TransPreacher Podcast

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Last year, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released an album titled “Wild God”. The title track sings of a God who flies like a prehistoric bird, who swims at the end of a rotting pier, who searches for a faraway girl. A wild God When we look at creation we can see wildness in the connected roots of aspens, we can hear it in the cry of wolves, we can touch it in oceans tides. Untamed creation reflects...

The attack on transgender people took a dark turn yesterday. In the first 10 weeks of the Trump presidency I saw their attacks against transgender people as a continuation of the distraction and scapegoating from the election cycle. But yesterday, their actions took a dark turn. First, after cutting hundreds of millions of dollars of funding for LBGTQIA+ health, the National Institute of Health wa...

In our current political climate, it can feel like a world of dwindling possibilities for gender diverse folk. And, with bans on military service and the elimination of DEI programs, there is some truth to that. But to counter that narrative, it is important to emphasize that genderqueer people are capable of anything. In the book of Genesis, we hear the story of a person named Jacob. Jacob is the...

It feels like every day I say the phrase, “I can’t believe this is the country we are living in.” On Friday, our country slid further down the road of totalitarianism. Here in Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 1, which will severely restrict what can be taught in colleges and universities. Not only does the bill prohibit teachers from striking, but prohibits education on the controversi...

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We Have Already Overcome The present moment we are living in feels overwhelming and sometimes unprecedented. But we have been here before. We have never really left here. We live on land stolen from Indigenous people and made rich by the enslavement of African people. Slavery and Jim Crow were not that long ago. In my lifetime, people were arrested for being in a gay bar or for wearing clothes dif...

The Ohio Republican party and the Heritage Foundation need to get a room already. If anyone gets pregnant from that hookup, be careful what you name the baby. Coming to a Statehouse near me is House Bill 190, the Given Name Act. This bill, with language gifted from the Heritage Foundation, would prohibit teachers from calling students by a name or pronoun different from their birth certificate, an...

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"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."The preamble to the constitution calls us to live in to our best ideals...

Today, “coming out” is a common phrase for a person publically sharing a gender or sexual orientation that is different from the dominant culture. But coming out is not a new phrase, Jesus uses it in the gospel of John as he raises his friend Lazarus from the dead. Jesus says, “Lazarus, come out.” Father James Martin writes that to come out means to “accept, embrace, and love who you are, especial...

This coming Sunday, the second Sunday of Lent, many Christian churches will hear a scripture from Luke 13, Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem. In this scripture Jesus describes Herod as a fox. Jesus says, “Go and tell that fox for me…” In contrast to Herod the fox, Jesus describes themselves as a mother hen, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her...

Imago They One of my core theological groundings is stated in the Latin phrase, imago Dei. Based on Genesis 1:27, the statement that all people are created in the image of God has powerful implications in how we see and treat one other. An ethic of imago Dei means that every person we see reflects the image of God, the person like me and the person completely different from me. But what is the ima...

International Women’s Day Today is International Women’s Day with the theme: “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” Recognition of this day began in 1911 with a focus on women's equality, women's achievement, and to raise awareness about discrimination. Over 100 years later, we are still fighting for the same basic recognition and dignity. This year’s theme is on point: liberati...

Today is Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, the feast before the 40 day fast of lent. Historically, Christians have used this season of lent to prepare to encounter the resurrected Christ by denying their own bodies. You might’ve heard people say things like I have given up chocolate for lent. I did that once, but to be honest it didn’t make me a more loving, kind, or just person. Jesus themself fasted f...

God’s love is deep and wide God loves all people Beyond differences that may divide us… We start every worship service, Sunday and weekdays before the Free Store opens, saying that God loves all people, beyond differences that may divide us. This is a counter-cultural statement. We live in a world where the differences that divide us are used to separate us and keep us in fear from one another. It...

In a court document filed last night, the Trump administration has unjustly outlined the removal of transgender people from the military. Like so many executive orders, this did not go through Congress. It was not reviewed by appropriate DoD agencies and channels. The executive branch used the judicial branch to implement a ban during an ongoing court case. Not only is this action an affront to de...

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Today in Ohio, SB 104, the bathroom bill has gone in to effect. This law mandates that school bathrooms and facilities be restricted by assigned sex at birth, putting transgender youth at risk of harm, harassment, and isolation. This morning protestors occupied buildings at the University of Cincinnati who removed gender neutral restrooms, put up bathroom signs reading “biological male” and “biolo...

We, transgender people, are being erased. The category of transgender has been removed from government websites from the State Department to the Center for Disease Control. Not only our identity erased, but access to important medical information removed. The National Park Service removed references to transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument website. This is an erasure of history,...

Yes, I know today is a commercialized, sentimentalized holiday probably designed more for capitalism than anything else. However, it provides a moment to hear the message of love. The world constantly tells us we are not good enough or we are too much. We are conditioned to compare ourselves to unrealistic standards. And over the last month, whether you are a Person of Color, disabled, from anothe...

Rolling Stone magazine recently published a list of the 100 best protest songs of all time. Number eight on the list was Pete Seeger’s version of “We Shall Overcome.” The last month has been demoralizing. This is not the country I ever expected to live in. As a 20 year Air Force veteran I did not serve to protect our freedoms, only to give them away. But we have been through worse and we shall ove...

Yesterday the Pentagon banned transgender people from entering the military. Today, a Gallup survey reported that a majority of Americans, 58%, continue to favor allowing openly transgender people to serve in the U.S. military. However, this number is significantly down from 71% in 2019 and 66% in 2021. Over the last few weeks the silence, even amongst Democrats, on executive orders around diversi...

Although often pitted against each other, the history of Black people and LGBT+ people are intertwined. In the 19th century a former slave named Frances Thompson because the first transgender person to testify before congress. For three days, in May of 1866, white men rioted throughout a Black community in Memphis burning the homes, churches, and schools of the Black community. At least 48 African...

The term “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” could not be farther from the truth. This week Rep Nancy Mace repeatedly used an anti-trans slur during House committee hearings. Even when called out on it her response was “I don’t really care.” This is not only a Republican issue, but Democrats haven’t really seemed to care either as Mace has described transgender peop...