Even the NY Times Gets It

Wow, guys. I'm feeling a shift...are you feeling a shift? The consciousness that so many of us have been stepping into - love and acceptance - seems to be making it onto the front page of the NY Times.

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If I were straight, I'd be just as on fire about this struggle for gay and religious people as I am for being one of them. I'd be an awesome ally, fearless and standing up for what's right in my words and in my actions. By society's definition, I'd actually have more credibility as a straight person on the issue. Straight allies have so much power and now more than ever in history, allies in churches are gaining more and more opportunities to show God's love to the isolated, hurting and schizophrenic. The NY Times ran an article today called "Gay and Evangelical: Seeking Paths of Acceptance". Dude, this is all that we talk about in the movie and everywhere we do talks. Mel White's been doing it for a bazillion years too and he got recognized in the article as probably the most well known on the issue. We often wonder who our "leader" is...who's our MLK? Who's our Gandhi? Rev. Dr. Mel White is...and he's in our movie for that reason. The man that's been there and back, the man who gets email and letter after another of people killing themselves over the struggle and he still gets up in the morning and lives through his passion for compassion. Luane and I are THRILLED he got some attention for his work in the midst of the Haggard and Barnes outings. People may be shocked or even feel betrayed in the evangelical world, but those of us with this Christ Consciousness have our arms wide open for these folks, it's another day at the office for us. We know these people exist, we never believed they didn't. We couldn't agree that it's preventable and we can be de-programmed from how we were constructed. We've always kept the door open for them, kept the light on.

NOW is a huge opportunity to get the conversation back on the table. It's in the public sphere so bring it to the private level and get people talking. Get our movie as a means to hold a house party to get people to talk, to get to know Mel White, to see what they can do to learn to be safe spaces of acceptance and love for those in their world who could be Haggard and is scared to death to be themselves. Don't kid yourself that you don't know anyone, it's no excuse anyway.

Keep your eyes open and step into the power to make a difference. Here's another way to make our lives really really count. God gave us power, not timidity and to help those who are current and future Haggards, we owe it to them to learn from other's mistakes of oppression and repression and step into love. Talk about it.