How A Theology of Inclusion Can Enrich Your Faith

Last updated on: April 25, 2019 at 1:51 pm By Brandan Robertson

The following is an excerpt from my new book The Gospel of Inclusion, released today. Get your copy here. When we begin to understand that the entire trajectory of scripture points to God’s radically inclusive love for all of Creation, we will be compelled to rethink our entire theological framework. Since patriarchy and exclusion are embedded in the worldview of the writers of Scripture, we will be brought into conflict with various exclusive texts and the doctrines that have formed around... Read more

Why Democrats Must Embrace Faith

Last updated on: April 9, 2019 at 2:39 pm By Brandan Robertson

Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg recently called for the formation of a “religious left” during an interview on The View. Citing his own Christian faith, he pointed out that the Religious Right had adapted their own moral teaching to embrace and celebrate Donald Trump and wondered how a morally awakened religious left might impact the politics of our country in years to come. As a pastor and political organizer, I couldn’t agree more. During the lead up to the 2016 Presidential... Read more

Rethink Sex: A Progressive Christian Perspective

Last updated on: March 30, 2019 at 10:22 pm By Brandan Robertson

A recent article by Rev. Katherine Willis Pershey in The Christian Century explained on womans experience of engaging in sex outside of marriage in a conservative Christian context and then suffering a great deal of shame and pain both from her Christian sexual partners and from her own sense of emotional emptiness following sex. She contrasts these experiences with the experience of sex within her marriage, which she described as healing and deeply fulfilling. At the end of the article, she says... Read more

Living Authentically As A Single Pastor (On Sex Positivity)

Last updated on: March 23, 2019 at 10:37 pm By Brandan Robertson

“OMG You’re f***ing disgusting! You’re a PASTOR.” This is a message I received when I opened up Grindr, a gay app, on my phone recently. It’s not the first time as a single, millennial, gay pastor that I have received this response from someone seeing me on one of the various apps. Early on in my ministry, an individual from my congregation asked me to coffee. When we sat down to talk, he said, “I really need to have a... Read more

Unsung Heroes of Christmas: Jesus’ Family Tree

Last updated on: December 21, 2018 at 9:26 pm By Brandan Robertson

Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re talking to a group of friends and you do a certain manurism, you say at certain phrase, or you react in a certain way and then, for just a moment, time seems to stop… And you see yourself. You hear yourself. That thing you just did. That thing you just said. The way you just said that… Is exactly like your mother. Or your dad. Or your great aunt Sally.... Read more

On Finding Your Calling & Vocation

Last updated on: December 10, 2018 at 11:03 pm By Brandan Robertson

This short talk was delivered at a Catholic Theology class at the University of San Diego on December 11, 2018. Good afternoon. My name is Rev. Brandan Robertson and I serve as the Lead Pastor of Missiongathering Christian Church in North Park. I am 26 years old and I am an openly gay man who spends my work day teaching people a progressive version of Christianity and leading them into wholeness and lives of spiritual vibrancy. I say all of... Read more

There Is No Fear In Love: My Experience Trying to “Pray the Gay Away”

Last updated on: November 30, 2018 at 3:01 pm By Brandan Robertson

As I entered into the professor’s office, I was trembling. Dr. Rose was known to be one of the fiercest, most opinionated professors on campus who happily called out students by name in her classes for disagreeing with her political or theological views. I was being called in because she was “gravely concerned” about my presence at Moody Bible Institute where I was finishing up my Junior year of studies. I walked in and sat down in a chair in... Read more

A Christian Values Voter Guide for the Midterms

Last updated on: November 5, 2018 at 2:27 pm By Brandan Robertson

The 2018 midterm elections will be some of the most consequential in the recent history of our nation. After experiencing two years under the Trump Administration, these elections are a chance for the American people to voice our opinion on how this administration and its supporters are doing. Do we see the progress that we desire, or does our country need to go in another direction? Do we feel that our voices are represented in government, or do we need... Read more

Responding to Recent Tragedies with Subversive Hope

Last updated on: October 30, 2018 at 2:42 pm By Brandan Robertson

This has been another heart wrenching week for our country. We’ve witnessed our government officials pledge to seek to erase the existence and identities of our transgender and non-binary siblings. We’ve seen the horrendous aftermath of a gunman walking into a synagogue and opening fire, killing innocent worshipers. We’ve felt the reverberations of fear as a radicalized individual mailed bombs to government officials and political leaders. And in our own community, we’ve been reminded of the hatred that so many... Read more

Following Jesus Into the Political Realm

Last updated on: October 22, 2018 at 2:27 pm By Brandan Robertson

Last week, we kicked off this series called “Polarized” with the understanding that Christianity is an inherently political faith- that the message and the example of Jesus, both in his day and in ours, had inherently political implications. Politics, we learned, is literally defined as caring for the affairs of the city and the people in it, and religion, according to the Bible, is caring for “widows and orphans in their affiliations”, in other words, caring for the people that... Read more