The Next Great Revival

In 1968, the first Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) was founded in Los Angeles. It was the first LGBT-friendly church. It started a movement of gay-affirming Christians reaching out to the LGBT community to carry the Great Commission to our community. Since then, LGBT churches (whether MCC or unaffiliated) have grown to such a number. In recent years, they have been joined by predominantly straight churches in reaching out to and welcoming the LGBT community to Christianity. I attend a predominantly straight but LGBT-welcoming Episcopal church. My boyfriend attends a predominantly-LGBT but straight-welcoming Pentecostal church. We are on opposite ends of the spectrum of LGBT-welcoming Christianity, but our churches are on the same team. We both fight for inclusiveness in the church.

Most people still assume that Christianity is inherently ant-LGBT. When I was an atheist, I thought this, and used this supposed "fact" to decry Christianity as homophobic. Since coming back to Christianity, I have realized that it isn't Christianity itself that is anti-LGBT, its only the interpretation of certain Christian Scriptures that is.

The church has had many great revivals throughout her history. Each one has brought the church closer to where it needs to be in order for Christ to return and claim her as his bride. The next revival is coming, and will be focused on LGBT inclusiveness. It will start in the predominantly LGBT churches founded as part of the before mentioned movement, but will spill over into the predominantly straight but LGBT welcoming churches, and will even claim many of the previously homophobic churches as gay-friendly.

As the LGBT churches grow, both in size and in number, people will begin to see that Christianity welcomes people of all sexual orientations. People will flock to the LGBT churches to see this "miracle", and many will find a home in these churches. Those who don't find a home in these churches but feel drawn to Christianity will seek out other churches that are LGBT-friendly, finding the predominantly straight but LGBT-welcoming churches. These churches too will grow. Seeing the growth of LGBT-friendly churches, many previously homophobic churches will investigate this new phenomena and become LGBT-friendly churches themselves. The churches that hold onto their outdated homophobic churches will begin to be seen in the light of their bigotry, and these churches will begin to shrink.

It is my desire, and my sincere belief, that Christ will return to a predominantly LGBT-friendly church. I have no doubt in this.

I pray God will give me a part in the upcoming revival. Here I am Lord, use me.

My New Project: The Affirming Version

I started a new project, which will be a revision of the World English Bible. The World English Bible is an excellent modern English translation that is a revision of the American Standard Version. It is in the public domain.

My goal is to create a literal translation of the Bible that is gay-friendly and gender neutral, while distinguishing between plural and singular you.

• Gay-Friendly The first edition will be taking the clobber passages and translating them with a gay-friendly interpretation. I will also provide translator's notes to justify the new translation. An example is Leviticus 18:22, which will be translated as "‘You shall not forcibly lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestable." The verb translated as "lie with" in Hebrew carries connotations of coercion and/or deception when referring to sexual acts.
• Gender Neutral I will be replacing masculine nouns with gender-neutral nouns when the original languages could have been referring to either gender (for example, changing man to person). I will also be replacing masculine pronouns to gender-neutral pronouns in the same case. I will generally use the singular they to do so in the case of pronouns, but will note that it is meant to be singular with an asterick. An example is Exodus 16:18, which is translated as, "When they measured it with an omer, they* who gathered much had nothing over, and they* who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every person according to their* eating."
• Distinguishing Between Singular and Plural You All the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) had different words for you for when it was singular and when it was plural. The KJV used thee, thou, and thine for singular, and ye, you, and your for plural. In modern English translations, the distinction is lost. In the Affirming Version, singular you will be left as is, but plural you will be be designated with a plus sign (+) when it is plural. An example is Exodus 16:8, which says, "Moses said, 'Now Yahweh shall give you+ meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you+; because Yahweh hears your+ murmurings which you+ murmur against him. And who are we? Your+ murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh.'"

My timeline for this translation is a year. I am following the One Year Bible reading plan to revise the text of the World English Bible following the above principles.

Any comments, suggestions, or encouragement for this project is welcome! Please feel free to have your say in the comments below!