Questions of Interacting With Differing Beliefs

This post is part of the July 2015 synchroblog which invited bloggers to write about “Gay Marriage”. Due to the “hot topic” nature of this subject, I’ve written quite a few times about homosexuality already. In this post, I want to try briefly and (hopefully) clearly state some of what is important to me in

How Understanding the Gospel Affects One’s View of Homosexuality

I began to respond to a comment my cousin Jeremy made in response to my recent blog “The Surprising Reason I’m Not Celebrating Homosexual Marriage“. He says: Doug, I really like your approach, but it’s hard to draw a line between what the Bible teaches, and what we think it teaches (i.e. our interpretation). You

The Surprising Reason I’m Not Celebrating Homosexual Marriage

Friday the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. Many people I know are celebrating. However, I don’t feel like I can join in. I feel that to do so would be to rub in the face of many other people I know. I want be cautious not to become whom I

What the Controversy Over Indiana’s RFRA Was Really About

A couple of weeks ago, Indiana passed a law entitled the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA). (Click here to read the entire text of this short bill.) In a short period between the legislature passing the bill and the governor signing it, the bill became the center of an unprecedented amount of controversy. Since I

I Am Hurt By Christians – World Vision Aftermath

The events of this week have left me nearly speechless. I’m just now trying to figure out what to possibly say. I have a couple of main thoughts. First, I’m hurt by how Christians have been acting. Granted, the behavior is nothing new. But it has been brought poignantly into focus this past week. The

Phil Robertson Duck Dynasty Controversy

On to the next controversy… so I’m a little late on this one, but holidays. Anyway, Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame has recently been embroiled in controversy. Here’s a quick review: the controversy was sparked by a comment or two Robertson made regarding his views of gays as recorded in a GQ magazine article

Why the Anti-Gay Movement Failed

Recently I’ve heard some talk comparing and contrasting the anti-abortion and anti-homosexual movements. As I understand it, some people at least feel that the anti-abortion movement has quietly been gaining ground, while the anti-homosexual movement has very quickly lost a lot of support. People have been asking “Why is this?” and sometimes “What can the

The Bible and Homosexuality

Recently, Rachel Held Evans shared a video on her blog in which a young man, Matthew Vines, addresses all of the passages in the Bible regarding homosexuality. He attempts to argue that the Bible isn’t against committed homosexual relationships. I wanted to take a moment and respond with my thoughts. (I assume that you either

The Christian Message About Homosexuality

Not long ago I had a brief discussion with someone regarding Homosexuality and Christians. As I understand it, they hold that since non-Christians generally believe that homosexuality is ok, Christians need to be a counter-balance, letting people know that it’s not ok. (This obviously assumes that homosexuality is wrong; the discussion of whether homosexuality is

Church vs. Scouts – East 91st St. Christian to Cut Ties

(Note: I attempt to be respectful here and recognize the point of view of those whom I disagree with. I would like for this to be constructive criticism, not malicious criticism. However I don’t know how I would say what I said in a nicer way so I don’t know if I succeeded.) Yesterday afternoon