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Trans Day of Remembrance:
When the Church Pretends It’s Not Involved Every year on November 20, we read the names of trans people murdered in the last twelve months. We call it Trans Day of Remembrance. We talk about “violence,” as if it just appears out of nowhere, like bad weather. We talk about “hate,” as if it lives →
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Revisiting “When Ministry Was the Closet”
My story has been told before. I met Jeff Chu [i]at a microbrewery in Hartford a few years after everything blew up. I was working as a sous chef. Jeff and his husband, Tristan, are close with my sister Molly and my brother-in-law Jed; when Jeff mentioned his book on gay Christians, Molly said, “You →
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#GLS16 Day 1 – Personal Relections
I just finished up at the Global Leadership Summit, Day #1. For the past 14 years or so, the GLS has been a non-negotiable in my schedule. Simply put, I totally buy-in to the idea that “when a leader gets better, everyone wins.” And I get better every year at the Summit. In terms of →
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What Would You Do?
This week, a good friend, who is a Christian and involved in her church, and also a bisexual woman married to a wonderful woman, sent me this: “Dear Ben, We are seeking wise counsel — We have some friends, n ot super close, but close enough that we’ve invited them for dinner and we went →
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Additional [More Political] Thoughts About Orlando
Thoughts from watching the on-going coverage out of Orlando… it is too early to know all the facts, but as they trickle in it seems obvious that (1) this was an act of terrorism committed by an American citizen, self-radicalized and influenced by Isis; (2) this was a hate crime, motivated by religious-based bigotry of →
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My Thoughts Post-Orlando Tragedy
Every terrorist attack or case of mass violence (and I’m sure I buy into the idea that calling an act terrorism makes it different… was Sandy Hook less terrorism/terrifying? To me, it is a distinction without a difference) leads to a collective sense of pain, loss, frustration and sadness. But when the attack is targeted →
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The Master’s Kitchen
I have a confession to make: I fail far more often than I succeed. I suspect this is true of most people who dream a lot. And I think it is a good thing. Every failure means we tried… and we learned. Right now we are trying an experiment at the Community Kitchen I lead. →
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“Pass the peas, please”
Over the past 18 months, we have made some major changes to the “soup kitchen” that I am executive chef at. We no longer call it a soup kitchen. I hate what most people think when they hear “soup kitchen.” We have started to call it “Community Kitchen On Main”. We are also now about →
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Replacing Sola Scriptura
Rev. Nancy Butler of Riverfront Family Church in Glastonbury, CT, recently gave a fantastic talk entitled “Replacing Sola Scriptura” at the OPEN Network launch conference. The conference centered around the idea of developing an ethos for progressive evangelicalism. Here is Nancy’s talk… would love to hear what you think! (Full disclosure, Nancy is my pastor →
BEN DUBOW 