Pro-GLBT Christians planning walk across America in 2006

Pro-GLBT ministers and more than 40 other Valley residents are hard at work planning CrossWalk America, a walk slated for next year that is designed to introduce the United States to a new set of "progressive" Christian principles, which includes acceptance of GLBT people.

The walk will wind 2,500 miles across the United States, beginning in Phoenix on Easter Sunday (April 16) and ending in Washington, DC on Labor Day weekend (Sept. 3). A core group of six to eight walkers will complete the entire route, and organizers expect thousands of other walkers to join them along the way.

The objectives of the walk, according to the group's press materials, include raising the profile of the progressive Christian movement, and sharing a set of principles known as the Phoenix Affirmations. The affirmations are the brainchild of the Rev. Eric Elnes, pastor at Scottsdale Congregational United Church of Christ, who also consulted with lay persons and the members of the pro-GLBT group No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice in developing the 12 principles.

The affirmations include sections that advocate unequivocal acceptance of gay and lesbian persons, openness to the wisdom of other faiths, valuing artistic expression in all its forms, embracing both faith and science as ways to search for the truth, and opposing the commingling of church and state.

http://www.echomag.com/news/news6.html

http://www.crosswalkamerica.org/pa.htm

The Phoenix Affirmations
Summary Version 3.7

The public face of Christianity in America today bears little connection to the historic faith of our ancestors. It represents even less our own faith as Christians who continue to celebrate the gifts of our Creator, revealed and embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Heartened by our experience of the transforming presence of Christ’s Holy Spirit in our world, we find ourselves in a time and place where we will be no longer silent. We hereby mark an end to our silence by making the following affirmations:

As people who are joyfully and unapologetically Christian, we pledge ourselves completely to the way of Love. We work to express our love, as Jesus teaches us, in three ways: by loving God, neighbor, and self.

(Matt 22:34-40 // Mk 12:28-31 // Lk 10:25-28; Cf. Deut 6:5; Lev. 19:18)

Christian love of God includes:

1. Walking fully in the path of Jesus, without denying the legitimacy of other paths God may provide humanity;

2. Listening for God’s Word which comes through daily prayer and meditation, through studying the ancient testimonies which we call Scripture, and through attending to God’s present activity in the world;

3. Celebrating the God whose Spirit pervades and whose glory is reflected in all of God’s Creation, including the earth and its ecosystems, the sacred and secular, the Christian and non-Christian, the human and non-human;

4. Expressing our love in worship that is as sincere, vibrant, and artful as it is scriptural.

Christian love of neighbor includes:

5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;

6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;

7. Preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;

8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;

Christian love of self includes:

9. Basing our lives on the faith that, in Christ, all things are made new, and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity;

10. Claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts, recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth;

11. Caring for our bodies, and insisting on taking time to enjoy the benefits of prayer, reflection, worship and recreation in addition to work;

12. Acting on the faith that we are born with a meaning and purpose; a vocation and ministry that serves to strengthen and extend God’s realm of love.

http://www.crosswalkamerica.org/pa.htm

It looks like the route runs right through Kansas City, so if I'm still "employment-challenged: then I might even join up with them (if they don't mind the company of a humanist/universalist, that it). :)

nothing.

but watch this thread drop like a lead anchor.

like a lead anchor.

sorry to the OP, this is wonderful news!
remember this, though, next time someone claims progressive christians aren't doing enough.

Is not the busiest, maybe the religion forum or gd might be a good cross post.
It is nice to see something done,the pendulum has reached its limit on the right, I believe.

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GOD LOVES GAYS !!

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If I lived on the anticipated route, I could provide a night's shelter or at least some food. Lacking that, any idea on what other support I could provide and where it should be directed?

Added Oops, missed the url at the bottom: www.CrossWalkAmerica.org

Thanks for the post, Kweerwolf.