Robbie Rogers: A History in the Making

Robbie Rogers is a former midfielder for the Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer and Leeds United in England. He represented the United States at the U18 and U20 levels, and made several appearances for the United States Men’s National Team in World Cup qualifying, CONCACAF Gold Cups, and in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He recently signed a 4-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Why is this significant? Because in his personal blog this past February, at the age of 25, Rogers publicly came out as a gay man and said he was retiring from professional soccer.

This story is not a new one—obviously American journalists have been covering Roger’s story since…well…February. And at the time, like many other Americans engrossed in soccer culture, I was greatly disappointed that he was calling it quits. He may not be the best American soccer player ever to play the beautiful game professionally, but all of us agreed that at his age with the level of talent he did have for him to retire because he was gay was simply a crime to international football.

Homosexuality in the Mennonite Church: The Pittsburgh Experiment

Every two years, Mennonite Church USA holds a biannual convention to bring together Mennonites from all over the country. It is an opportunity to reunite with old friends, to worship God, and to celebrate a religious heritage that goes that goes all the way back to the Reformation in Europe. 

This convention also gives Mennonite Church USA’s delegate body—composed of representatives from member conferences and affiliated organizations—a chance to decide the direction that the broader denomination will take. And where I was always more concerned with the other aspects of the convention, it is the workings of the delegate body that I now find interesting.

And it is specifically the issue of inclusion of homosexuality that I particularly direct most of my attention.

Gay vs. God

If you were to ask me what the current state was between homosexuality and Christianity, I’m not entirely sure how to answer that one. I would say it is encouraging to see how many churches are becoming openly affirming and accepting, but there are still far too many yet that are not anywhere close; and that makes for a very polarized confrontation surrounding the issue of the level of acceptance.

However, if there is one thing I could say about all of this—if I were to, say, write a paper on it—my thesis would essentially be this: Homosexuality is the one issue that—in order to survive—I feel the church, as the universal body of Christ, will have to admit defeat and learn from secular culture that homosexuality is not wrong, but is instead something to be accepted as a natural part of life and (for some of us) to be embraced.

Critique: "Embrace Gay Marriage NOT Gay Culture"

In my last student newspaper article at my university, right before I graduated, I wrote an article that generally made the point that affirming gay marriage does not automatically also affirm gay culture. Now since then, I have realized the error of my ways in writing that article—which is why I am posting an altered version of that article in my blog.

To be honest, I would prefer for you just to read this one and forget about the other one. But for those of you who did read my initial article, it may be good to realize that you will recognize many portions of this post. Do not be alarmed. (I am pretty sure this does not count as plagiarism…I think….)

Preaching To The Choir...Almost...

I am always surprised when I come home how much opposition I DON’T get for being gay. If you read my previous post, “Land I Cannot Love,” you may have gotten the impression that this is an awful place to live as an openly gay man. But the truth is, it is not as bad as you or I would assume.

Now maybe I am just special because I actually do  try to juggle my faith with my sexual orientation. Is it possible that my continued interest in religion—more than most I might add—in an area of the country that is highly religious gives me some leeway that I would not have been given otherwise? It seems odd for that to be the case, because most of the opposition gay people get comes from religious people…and it is not like this is a religiously liberal area of the country either.

The Narnia Inside My Closet: Part 3

< Part 1  |  Part 2 >

In my first two posts, I wrote about my life growing up. I was a gay teenager who did not know how to process the fact that I was gay. The fact that I did not know anyone else around me who knew what I was going through put me even further into a rut.

The whole situation was actually quite simple: underlying my whole rejection of my own attraction to boys was my faith.

Green Lantern is Gay?

Hal Jordan

If you know me fairly well, you know that I am into comics; and my absolute favorite superhero is DC Comics’ Green Lantern, one of the founding members of the Justice League—alongside other notable members like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. 

Recently, all of the comic book producers have been on a kick to make their stories more LGBT inclusive. DC has already told us that Batwoman is a lesbian. In fact, Marvel is just about ready to have Northstar, their openlygay Canadian member of the X-men, marry his gay partner Kyle Jinado. If there was ever a time to be gay and reading comics it is now!

The Narnia Inside My Closet: Part 2

< Part 1  |  Part 3 >

In my first post, I describe how I lived alone with my questions of my sexual orientation. I had no one to turn to, no one to trust in; I was alone. So I hid it away, pretending it was not there. And anytime anyone came close to figuring it out, I gave them excuses that led them in the other direction.

I hoped that when I got to college, I would know what to do; hoped that something would have changed. But when I finally got there it was not like anything had changed, and now I started to run out of excuses.

The Narnia Inside My Closet: Part 1

< Part 2  |  Part 3 >

When someone starts to openly tell other people that he or she is gay, it is typically said that they are “coming out of the closet”—or simply “coming out.” I have never liked this analogy. To me, it implies you were hiding something, as if you knew who you were all along.

But for me, it was not that simple. Telling other people I was gay was not a “coming out”; for me, it was a “coming-of-age.”