Three years ago, I stopped signing marriage licenses on behalf of the state of Idaho. As long as I was unable to officiate at ALL weddings, I wasn’t going to sign my name on any licenses. I still presided at services of Christian marriage and blessings, but the papers were signed by someone other than…
This is another post about the upcoming General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA. There is an overture headed to General Assembly’s Civil Unions and Marriage Committee that would seek to pull clergy out of civil marriage altogether. I am sympathetic to Lehigh Presbytery’s intention. I stopped signing state marriage licenses a few years ago.…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho. May 18, 2014 Acts 4:5-21 John 21:15-17 The day before our story begins, as we heard last week, Peter and John were walking into the Temple in Jerusalem and a lame beggar, who had sat at the gate every day for years, asked them for…
I’m far from home tonight. Sitting on my hotel balcony, overlooking the Ohio River in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. I’m far from home when startling news has been announced. In a 57 page decision, US Magistrate Judge Candy Dale determined Idaho’s Constitutional ban against same gender marriage is unconstitutional. “… Idaho’s Marriage Laws withhold from them…
I’m very open about sharing my politics, and my opinions in general. (I know. Not much of a newsflash.) I don’t expect others to agree with my views. It seems the world needs all of our different perspectives. If we could really appreciate the other’s perspective–not so we could figure out how to correct it,…
I shared a link to this article today on Facebook. “What You Believe About Homosexuality Doesn’t Matter” by Tyler Smither, a United Methodist Youth Pastor in Mississippi. It does not matter if you think homosexuality is a sin, or if you think it is simply another expression of human love. It doesn’t matter. Why doesn’t…
This past week I was in Chicago for the Covenant Network of Presbyterian’s Conference “Marriage Matters”. I led a workshop on the relationship between civil and religious marriage. This is the link to the Prezi from my talk. While it doesn’t have everything that was discussed in the great workshop, it has much of it.…
I am up early this morning, waiting to hear for news from the Supreme Court on marriage equality. But as I wait, I am thinking about a conversation earlier this week at the Idaho State Capitol, when there was a presentation to a senate and house committee on why we should include sexual orientation and…
Glass Overflowing 