Gay-Friendly

Last semester I was commissioned to write a paper for my Advanced Youth Ministry class on the Emerging Church, and what it means for my particular denomination (Southern Baptist). Well, anybody that knows me knows that the paper never got done, although it probably came closer to actually getting worked on than most papers in my Seminary career. Either way, it sparked an interest in whether or not Emerging sensibilities would be the death of my denomination, the reason it became irrelevant, or the Great Awakening. Not that I am drinking the Southern Baptist Kool-Aid, by any means - but being that that's where my roots lie - I'd be lying if I didn't admit to some affinity and no small amount of frustration with them. That being said, I have come across some interesting tidbits as of late that I would like to record here for posterity, so that I can come back to them later. One of them is a really cool article by the young lady pictured, Christi Avant, and can be found here. I'm not sure for how long. It's about being gay-friendly (her words), and very cool - if you're into that kind of thing. For a while I've been really disgusted at how religious folks have treated homosexuals, regardless of where they stand on the rightness or wrongness of the issue.

The second item is this article in the Baptist Standard in which Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C, mentions that he'd "rather be Baptist in the postmodern period than anything else." It's pretty interesting.

Thanks to Emerging SBC Leaders for the first link, and tallskinnykiwi for the second.

For those of you who have no interest in this stuff - fear not! More mindless, banal, entertainment is sure to follow, in the forms of quizzes, surveys, and song lyrics that I didn't write. Stay tuned! And go ahead and leave your comment on something that was posted previously - I know you've been wanting to.