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

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

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

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

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

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

As I approach the end of my path toward ordained ministry, I find myself standing in a sacred space of reflection. Currently, I am serving as a pastoral care intern at the Cathedral of Hope UCC in Dallas - a place that is not only the world’s largest LGBTQIA+ - centric church but also a vibrant beacon of what it means for queer people to repair the often toxic and abusive relationship that many of them had with the churches of their past and reclaim the love of God as their b

The United Church of Christ's (UCC) Committees on Ministry (COMs) currently lack specific guidance on addressing individuals in ethically non-monogamous (ENM) relationships in authorization and adjudication. Grounded in the UCC's core principles of covenant, extravagant welcome, and justice, these guidelines assert that the ethical practice of relationships, rather than their structure, is paramount. By applying existing frameworks like the Manual on Ministry , the Marks of F

The landscape of religious freedom and child safety shifted significantly with the recent Supreme Court decision affirming conversion therapy. While many advocates for LGBTQ+ youth hoped for a definitive end to these practices, the legal conversation has taken a troubling turn. When courts suggest that banning conversion therapy—a practice rejected by every major medical and mental health organization—might violate "free speech," they inadvertently (or not) create a loophole

Challenging Normative Compliance in the Church In the progressive church, we proudly affirm diverse identities and seek to include those historically excluded or harmed by religious institutions. Yet, as I embark on my journey in ministry, I often encounter feedback suggesting that being open about my relationship structure - ethical non-monogamy - is somehow "inappropriate." This criticism reflects an underlying adherence to normative values, where anything perceived as outs

I recently received a message from a woman on Facebook who is navigating a journey she never anticipated—discovering her queerness after years of marriage and family life. She shared her story with me, describing the profound support she has received from her husband, who embraced her truth as she began exploring relationships with women. Now, years later, she is both still married to the same wonderful man and in a relationship with a girlfriend, yet she struggles with guilt

Date: March 8, 2026 (Fourth Sunday in Lent) Location: First Church Phoenix UCC Scripture: Matthew 19:13 - 15; Proverbs 31:8 Sermon starts at 42:45 I. The Coffee Shop Covenant: An Instinctive Love As we gather on this Fourth Sunday in Lent, we find ourselves at a crossroads of the heart. Our Lenten journey can often feel like an internal, somber trek toward the crucifixion. But this Fourth Sunday is traditionally called Laetare Sunday - coming from the Latin word for "rejoi

Stepping into my first verbatim presentation for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) felt a bit like walking onto a stage without a script. For those unfamiliar, a verbatim is a detailed, written account of a pastoral encounter - word for word, pause for pause - presented to a supervisor and a small cohort of peers for intense reflection. It is an exercise in vulnerability, and I am deeply grateful that my professor and my cohort met that vulnerability with incredible support a

I’ll never forget the cold shock that hit me when the results of the Harvard Implicit Association Test flashed across the screen. I had gone in with such a smug sense of confidence, honestly expecting to be in the tiny percentage of people who registered as neutral or even, dare I hope, pro-people of color. I mean, my entire professional life is steeped in anti-racism work; I chair a program dedicated to Decentering Whiteness in the church, and the people I love and trust mos

This service, "Living Legacies," from October 19, 2025, at First Church UCC in downtown Phoenix, explores remembering ancestors and fanning the flame of God's gift within us. Led by Christopher Schouten, Member in Discernment, the service includes sacred stories, songs of praise and worship, and a prayer of transformation. Dr. Johnathan Robinson shares an ancestor story, and Christopher Schouten delivers a message on "Living Legacies," emphasizing forgiveness, nurturing heali

Worship Leadership & Sermon @ Scottsdale Congregational UCC, 8/24/25 Introduction: Naming the Moment Friends in Christ, I know you may...