In all seriousness, as if the United States skipped abolition, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Era, and the last four decades of Reconstruction Part Deux, American Christians are debating whether White supremacists are the new outsider whom they’re compelled by grace to welcome. It’s an odd scenario to represent as merely hypothetical when one […]
Despair and resilience among LGBT+ Adventists
Remember the Andrews University researchers who wanted to hear from LGBT+ Adventist young adults last summer? Nearly 500 people responded, and 310 young adults completed the survey. The researchers are reporting early findings now. On the Spectrum blog this week, Drs. Nancy Carbonell, Curtis VanderWaal, Shannon Trecartin, and David Sedlacek talked with Alita Byrd about […]
The disease of shame
Correlation isn’t causation, but this is the most hope-building correlation I’ve seen this week. Johns Hopkins researcher Julia Raifman, Ellen Moscoe, and S. Bryn Austin co-published a study of sixteen years of data from more than 26,000 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) high school students. A key finding? In states that have legalized same-sex marriage, […]
New Project: Outspoken
The latest project from the co-directors of Enough Room at the Table is a series of mini-documentary videos called Outspoken. I mentioned this back in August when the filmmakers came to my home to talk to me. Tonight, the first video hits the web. It features Yeshara Acosta, who I met just under three years ago and […]
Family Memories
The 1980s-1990s phase of the AIDS epidemic in the United States gutted an entire generation that included Seventh-day Adventists. For many survivors, that period is a deeply traumatic memory: they lost friends and loved ones; many nursed friends through severe illnesses; and all of them faced a repelling, rejecting, and—to say the least—avoidant denomination. Church wasn’t […]
Research: LGBTQ Adventists, 18-35yo
Last spring, LGBTQ Andrews University students planned a bake sale to raise funds for a regional LGBTQ youth housing/anti-homelessness project. Thanks to off-campus attention, the students raised thousands of dollars from hundreds of donors around the US. Over a year later, Andrews University researchers are still contributing to this conversation in their own professional way. Curtis Vanderwaal, chair […]
