… what we're all looking for
It would’ve been enough for this family to find peace. To come back home and go about their lives of quiet service. But they didn’t do that. They went home and started speaking up publicly for other LGBTQ+ Christians and their families in Sweden.
“Every conference, it’s the most common complaint – too many choices among the breakout sessions! And it’s true. We’ve tried every time to stop – to reduce the number of offerings for breakout sessions – but it’s impossible! Too many topics warrant our attention, and we want to address the needs of our attendees as much as we possibly can…”
“What my parents needed most was someone who could help them understand that these things they’d been taught to believe were not true – that being gay isn’t a choice and that they hadn’t caused me to be gay.
My parents needed someone who would listen to their feelings and help them navigate what was a very new and frightening territory for them.”
“This passage from Luke’s gospel presents a core tenet of Jesus’s life and teachings – welcoming people who were on the margins, typically excluded by religious folk. Jesus didn’t stop with a simple welcome, radical as that might have been in his day. He didn’t just “allow” outsiders to be in his presence – he fully embraced them and extended the invitation to work right alongside him.”
“At the height of the AIDS crisis when so many of our sons and brothers were dying, having been kicked out of families and ostracized from churches – this church was different.
…Because their preacher was different.”
“Because it’s about a baby and his imperfect family, it’s a story we can relate to. But it’s more – it’s about a God who chose to become … one of us.”
“It occurred to me driving on the ice that it would be so easy to just veer off the road, go through the guard rails and down into the ravine, hoping the car would just roll over and over and that I wouldn’t survive that tumble. Then I would never have to acknowledge that I was attracted to women. Never have to hurt and embarrass my family. Never have to experience the deep shame – deeper than I had already felt for years – of coming out to friends.”
“I knew for the first time that Mama had those same expectations that most every parent I’ve ever encountered has had – that someday she’d have a grandbaby to love on. But she never voiced that expectation to me.”
The Missing Peace 