I'm in a movie!

My partner and I were filmed last year for a documentary produced by Crosswalk America, titled the Asphalt Gospel. The film coincides with a book written by Eric Elnes, titled Asphalt Jesus: Finding a New Christian Faith Along the Highways of America. I have not yet gotten my hands on this book, but am ordering it today. I'm very excited to have met the walkers with Crosswalk America and honored to have had a few of the folks stay in our home during their re-visit to St. Louis last year. My partner was able to walk across St. Louis with the group.

The movie is being shown throughout the country starting this month and will make its way to St. Louis on November 30 at Christ Church Cathedral and on December 1 at Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis (MCCGSL).

When the Crosswalkers attended MCCGSL last spring, they were met with dozens of protesters. As a member of MCCGSL, it is not uncommon for us to be greeted on occasion with protesters, but these particular protesters were there to protest Crosswalk's presence. Crosswalk is a progressive Christian movement and the protesters wanted to show up to make them feel unwelcome in St. Louis. They seemed frightened by Crosswalk's attempt to show America that there are differing perspectives within the Christian community. All too quickly we seem to forget that this country was founded on principles of religious freedom. Or so we've been taught...

I was surprised that this group of protesters was there for Crosswalk and not to protest MCCGSL. Historically, MCCGSL has shared space with a pro-choice group and pro-life protesters would gather outside of our worship space. Once they found out that MCCGSL is mainly attended by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and straight persons, they thought it appropriate to protest our church while they were there.

I designed a shirt a few years back and passed along a few to the Crosswalkers. The shirt is called the Love Thy Neighbor shirt and was recently featured in the July 2007 issue of Curve magazine. Here is a link to our site that has these shirts available for sale. Love-Thy-Neighbor.org Wear the shirt, spread the message!