CLGS

On the occasion of the passage of federal hate crimes legislation, the Human Rights Campaign invited the Rev. Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle, associate professor of practical theology at Brite Dvinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, to comment on the legislation's significance. Dr. Sprinkle offered the following reflections with the title, "The End of the Beginning: How the Passage of the Matthew Shephard Act Transforms Us."

During the 2009 Earl Lectures and Leadership Conference at Pacific School of Religion, CLGS was pleased to host a luncheon and welcomed the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel as the speaker. Rev. Voelkel, ...

The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is committed to supporting projects that affirm the dignity and equality of diverse populations in the Bay Area. As part of our work to eliminate discrimination against lesbians, gay men and their families we have focused resources to support the freedom to marry, end violence against gay youth, provide legal protections in employment, housing and public services, and to promote full participation in communities of faith.

I feel strangely at home here at Wesley United Methodist Church (see Source, p. 12). Thirty-eight years ago, while I was a student at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, my wife was pregnant with our first child. Our doctor's office was in the Wesley office building which used to stand next door to this church and we came here regularly for pre–natal care. Our baby boy was duly born at Fairview Hospital, not far from here. Twenty–one years later, he told us he is gay.

To deal with diversity is to accept an open invitation to be as inclusive as possible in developing welcoming and reconciling communities of faith. To deal with diversity is to enter into covenantal choices that can bind us together as congregations whose confessions, convictions, and commitments honor the differences which enhance us as uniquely Christian human beings.