Yesterday was the Pride Parade in Chicago and I attend with an agenda in mind: 1) to lend my voice of love and acceptance and celebration to the throngs of people who will be ‘Out and About’, and 2) to bear witness to a different way of being Christian–documenting on film for anyone who stumbles across this blog that there are churches who welcome you and support you, in all your fullness and complexity.
To those ends, I offer the following witness to love:
The Hill Family (clergy–United Methodist)
Rev. Jacki Belile, clergy, American Baptist Church–USA
The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Churches in Chicago.
A sea of banners announcing the churches who are welcoming and affirming.
My own church’s banner.
What a powerful statement of trust: it is a robust pneumatology indeed.
It is an amazing statement to those who’ve spent their lives excluded by the church, to be celebrated by the church on their own terms!
But to the churches who practice so-called “tough love” by condemning homosexuality and homosexuals in the name of Jesus, I offer a word of caution: Gay people aren’t beating down your church doors, wanting to get in. There are options, as evidenced here. When you, in the name of Jesus, preach judgment and condemnation, stop and think who it is you are preaching to: your own. It is only your own closeted gay children who even attempt to stay in the hostile environment that is your church–whether out of conviction or nostalgia. The rest will find places where they are celebrated and welcomed and love flows freely. They will surround themselves with life-giving people, in life-giving places.
The only ones you exclude are your own.
OuttaSiteOuttaMind 
Well said Donna! Just discovered your blog.
Hope you enjoy!