South Dakota church becomes open and affirming to LGBT faithful

Sometimes the march of progress is more of a slow stroll. With the marriage of politics and religion in America what we mostly hear is division, but just as there have been churches serving the lgbt community for many years now (Metropolitan Community Churches comes immediately to mind), there are also many churches that welcome us. Even in South Dakota! (One of the greatest harms done to lgbt people, from young kids to seniors, is telling us the lie that we have no place in church, that the bible is essentially our enemy and that there is no such thing as a gay Christian (or gay Jew or gay Muslim). This is a false conflict, a political conflict that has nothing to do with our access to loving congregations and everything to do with power. Fight it, with love if at all possible.) From the Mitchell Republic: A Mitchell church has declared itself a welcoming place for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The Mitchell Congregational United Church of Christ voted Sunday to become “Open and Affirming,” a policy that the national UCC denomination adopted in the 1970s. Each individual church can pass such a resolution as it sees fit, said the Rev. Kristi McLaughlin, of the local UCC. The Mitchell congregation is the fourth UCC congregation in South Dakota to become Open and Affirming. “Open and Affirming basically means we believe that all people, regardless of sexual orientation, ethnicity, socioeconomic background or status, faith tradition or belief, gender identity or expression, we believe that you can be any of those and you are welcome to enter the full life and ministry of our church,” McLaughlin said. ]]>