I thrive on learning. Memorizing knowledge, thinking and over-thinking is how my brain runs. So of course, I excelled as an evangelical. I won gold stars and awards at VBS for memorizing verses. At the Baptist summer camp I went to, every 40 verses memorized meant you could throw a pie at a counselor’s face. …
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Church
The Rest of My Story: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 8
The ‘Gay Agenda’: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 7
I’ve been hearing about the ‘gay agenda’ (and the boycotts) for as long as I can remember. I’ve of course, never heard a word about the Christian agenda, even though it exists. I think it’s worth examining this list, that is very typical of the Evangelical Christian Complex’s (ECC) feelings towards non-straight people. Look…
Africa, Russia, the Past, and Now: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 6
On the surface, the hate in America in the 80s and 90s and what’s going on in Africa and Russia now don’t seem to be related. But underneath, it is the same players and the same beliefs still at work. Many Christian leaders are still just as furious about any kind of tolerance or…
Modern-Day Colonialism: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 5
Oh, the Humanity: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 4
“What does a decent society do with people who hurt themselves because they’re human? With people who eat too much, smoke too much, drive carelessly, don’t have safe sex – we don’t put them out to pasture to die because they’ve done a human thing.” – How to Survive a Plague I grew…
The Religious Right: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 3
So where were the Christians? In the midst of all of this death and isolation, when people were the most vulnerable, when there was so much stigma and fear and people were begging for an ounce of compassion and love – where were the people who were supposed to be known for that? “Since…
Fear and Silence: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 2
If you were a conservative Christian girl in the 90s, you probably know the phrase ‘screaming silver-blue eyes’. The Christy Miller Series was almost mandatory reading for our little sub-culture generation. And we tried to emulate this role model of holy femininity. So when Christy journaled, we journaled, and when Christy wrote letters to…
My Story: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 1
The public junior high was nothing but a hotbed of sin. Or so my fundamentalist parent thought. So instead of moving on with my friends, in 6th grade I was inserted into a small church school, where everyone had grown up together. Being the outsider made for a rough year, so in 7th grade…