If you watch long enough you’ll see a contingent of Orthodox Christians wearing black t-shirts with skulls that read "Orthodoxy or Death." Their spokesman claims that this is the choice before every Russian: either Orthodoxy as the way to salvation or death without it. But without his explanation, the images seem much closer to the threats leveled against non-believers for centuries as Christian "evangelism" has taken on coercive forms.
In another scene, a young Orthodox man declares that the actions against the activists are a show of mercy because life is short, but eternity in hell will be very long…
My brothers and sisters, sometimes you are your own worst enemies. If you truly want to show mercy, there must be a better way…
On April 14, 2012 I was received into the Eastern Orthodox Church through chrismation. Below is the letter that I wrote to my family to share news of this life-changing event.
The context of the letter is rather specific. My family consists of primarily Southern Baptists who have become either independent Missionary Baptists or nondenominational Charismatics. I wrote trying to build some bridges with those traditions, and as a result, left out many of the finer points of Church history and theology. But I post it here in case it’s helpful to anyone else.
I first read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five at some point in college. Published in 1969, Slaughterhouse-Five is commonly lauded as one of the top 100 literary works of the 20th century. Billy Pilgrim is a man who has come unstuck in time, bouncing through episodes of his past, the present, and even to his death in the future. Abducted by aliens from Tralfamadore for a display in their zoo, Billy learns that while human beings experience time in a linear fashion, the Tralfamadorians perceive all of time at once. This provides them with some interesting insights into the divisions of the sexes:
I woke up early this morning. It appears I’ve reached that age where it doesn’t really matter how late I went to bed or how much more sleep I could really use. My automatic alarm sounds when daylight creeps through the bedroom window.
Taking advantage of some of the down time before I start my PhD program next month at The University of Chicago Divinity School, I’ve started setting up a new professional website.
Yesterday I received a note from the University of Chicago Divinity School with news of my admission to the PhD program in theology! The news is still a little hard to take in. After four months of waiting, the opportunity that I’ve been hoping for has finally come to be!
After six years of Battlestar Galactica, it’s hard to adjust to a different show with a whole new look and feel. But after the pilot and just two episodes, Caprica is starting to turn into something interesting in its own right.
After a passing comment in last week’s episode that was easy to miss, this week revealed one of the characters as both married and gay. What makes this different from most American TV with married gay characters is that he’s married to another man…
[SPOILER ALERT – Don’t go any further if you don’t want to know who it is…]
I love drag queens. My hat is off to any man who has what it takes to tuck, pluck, and don those dresses.
Gender bender films are fun, but nothing brings me sheer joy and kid giggles like a drag queen who owns the stage with a larger-than-life presence.
I was an undergrad at UK the first time I went to a drag show. Nothing in my life had prepared me for walking into a bar full of sequined gowns, high hair, and even a performer with flaming torches and a boa constrictor…
The last couple of weeks have provided me with an opportunity to think again on the dangers of being controlled by the crowd, of being conformed to the spirits of our age rather than allowing our minds to be transformed by the working of the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago in the “new” Orthodox liturgical calendar we read Luke’s version of Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac who was possessed by Legion, so called because the forces that were driving this poor man were many. The appearance of this reading in the lectionary was providential, as it reminded me of the readings offered by René Girard and adapted to a gay audience by theologian James Alison.
After six years of 
I love drag queens. My hat is off to any man who has what it takes to tuck, pluck, and don those dresses.