A Fresh Perspective

Martha Sterne, in her little book, Earthly Good: Reflections of Life and God , tells about the time an old friend morphed into an unacceptable person. Mrs. Caldwell, who Martha knew was a teacher somewhere, lived a few doors down. She would stop by their house from time to time with treats. She taught her little songs, how to play canasta, and took a wonderful picture of her and her cat. Mrs. Caldwell, says Martha, had fat sausage curls all over her head, just like Aunt Pitty-Pat in Gone with the Wind . And on each cheek was a small, bubblegum-pink, perfectly round circle of rouge. Martha says that she knew Mrs. Caldwell was very beautiful because she loved her and showed it. Well, the years went by. They moved to a new neighborhood. Martha says she worked very hard in junior high to become cool and achieved a kind of fragile success. Then on the first day of her sophomore year in fourth period class guess who turns out to be her algebra teacher? Mrs. Caldwell – complete with saus...

Are you as weary as I am in hearing all these well-to-do, materially prosperous and secure American Christians whining about being religiously persecuted because they cannot act on their exclusive theology in the market place and deny services to our LGBT sisters and brothers? To all my financially secure, well-off persecuted Christian friends: Please, let it go! Give it up! It doesn't matter what your worldview is or what your religious beliefs are, in the public arena you have to treat everyone equally. This is not rocket science. It’s the best of our democracy. Everyone seems to know this except sexists, racists, and conservative Christians (and maybe a few Supreme Court judges). Besides, even if you do think same-sex marriage or partnership is wrong, should you not welcome and accept everyone the way Jesus did. He didn't require prostitutes and tax collectors to stop doing what they were doing before he fed them and accepted them at the table. “Co...

Currently in the city of Frankfort , Kentucky where I serve as a pastor, a fairness law is being considered by our City Commission that would prohibit discrimination against the LGBT community. The ordinance, if passed, will be an amendment of the city’s fair housing laws, adding new sections banning discrimination in the categories of public accommodations and employment. It also adds “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the list of classes already protected under state and federal law.  The primary opposition to the fairness ordinance is coming from conservative Christians. Hershael York, Pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort , recently wrote an op-ed that appeared in the Frankfort State Journal signed by fourteen other local clergy. The op-ed was titled, Fairness Ordinance hurts people of faith.   The basic thesis of the op-ed, which has been the incessant cry from the conservative Christian community, is that a fairness ordinance reversely disc...