Political Mayhem Thursday: Don't mess with my church

As I have mentioned before, I am honored and happy to hold the Ruthie Mattox Chair of Preaching at 1st Covenant Church here in Minneapolis.

That church is facing a singular challenge right now.

Over the past several years, the church has reached out to the community around it as part of its revitalization. As a downtown church, that brought in real diversity: young and old, rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight. It was the last of these that led to some challenges, and the choice of 1st Cov to treat LGBT members as fully human, able to take part in all that the church does.

The denomination 1st Cov is a part of, the Evangelical Covenant Church, has been hostile to this change. As a result 1st Cov is on the verge of being involuntarily separated from the denomination at the annual meeting later this month in Omaha.

This saddens me. So, course, I wrote about it. I hope you will read that piece, which is appearing in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune today, and which you can read here.

One of the leaders of the charge to crack down on FCCM and LGBT inclusion is James L. Voling, who is a partner at the law firm of Faegre Baker Daniels here in Minneapolis.  Oddly, Faegre trumpets itself as a supporter of the LGBT community.