7/17 I was talking recently with a colleague of mine in the Presbyterian Church who voted against 08-B, the amendment that would have opened our church to the possibility of ordaining gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) members. Although his view prevailed — in the end, the overture was defeated — he was glum because […]

7/10 In response to several overtures concerning marriage and families, the 2008 PCUSA General Assembly did the very Presbyterian thing: they asked the Moderator to appoint a Special Committee to study the matter. That committee was formed in the winter and began its work with a strong desire to take advantage of modern technology to […]

7/3 On Wednesday, July 1, the Council of Allegheny County of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania became the third county in Pennsylvania to pass into law an anti-discrimination ordinance that will establish a Human Relations Commission to protect the housing, employment and due process rights of vulnerable groups in our community. The County Executive has said […]

6/26 A great question was asked at the American Shorts @ WYEP event during Pride Week here in Pittsburgh recently: “Where did the term ‘straight’ come from, and how can straight people help in the effort for GLBT equality?” I learned an immense amount from the answers offered to this crucial question. First, what does […]

6/19 Earlier this week, a story in Newsweek caught my attention. It talked about a couple, legally married in the state of Massachusetts, who, like many of us, wanted to raise their family with a strong grounding in faith, in the church they grew up in. But the couple is gay, and their church, in […]

6/12 You would be correct if you assumed that I have voted Democratic all my life. I found the eight years of George W. Bush a hard cross to bear and have had little good to say about former Vice President Dick Cheney. But he stopped me in my tracks by supporting same-sex marriage in […]

6/5 Last week marked two major milestones in church and American society in the ongoing conversation about the place of GLBT people in our midst. In my Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) the discernment and voting season ended when the last presbytery voted on whether our church should allow openly gay and lesbian people to be ordained. […]

5/29 No matter our political persuasion, I trust we can all agree that President Barack Obama is a remarkable orator of a kind we have not seen in a long time. Why? I think it’s at least partially because he knows how to build unity and a sense of belonging among his vastly diverse listeners […]

5/22 “Are you really a descendent of Jonathan Edwards, the angry God guy? That’s what they are telling me in the newsroom,” asked Dennis Roddy, a Sunday columnist at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette when he called me several years ago after I presided at a wedding for two women. Jonathan Edwards has loomed large in my […]

5/15 At the time of his recent death, Chuck was an Elder in his Presbyterian Church. He was involved in the Organ Restoration Program, the Sunday School, the Worship and Arts Committee and the Justice Committee. Chuck delighted in giving tours of the church building to introduce strangers to its history and to the present […]