Prop 8 trial reveals abuses of reparative therapy

If you haven’t heard, a civil trial is underway in California contesting the constitutionality of Prop 8. If you don’t know about Prop 8, it was a California referendum that passed by a slight majority in the 2008 election, and its effect was to preclude same gender marriage in California. This is a much ballyhooed […]

Going against nature: LGBT reparative therapy debunked (UPDATED)

Al was an old-timer in my Lutheran congregation in Lake Woebegone country of central Minnesota who had been raised Catholic but became Lutheran when he married Lois. He had received his elementary education in a Stearns County parochial school taught by nuns in full habit way back in the dust bowl days of the thirties. […]

The Courts and Conversion Therapy

Once upon a time, I tried lawsuits for a living. “Plaintiffs,” “defendants,” “negligence,” “foreseeability,” “standard of care,” and “reasonable man” were the jargon of the litigation attorney. Many of my cases fit the category of “professional liability,” aka malpractice. I served as attorney, on both sides, in professional liability cases against engineers, insurance agents, attorneys, […]

Dusting off your feet

The metaphor of shaking the dust off one’s feet and moving on appears in the synoptic gospels and also in one passage of Acts when Paul and his entourage are not well received in the synagogue of a Phrygian city. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you […]

Wisdom from Herb Chilstrom

Since the formation of the ELCA in 1988, the denomination has been shepherded by three presiding Bishops: Herb Chilstrom, H George Anderson, and currently Mark Hanson. Herb and wife Corrine now reside in retirement in St. Peter, Minnesota. On August 26th, Herb penned an op-ed piece for the newspaper in nearby Mankato—his response to the […]

The Church and LGBTQ youth

In a post last September, I wrote the following: The young woman nervously approached the microphone at the ELCA 2009 convention. This fall, she will be a high school senior. With apologies, I paraphrase her plea. “Give us honesty,” she said. “My generation is turned off by what they see as hypocrisy in the church. […]

Scientific study: children of same sex partners are well-adjusted

Opponents of the ELCA ministry policies that allow gay clergy frequently trumpet the Reformation cry Sola Scriptura. The WordAlone Ministries bases its name on this slogan, and ELCA critics decry any other influence in ethical discernment beyond strict application of Biblical law. Such critics conveniently overlook Luther’s own two-pronged analytical approach–“the testimony of the Holy […]

I have a crush on Rachel Maddow

For those who don’t know, Rachel Maddow is the host of her own show on MSNBC on weeknights. She is the freshest voice on network news. According to her description from her website, Rachel has a doctorate in political science (she was a Rhodes Scholar) and a background in HIV/AIDS activism and prison reform. She […]

Are American evangelicals complicit in the Uganda anti-gay movement?

Much attention has been focused on the Ugandan parliamentary bill mandating Draconian treatment of gays, up to execution, that has been shelved for the moment. Undoubtedly, the international outcry has been effective. The relationship between several American evangelical groups and the Ugandan anti-gay movement has also come to light, raising serious questions about the influence […]

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