People who care talking about things that matter are important to the reformation of society, but perhaps their talking is not as central to the project as I’ve thought. For a few years now, thanks in part to Lowell Christy‘s description of the 17th and 18th Centuries as the era of the Great Conversation, I’ve been […]
A better basis for conversation
We are here. We have always been here. The fact that most of the churches have lived in blissful ignorance of our presence means nothing. Our task—our ministry to ourselves and to the church—is not to justify our presence, but to tell the church who we really are by our own definitions, rather than by […]
Building Beloved Community on Bones?
The principles for managing great community conversations are about the same as the principles for managing great relationships: mutual respect, equity, integrity, freedom from violence or abuse, and a bias toward care and common growth. Last spring I worked with Daneen Akers and Stephen Eyer, co-directors of the narrative film Seventh-Gay Adventists, on a new […]
Schedule: Back from Napa and heading to Tampa
I’m spending this March bouncing between the two coasts of the US for three projects including a film event, national communication conference, and a non-profit board meeting at the end of the month. This means I’ll be away from home for my birthday, but I’ll also be in the thick of more than 3,100 highly engaged writing, communication, and […]
Christy—On Education and Entropy
“The most powerful symbol in the universe is the “=” sign: it’s a commerce between worlds, symbolic or real. That commerce is the heart of education— greasing the skids between one side of the equation and the other. Remember that the “-” symbol marks a mere subtraction, the one-way interaction present in much of our […]
Time to Speak Up
As I wrote last year, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists has planned a global summit on gender and sexuality for March 21-24 this year. The summit falls under the planning authority of Elder Pardon Mwansa, a GC vice-president and chair of the committee on “alternative sexuality practices” [sic] that will report to the church […]