A few weeks ago a website called Church Clarity launched. Their stated goal is to encourage churches, primarily evangelical ones, it seems, to be upfront about their policies regarding LGBTQ members. If, for instance, some churches will hospitably “welcome” LGBTQ members but not allow them to serve in leadership roles or receive Communion, Church Clarity wants those churches to own up to that policy on their websites so that potential members can see ahead of time what they’re getting into. [ 2,144 more words ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/on-church-clarity-and-the…/

God doesn't promise that He'll only ask you for the sacrifices you agree with and understand. – Eve Tushnet The nuns taught us there are two ways through life: the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow. Grace doesn't try to please itself; accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked; accepts insults and injuries. [ 1,551 more word ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/sacrifice-and-sexual-ethi…/

(See Part 1 & Part 2) Part 3: What Heartbreak and Heartache Have Taught Me About Community I’m a verbal processor and am usually a miserable failure at not gushing most details of my life with anyone trustworthy who will listen. I must have shared about my feelings for Corey with dozens and dozens of friends those first first two years, even if it was difficult for me to find the right language. [ 1,155 more word ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/heartbreak-and-celibacy-p…/

(See Part 1) Part 2: What Heartbreak and Heartache Have Taught Me About Heart The second time I fell in love was with a new friend I met during my last year in St. Louis. I’ll call him Brad. This time, I wanted to learn from my last experience and decided to dive head first into the feelings and try and embrace them as best I could. [ 1,875 more word ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/heartbreak-and-celibacy-p…/

Part 1: What Heartbreak and Heartache Have Taught Me About Myself How do you live with heartbreak when you were never supposed to fall in love? What happens when you fall in love with a friend and you don’t want to ruin a friendship? How do you find the goodness in loving someone even if those feelings are, at some point, also romantic? [ 1,097 more word ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/heartbreak-and-celibacy-p…/

As most of my readers will be aware, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of a Church in Wittenberg, Germany on this day, five hundred years ago. No informed Catholic should deny that there were very serious problems in the Church in the time leading up to the Reformation. To see this, one need only read Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, or any of the other Counter-Reformation saints on the abuses they encountered and the opposition they faced when they tried to correct them. [ 1,464 more word ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/reflections-on-reformatio…/

I am speaking at University of Dallas tonight on "Friendship and Homosexuality," sponsored by the Office of Campus Ministry. Given time limits, a talk like this can only briefly touch on topics which I have written about in much more depth here on Spiritual Friendship. This post provides a handy reference for people who heard my talk to read more about what I said. [ 281 more words ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/notes-for-university-of-d…/

Ron Belgau will be speaking on Friendship and Homosexuality. For details, see https://spiritualfriendship.org/…/speaking-university-of-d…/

For those in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, Ron Belgau will be speaking at University of Dallas on Tuesday October 10, 2017. The talk will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room, SB Hall, sponsored by the Office of Campus Ministry From the event flyer: The Catholic Church has frequently recommended friendship as a part of her pastoral care to same-sex attracted Catholics. [ 167 more words ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/speaking-university-of-da…/

A few months ago I was invited to become one of the contributors to a new Eastern Orthodox blog called Orthodoxy in Dialogue. At the time I had just written my post How Should We Then Live? which was a response to conversations around Giacomo Sanfilippo's post on Conjugal Friendship. Giacomo is one of the editors at… [ 270 more words ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/sexual-minorities-in-the-…/

Some of our readers may have heard of the Nashville Statement, put out by the Southern Baptist Convention's Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. The statement advertises itself as a defense of Biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality, yet fails to address some of the most serious threats to the sanctity of marriage, precisely because the Southern Baptists have already surrendered to the spirit of the age on divorce, reproductive technologies, and the like. [ 360 more words ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/matthew-lee-anderson-on-t…/

Gregory Coles’ Single, Gay, Christian releases today. Go buy it. Writing a review for my friend Greg Coles’ new book is a bit like taking a photograph of the Grand Canyon… using an old-fashioned camera… with a cracked lens… and overexposed film. It is doomed to fail utterly at the task of representing the experience of actually journeying with Greg as he relates his personal story of how he discovered that God could love gay people like himself, like me, and like others. [ 534 more words ]

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/review-single-gay-christi…/

Gregory Coles on The Pursuit of Banality: hoping one day no one cares he's gay and celibate.

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/21/the-pursuit-of-banality/

Jeremy Erickson offers a further response to Rosaria Butterfield.

http://spiritualfriendship.org/…/is-the-side-b-gay-christi…/