Our friends at Believe Out Loud want you to know of the virtual thank-you card for which they're currently collecting signatures. Titled "Thank Starbucks for Welcoming LGBT Marriages," the card sends thanks to Starbucks for its recent decision to join more...

As you may know, this past summer the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) decided to allow the ordination of gay clergy.

Yesterday, a new Presbyterian denomination was born: the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians -- or, for short, ECO.

ECO was formed by pastors...

A few nights ago I got in this letter:

This year, many Christians I know have been thrilled by Tim Tebow and his well-publicized Christianity. I don't have any problem with that. However, some of them have taken it a step further, and implied or stated that God is...

Last night I dreamed that I was standing in the sanctuary of an immense church. Broad beams of light colored like jewelery cut across the air above me, coming to land upon a majestic pulpit. Sensing that something important was in the pulpit, I climbed its many broad stairs to...

We've all seen those steamy letters published in certain sorts of men's magazines -- the ones that begin with "I'm a student at a small liberal arts college in the Northeast," or, "My girlfriend Gidget is a knockout redhead with a body so aerobicized she uses her buttocks to crack...

I recently got in this letter:

Hi, John. I became acquainted with your writing a couple of months ago and love it. I so wish I could travel back in time and hear your voice in my head while I was growing up, instead of the hard-core fundy "you're going...

Here's a conversation I imagine happening between Mary and Joseph the night before Jesus was born.

Joseph: How do you feel, Mary?

Mary: Pregnant. Very pregnant.

Joseph: Are you comfortable? Do you have enough hay?

Mary: I do have enough, thank you. And thanks for doing such a thorough job...

Why does no one Christmas carol anymore? When I was a kid, Christmas always meant a clutch of strolling neighborhood singers stopping outside your house at night to joyfully belt out a holiday tune that always made you feel so good right before you cranked up the TV so you...

Here's a letter recently in:

Dear John,

First of all, your posts on all things Christian have me hooked as a fan; reading them is always enlightening. Which is why I want to share something with you.

As a gay college student living in Southeast Asia, I am...

Another kid has been bullied into killing himself. His name is Jacob Rogers. He went to Cheatham County Central High School, in Ashland City, Tenn. Apparently he'd been being pretty severely bullied for four years. It got so bad that around Thanksgiving he quit...

Evangelical, fundamentalist Christians -- by which I mean, specifically, Christians who believe that being gay is a moral abomination, an appalling affront to God -- talk to me, please, about this kid.

Tell me that your belief system didn't help put the hot tears on this kid's cheeks. Tell me that the bullies who torment this kid aren't in any way encouraged or empowered by your tacit approval of their actions. Tell me that the shame this kid feels about himself has nothing to do with the shame that you believe all gay people should feel for themselves.

Tell me that you can't comprehend the connection between your conviction that God finds homosexuals repulsive and the fact that this kid finds himself so repulsive that he habitually cuts his own flesh.

Tell me, please, how you love this kid. Tell me how you understand his pain. Tell me how when he cries, you cry.

Tell me how you want to do everything in your power to make sure that no one, ever again, feels free to in any way victimize a young, gay person.

A Christian myself, I am pleading with you to be honest with me about this.

Tell me, please, how none of this kid's anguish has anything to do with you.

I'm listening. I really am.

We all are.

Watch this, to its end:

Word came out last week that George Michael, 48, was admitted to a Viennese hospital for severe pneumonia. (Though he has cancelled the remainder of the tour he was on, Mr. Michael is reportedly responding to treatment and slowly recovering.)

Ever heard of a group called Christians for a...

The holiday season brings lots of joy and happiness. It also brings visits with family, which, for many people, can be quite stressful. If you are feeling anxious about an upcoming family get together, here is a way of using the Beatitudes delivered by Jesus in his famous Sermon on...

Dear Society to Which You, We, She and He All Belong:

So we rocked it, right?

Dang diggitty we did. And are. And will, still. The beat don' stop until the break of dawn.

And it's always dawn somewhere.

We know some people out there find us raggedy, unkempt, and...

I recently enjoyed a coffeehouse get-together with Gareth Higgins, founder and putter-onner of the Wild Goose Festival. He had been kind enough to ask to meet with me by way of extending to me an invitation to speak at Wild Goose 2012.

In the days since our chat I...

Imagine my excitement when, in a press release sent me a few days before it went public, I ogled these words:

Methodist Group to Perform Gay Weddings

In unprecedented move, network of 900+ bypasses denomination's ban to reach out directly to LGBT people

A...

Last weekend reader Jenni emailed me the below.

Hi, John.

I wrote to you before and gave you my testimony to include in your next book ["Wings on a Pig," ready soon]. I wanted to update you a bit on my situation. I have recently moved and started graduate...

When we say that we want bullying to stop, what we're in large part saying is that we want bullying to stop happening in our children's schools. Which means we want teachers to put a stop to bullying.

While teachers are obliged to stop bullying in their individual classrooms, stopping...

"Our pastor is gay! Our pastor is gay! How can we possibly continue being Christians now?!"

OK, fine. I don't actually know what the two people said to their fellow parishioners at Bethany Presbyterian when, in the spring of 1990, they decided to out their head pastor, Scott Anderson. But...

It is inevitable that Christians who would now be described as "liberal" will be the overwhelming majority of Christians in America. That sea change, the waters of which we already feel swelling everywhere around us, can no sooner be stopped than can the moon passing across the night sky. Today's...