Susan Cottrell's Blog, page 8

A Letter To My Boyfriend’s Homophobic Parents On Christmas

Congratulations. You’ve won. You’ve earned your ticket into Heaven by showing your son God’s love. You’ve shown your son God’s love by not allowing him to bring me to your home for Christmas. You’ve done exactly what Jesus would do – shun others. After all, Jesus didn’t let JUST ANYONE at his table. It’s sad […]

Are You About to Come Out to Christian Parents? If so, this is a Must Read.

Coming out to your Christian parents can be a real risk. You put everything on the line, and you don’t know what will happen. Will they come alongside you? Or disown you? I’m a mom of five kids, and we spent more than 20 years in the evangelical church. My oldest daughter came out about […]

A Straight Christian Mom’s Response to Dobson’s Attack on Gays

James Dobson doesn’t really “Focus on the Family”… he just focuses on SOME families. Full marriage equality is coming; full acceptance, inclusion and belonging is coming. It’s only a matter of time, and it’s about time! Dobson’s attacks, representative of so many in the non-affirming evangelical church, have gone on for a long time and […]

Religious Liberties: It’s Not Biblical!

A florist in Washington, a clerk in Kentucky, a baker in Colorado… discriminating against LGBTQ in the name of ‘religious liberty.” I am not going to let you get away with it anymore. These stories, and others like it, are often trending and, as one of our readers said, “I’m sure we will always see […]

Why the Sadness Won’t Go Away: A Tribute to Rachel Held Evans

Years ago at a conference, the husband of a dear friend said to me, “Your work has helped my wife through a tremendously difficult time. Thank you, thank you for what you do.” Deeply moved I said, “You are so welcome!” Ten minutes later he found me again and said, “I’m sorry, I thought you […]

Why The Church Has Painted Itself Into a Corner

Well there you go. We just saw this in the Methodist Church. This is what happens when you put the dignity of human beings in the hands of ruling authorities: the thumb may go up and the thumb may go down. When people (it’s traditionally straight men of the accepted color) are put in charge […]

Why I Chose my LGBTQ Child Over the Evangelical Church

She stood on stage in front of over 5,000 people. She told of a phone call she received where her life changed forever. It was her daughter on the other end, “Mom, I think I am bisexual.” She turned to her church, her community, for support. She was told that she had to choose between […]

Which Woman is Transgender? And Why it Doesn’t Matter.

This week is Transgender Awareness Week. With all the conversation about who we pee next to, I wondered if you could tell who was actually a transgender woman. Can you spot her? Can you tell? Do you care? Unfortunately, many seem to care – especially those in the nonaffirming church – and they have responded […]

Is Your Theology on LGBTQ Right or Wrong? Take this Easy Test.

Today’s cultural landscape seems designed to divide us. News and social media practically push us to one end of the spectrum or the other, on whatever issue. This is binary or dual thinking because it offers only two choices, even for the most complex layered issues. We stampede over people in our rush to be […]

What Happened in Just 5 Years

When I learned that Alex’s mother threw dishes at her and threw her down the stairs because she’s gay—that’s the day I knew I had to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. I’d been educating myself since my two daughters came out—nearly a decade ago now—and I was shocked by what I learned: A scant 6 […]