It is a deceptively simple sentence: "Jesus loves all." If you post this on almost any social media platform, expecting a chorus of "Amens" or a gentle nod of agreement, you might be shocked by the swiftness of the digital backlash. Within minutes, notifications pop up, flatly declaring: "No, He does not." Or, "Only if they repent." Or, "God has wrath for the wicked." For progressive Christians who celebrate an open communion table, radical hospitality, and a theology of univ

We live in a world that runs entirely on receipts. From the moment we wake up to the moment we sleep, we are tracking balances, measuring returns, and calculating worth. If you work hard, you get a promotion. If you pay the premium, you get the insurance. Everything has a price tag, and every interaction is a contract. It is an exhausting way to live, but it is the only language our culture truly knows. So, it makes perfect sense that we try to bring that exact same ledger t

It happens every June like clockwork, but this year feels different. Over the last few weeks of this LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, I have witnessed an incredible increase in "Christian hate speech" - a phrase that by all rights should be an absolute oxymoron. The vitriol aimed at queer people seems louder, sharper, and more relentless than before. Maybe it has always been this bad and I am just seeing it clearly now. As an intern at the Cathedral of Hope - the world’s largest LGBTQIA

There is an old, sharp maxim that has long circulated among those called to public and spiritual service: "My ministry comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable." For as long as I can remember, this has not just been a catchy phrase to me; it has been a guiding compass. I was born into a household where advocacy was the default language. My earliest memories are of my father arguing cases before judges and my mother fighting fiercely for causes before the city counc

It happened slowly, then all at once. When your Sunday mornings are spent at Cathedral of Hope UCC - the largest LGBTQIA+ church in the world - it is easy to forget that the rest of the religious landscape isn't wrapped in a rainbow flag. Inside our beautiful, welcome and inclusive UCC bubble, God is expansive, love is a given, and grace is actually gracious. But as a future pastor, I knew I couldn’t stay in the sanctuary forever. Prophetic witness requires stepping into the

There is a distinct exhaustion that comes with trying to manage the universe. ​For many progressive Christians, the spiritual journey isn't a quest to manage the behavior of our neighbors, but an ongoing, intentional effort to build bigger tables. We find ourselves spending our time, energy, and resources figuring out how to include everyone - stretching our understanding of fellowship, tearing down historical barriers, and pursuing harmony in a deeply fractured world. ​Yet,

Every June, downtown Dallas transforms. If you walk past Main Street Garden Park or down the central streets during Dallas Pride, you are swept up in a sea of joy. As the local headlines aptly put it, the festival literally "paints downtown in color." It is a beautiful testament to resilience, visibility, and community. But as anyone who has attended Dallas Pride knows, the rainbow-colored celebration isn’t the only thing waiting for you. Just outside the festival gates, the

It has been a lot. If I’m being completely honest, even typing that sentence feels like a massive understatement. Lately, my life has felt like a beautiful, spinning kaleidoscope of high-stakes callings, transitions, and demands. I am currently navigating the relentless currents of full-time employment, nurturing committed relationships, adjusting to the culture shock and logistics of moving to a brand-new state, wading through the intense self-reflection of Clinical Pastoral

Looking back at the archive of this blog is, in many ways, like looking at an old skin I have outgrown—not because the person who wrote those early posts was wrong, but because he was still in the process of being "emptied out." When I first started documenting my thoughts here, I was a man who had survived the crucible of religious trauma. I had found safety in the loving arms of a United Church of Christ congregation in Phoenix, and my early theology reflected that need for

Every June, our sanctuaries and city streets bloom with rainbows. We gather in the warmth of early summer to celebrate how far we have come, often pointing to the historic milestone of marriage equality as the crown jewel of modern LGBTQIA+ liberation. For communities of faith, this progress has been framed - rightly so in many ways - as an expansion of grace, justice, and pastoral care. It brought vital, indispensable legal protections to individuals and families who despera

There’s something deeply transformative about walking into a space where you feel seen, valued, and loved just as you are. For many, especially those who have felt marginalized or alienated by traditional religious settings, finding such a place can feel like discovering a hidden sanctuary. Over the years, I’ve come to understand that creating this kind of environment—a radical welcome—is not just about opening doors. It’s about opening hearts and minds in ways that challenge

A Litany of Enduring Light Written for Cathedral of Hope, Dallas - Pride Sunday, June 7, 2026 Leader: We gather at the threshold of this Pride Month, standing on an enduring foundation of Hope. We come to celebrate a Divine Love that is as constant as the morning and as vibrant as the light of day. People: We are a people of the promise - colorful, courageous, and constant. Leader: We recognize that our journey is marked by seasons of both shadow and sun. Yet, we celebrate th

To my Beloved Queer Community, I am writing this because, after fifty-seven years on this earth, I am still struck by the sheer, stubborn beauty of our existence. We live in a world that often demands we justify our presence. There is perhaps no other community whose basic dignity - the simple right to breathe, to take up space, and to love openly - is questioned as relentlessly as ours. For most of us, this has not been a seasonal challenge; it has been the background noise

How did we arrive at this fragile contemporary moment, where faith and national identity have become so dangerously intertwined? To heal the deep fractures running across our communities and dinner tables, we must examine our history - not to cast blame, but to map the critical decision points where the Church repeatedly chose to trade the Cross for the Sword. As followers of Jesus, we are called to reclaim a primary citizenship in a borderless Kin-dom that requires all of ou

The feast of Pentecost is the Church’s primordial celebration of polyglossia - the divine shattering of a monolithic, "imperial" language in favor of a Spirit-led diversity that speaks directly to the "heart-languages" of the marginalized. On May 24, 2026, Cathedral in Dallas offered a profound contemporary enactment of this ancient narrative. Through three distinct worship movements, Cathedral demonstrated how a singular, progressive theology of radical inclusion can be tran

Introduction: The Still-Speaking God and the Queer Body Growing up, many of us in the queer community were handed a devastating narrative: we were taught to believe that God sees us as flawed, broken, or sinful. We were told that our bodies were battlegrounds and our desires were defects. But as a member of the United Church of Christ (UCC) - a denomination that boldly proclaims "God is still speaking" - I have come to realize that our spiritual survival requires a completely

In recent years, a beautiful and necessary shift has taken place in many of our churches. Pastors are increasingly preaching on the "theology of lament," urging us to stop practicing "spiritual bypass" - that tendency to skip over pain with a quick Bible verse - and instead to sit in the ashes like Job. We are finally acknowledging that the book of Lamentations is in the Bible for a reason, and that roughly one-third of the Psalms are cries of distress rather than songs of vi

The transition from the world of academia - where my worth was measured by the complexity of my theological arguments and the depth of my intellectualizing - to the clinical world of Sankofa CPE has been a process of profound "emptying out." In the classroom, I was taught to fill the space with knowledge. In the hospital room and at the community breakfast table, I am learning that the most transformative thing I can offer is a space that is intentionally, vulnerably empty of

Faith communities often view themselves as bastions of radical welcome, yet the underlying structures of our institutions frequently tell a different story. To move beyond surface-level inclusion, we must confront the concept of implicit bias - specifically how "normative" standards can quietly exclude those outside the dominant culture. Drawing from the "Implicit Bias Workshop" presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Conference of the United Church of Christ by Chri

When I first encountered queer theology, it felt like a breath of fresh air in a room that had long been stuffy with exclusion and misunderstanding. It invited me to rethink faith, identity, and community in ways that felt deeply affirming and radically inclusive. For those of us involved in leadership within the United Church of Christ (UCC), embracing queer theology is not just an academic exercise—it’s a transformative journey that can reshape how we nurture spiritual comm