Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Our Family Matters Conference

Becky and I have just returned from the 4 day conference in Nashville. It was an event that I will long remember. Second Presbeterian, Holy Trinity UCC; Vanderbilt Univ; GLAAD; and Tennessee Equality were just some of the sponsers of this event. PFLAG was also represented. I joined with Peterson Toscano, Christine Bakke; Kim Clark; Ray Boltz (singer) and dozens of others to share our stories of being Christian and Gay, and reaching out to families not only in Nashville, but around the country! This was at the end of a three week trip to the East Coast to view the fall coloring, and I will talk about that in a later post.
What is important for me to share is that while one voice declaring God's love and acceptance for all of His children might be lost in the www world, all of our voices together will be heard well into the future!
Ray Boltz gave an awesome concert, his first return to Nashville since "coming out" in the Washington Blade a month ago. So many well meaning Christians have sought to crucify him for his honest declaration of his sexual orientation and his faith, however I was blessed by his spirit of truth. I met his ex-wife Carol, and was so blessed by her support for Ray, and for all of us who name the name of Christ and declare our sexual orientation as GLBT! I realized once again how important it is to have straight allies!

I wish you all could have been there, but I hope you will all join me in praying that the influcence will continue to save lives and plant seeds of hope.
Peace.~~~Darlene