a note to Riz Rollins: I hope that sooner rather than later you happen upon a real live church that gives you just what you crave. It won't be my church, but, man, I would love to visit it and to know it exists. Stay hungry!

Oh, so Pittsburgh got Donald Wuerl because Seattle rejected him. Thanks a lot Seattle. Way to mess with my hometown.

Thank you!!! I love the excerpt that Riz shared. I grew up in the church my whole life, my mom's a pastor, and I still attend church. I have always had a positive experience with the church, even after coming out.
It's a community I treasure and continue to grow within.

also, @1: A place of worship that is inclusive of all individuals & just plain amazing is Madrona Grace Presbyterian Church. Granted, I am a little biased as that is where I worship :)

This is such a beautiful piece! Thank you.

And although I can't speak to it personally, the Baptist church on Seneca has been accumulating more and more rainbow flags. Maybe the next piece could profile queer-friendly churches -- like Riz said, that don't just tolerate his relationship, but welcome it.

Cienna's cute and all that, but she obviously doesn't know jack shit about Christianity. First, Jesus wasn't a Christian; he was a Jew. Second, Jesus didn't write anything. If anybody "basically wrote the book on being Christian" it was Paul. And you know what? Paul was Jewish too!

So maybe, Cienna, you're thinking of Justin Martyr? But it sure as hell ain't Jesus.

Wow. Just...wow. And thank you.

Thank you! I work in Hunthausen Hall on Seattle U's campus. It is nice to see this information in The Stranger. If anyone is interested in learning more about service-oriented, pro-social justice faith and spirituality, come check us out: http://www.seattleu.edu/stm/Default.aspx

Wow, you admit there are a handful of decent Christians. How embarrassing for you.

Don't be a dick, got it.

Nice work, folks.

I think Ed Murray's got it a little wrong... I've always taken it as an admonition not to be pushy. Don't go climbing hilltops, or banging on doors, and shoving your faith at people. But don't decline to talk about it when somebody asks you. Balancing the demands of both faith and conscience, looking at how faith influences perspective and decisions... there are people who don't have a lot of guidance how to handle that.

No one person's responses there are right for everyone. I expect that Miller's approach differs from mine. I find wearing my faith on my sleeve to be gauche, but boxing it up and hiding it, that's just silly.

Ed Murray ought to open up a bit, and, you know, lead...

Are there any ways for non-Catholic Seattlites to support Ms. Pruitt and the other nuns?

@12 Yes, that's exactly what's happening with the followers of money-grubbing hucksters like Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar.

Oh, Donna Wuerl. I havent thought about him in ages.
He was central in stopping Pittsburgh's first attempt at adding lgb to the non-discrimination policy for the city by sending a letter to the churches telling priests to tell their parisioners to call their city council members.

When we prepped for the second attempt, a former priest involved with Cry Out/Act Up dropped by Donna's office with some very old photos of him at a gay bar (I saw the pictures, this isnt second hand info) and simple told him that the church should be silent on politics and it was.

@5, all I hear is you calling me cute.

@13 Some ideas for supporting the Sisters: Attend one of the rallies to support the Sisters; Become an Associate of a Community (You don't have to be Catholic to be an Associate); Donate! (Many people don't know that the Sisters usually do not receive money from the Church); Volunteer in one of their ministries; Encourage people you know who are Catholic to consider becoming Sisters/Brothers. Here are the websites of the organizations mentioned in the article about Sister Pruitt: The Sisters of Providence: http://www.sistersofprovidence.net/ The LCWR: https://lcwr.org/

@11: I would agree with you, except the guy's a liberal politician. It's one thing to talk about your faith with your friends who want to know, it's quite another to open up to a reporter about it when you know how many other liberal politicians have gotten their communion taken away.

Thank you. Long overdue.

"LGBT community, progressive politicians, and anyone whose brain hasn't been thoroughly washed"

Can you blame people for not tolerating degeneracy, regardless of religion?

This is lovely and refreshing!

Now why can't the pope think this way?

Bless you---this truly is refreshing!

This comments section aught to get good once the unregistered troll bus pulls in.

Jesus said not to usurp his role in judging the souls of men. He didn't say anything about tolerating gross sin in a practical sense, and indeed if we're to imitate him we are called upon to consistently call out sinful bullshit. Take note of his interactions with the Pharisees.

The reason most Christians do this wrong is that Christians are sinners too, and many of us commit the sin of not admitting to being sinners, but you need to make a very selective reading to have Jesus come out as big on tolerance in the modern sense of that term.

@ 25. Anyone who reads the Bible and tries to apply it to real life will have "a very selective reading." As Riz points out, it's an inconsistent compendium of hundreds of parables, rules, and moral suggestions compiled over thousands of years. It says almost everything.

If you tried to live your life in a truly Biblical way, you'd be confused: Do I work on the Sabbath or not? Do I cut my hair or not? Do I stone my adulterous neighbor or show him mercy? Did Jesus really wipe the Mosaic-law slate clean? If he did, can we ignore the Ten Commandments? Etc., etc.

All practical readings of the Bible are "very selective."

I love this article! I think people would be surprised at the large number of cool Christians in Seattle who are non-judgmental and loving folks. Look around your neighborhood. Check out websites including www.gaychurch.org

Great article! I think people would be surprised by the large number of loving, non-judgmental, grace filled Christians in Seattle who are serving their communities in amazing ways. Check out your neighborhood church. See websites like www.gaychurch.org

There is the physical illness that is leprosy. Then there is the mental and emotional illness that accompanies being ostracized by people. I cannot say for certain anyone has ever cured a physical disease with their bare hands, but it is quite easy to help someone who has been neglected, marginalized and abused by society:

show some love. Show lots of love. Who knows? Love just might help the body heal itself.

Excellent piece. We wouldn't be nearly as far down the road as we are in lbgt equality without the work of faithful Christians, in particular Episcopalians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Lutherans and Presbyterians who have marched our cause forward, sometimes at great personal sacrifice. The Christian fundamentalists are loud and get way too much attention.

First, I admit that I have not read this entire article. I read all day at work; I'll get around to it over the weekend but right now I need a drink. Just popped in to say that this is a super duper condescending judgmental antagonistic insulting title/subtitle.

I am not a Christian, but I try to regard people and their beliefs with respect in general until an individual proves himself to be a bigoted piece of shit (which, oddly enough, almost all of the Christians I know are not! And I know a lot, too!). The way the Stranger regularly chooses to call out the entire Christian religion makes them look childish and spiteful. It wins them points with no one they claim to want to sway.

@29: it does! Without physical contact, babies do not develop right and some die. Human touch and a supportive social network help people heal faster. Knowing that people love you and are rooting for you is absolutely better for your physical health than if there's no one.

Our mental health and our bodies are inextricably connected.

Thank you SO much for this article. Any chance it could be an ongoing series, profiling Christians who aren't dicks?

Love all the props for the dissenting Catholics, but there are some Protestant sects that put their asses on the line for social justice and particularly for the dignity of EVERY person (e.g. gays) and took big hits for it. Would love to see a shout out for U.C.C. and Episcopalian leaders who fought and won against bigotry in their own houses.

Psst - a long article on Christians that don't suck, and you don't mention Rich Lang? The guy rejuvenated his Ballard congregation with social justice and homeless support programs and progressive political activism. He's now in the U District doing the same. He's the priest who was pepper-sprayed trying to mediate between the cops and the Occupy Seattle protesters. No, I'm not Christian, but this guy walks the walk.

Psst - a long article on Christians that don't suck, and you don't mention Rich Lang?! The guy rejuvenated his Ballard congregation with social justice and homeless support programs and progressive political activism. He's now in the U District doing the same. He's the priest who was pepper-sprayed trying to mediate between the cops and the Occupy Seattle protesters. No, I'm not Christian, but this guy walks the walk.

Another Protestant overlooked.

Mainline Protestants (UCC, UMC, Lutheran, Episcopalian, American Presbyterian, American Baptist) are walking the walk. These are the people that ran the underground railroad in the 19th century. These are the people that funded and supported their southern brothers and sisters in the Civil Rights struggles in the 1950's and '60's. These are the people that advocate for the poor, the marginalized and the immigrant. Today, No Mas Muertes provides lifesaving services in the borderlands between Mexico and Arizona. The Presbyterian church in Tuscon takes a lot of crap for funding and organizing this very Christian mission. Lutheran Compass Center provides vital services for the homeless and mentally ill.

I could go on but I hope you get the idea.

For every courageous stand they take, a few members get hacked off and take their checkbooks, energy and support elsewhere. It is a death of 10,000 tiny cuts, doing the right thing.

Glad you are finally seeing the light, the Stranger is usually a dark publication that likes to point fingers, complain and stereotype.

From Joe Carducci's New Vulgate emailing this morning:

Terry Eagleton interview at Oxonionreview.org.

“So do you think there might be potential in an alliance between religion and left politics?

In a sense, you might almost say that’s been the theme of my intellectual career. It’s not always obvious to me or to anybody else for that matter. But of course I started, when I was at Cambridge, as a left-wing Catholic in the heady days of the Vatican Council. And I suppose what you might call ‘political Christianity’ has run as a kind of subcurrent beneath my work. It’s now come to the surface, and there were times, particularly in what you might call my Althusserian phase, when it wasn’t so obvious.

Lots of people would see a contradiction between Marxism and Catholicism, for example…

Well, I’m not sure I would talk about myself as a Roman Catholic. I was brought up in that culture, and it is a culture. That’s one of the attractive things about it. You know, you meet a Catholic from Korea or somewhere, and you share an enormous amount of things in common. It’s like being a Jew, in that sense. I have no truck with the Vatican and all that kind of stuff. But I suppose it’s a certain theological mainstream that interests me, and the political implications of such. And of course that’s been coming much to the fore in the past few years. If you think of the number of agnostic and very theistic leftists from Agamben and Zizek to Habermas and Badiou, who have been raising theological themes, it’s very much part of the zeitgeist.”

I appreciate an article in the Stranger aimed at bridging a gap between those who seek Christ and those who don't. And while I can't help but feel the interviewees were scrupulously chosen to fit the author's narrow agenda, the more harrowing issue I take with the column is this quote:

"Sure, most of [Jesus'] feats can be attributed to his magical Son o' God status, but that's not the point. Every noble gesture simply underscored his greatest triumph: not being a judgmental dick."

If the greatest thing that Jesus set out to accomplish in his time on earth wasn't to take on the justice for our shortcomings by dying for everyone to offer a free relationship with our loving Creator, but was merely to not be a dick and let everyone keep doing what made themselves feel good, then he might as well have never come at all. I think you are thinking of the Buddha.

Being exposed to Christianity my whole life, I could go on and on – but that's the trouble with Christians, so I won't :) I know the church has a history of being dicks, and I apologize for that. I grew up thinking that Christianity was about "what not to do", but then I came across a message of freedom from Paul's letters one day. I was so relieved by this description, I just want to share it:

(Colossians 2): "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

www.believedoubtseek.org

I appreciate an article in the Stranger aimed at bridging a gap between those who seek Christ and those who don't. And while I can't help but feel the interviewees were scrupulously chosen to fit the author's narrow agenda, the more harrowing issue I take with the column is this quote:

"Sure, most of [Jesus'] feats can be attributed to his magical Son o' God status, but that's not the point. Every noble gesture simply underscored his greatest triumph: not being a judgmental dick."

If the greatest thing that Jesus set out to accomplish in his time on earth wasn't to take on the justice for our shortcomings by dying for everyone to offer a free relationship with our loving Creator, but was merely to not be a dick and let everyone keep doing what made themselves feel good, then he might as well have never come at all. I think you are thinking of the Buddha.

Being exposed to Christianity my whole life, I could go on and on – but that's the trouble with Christians, so I won't :) I know the church has a history of being dicks, and I apologize for that. I grew up thinking that Christianity was about "what not to do", but then I came across a message of freedom from Paul's letters one day. I was so relieved by this description, I just want to share it:

(Colossians 2): "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

www.believedoubtseek.org

mtnlion: kittens make everything better, too.

So... in other words... one can be batshit crazy and not a complete asshole. Yay. Up with peoples!

Excellent and refreshing article, the only omission being the Reverend Rich Lang who regularly restores my faith in Christians through his writing and activism.

@26 - Precisely!

@25 - I call re-reg. My reader's eye/ear is screaming to me that this is Seattleblues, unable to resurrect his own tarnished image, but unwilling to quit while he's . . . well, less behind.

I could be wrong, but the references to "degeneracy" in this thread, and to transsexualism being a "mental illness" in need of a "cure" on another, all advanced in a quasi-civil, but still unmistakably venomous, tone are setting off the alarms.

Congratulations to The Stranger for taking a bold risk in balanced journalism in offering the recent article "Seattle's Best Christians." Truth be told, there are countless faithful women, men, and children in Seattle such as those you note in the article: rich and poor, gay and straight, convicted in their beliefs or sometimes doubtful. Through our best efforts to live out our faith, we feed the hungry, comfort the poor, advocate for those on the margins, and do our best to make Seattle, our nation, and our world a better place. We don't always get it right, but when we're at our most faithful we do it with a sense of humility and awe, recognizing that God is most likely to show up when we least expect it, and that being found "loving our neighbor as ourselves" as both the Scriptures we cherish and your article so wisely counsel is the best we can do. Thank you again. Bravo.

Sincerely yours,
Paul E. Hoffman
Lead Pastor
Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church
North Seattle

Congratulations to The Stranger for taking a bold risk in balanced journalism in offering the recent article "Seattle's Best Christians." Truth be told, there are countless faithful women, men, and children in Seattle such as those you note in the article: rich and poor, gay and straight, convicted in their beliefs or sometimes doubtful. Through our best efforts to live out our faith, we feed the hungry, comfort the poor, advocate for those on the margins, and do our best to make Seattle, our nation, and our world a better place. We don't always get it right, but when we're at our most faithful we do it with a sense of humility and awe, recognizing that God is most likely to show up when we least expect it, and that being found "loving our neighbor as ourselves" as both the Scriptures we cherish and your article so wisely counsel is the best we can do. Thank you again. Bravo.

Sincerely yours,
Paul E. Hoffman
Lead Pastor
Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church
North Seattle

First we get an article about how great the COPS are. Now it's the CHRISTIANS.

Thanks Stranger staff for ruining what used to be an interesting source of information.

You guys are so ALTERNATIVE!

YES! Make no mistake Catholics rock. I'm not talking about the "good ole boys" at the Vatican (or those that follow them rather than Jesus, Mary, and Joseph). My G-d is a good G-d and I'm grateful to be a peace-loving, social justice minded, equality for all Catholic, a true Catholic.

As I side note, I believe that a great way to reduce abortions is to provide real, meaningful support for pregnant women. I'm talking housing, food, education, childcare, etc.

What the author of this article clearly missed is that Jesus himself and other christians are not all about sexual orientation.