Tag: LGBTQ

Queer Leaven

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Preached at Creekside United Church of Christ (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Text: Matthew 13:33.

Imagine with me that you’re in an aisle of a grocery store, holding one of those rectangular baskets with handles that flip up. Put your hand out like you’re carrying it. (I’ll look less dumb if you join me.) Standing in the baking goods aisle, you reach for a five-pound bag of flour, and place it into the empty basket. Feel the weight as the powdery paper sack drops into it. Now, imagine that’s one terrible news headline, one calamitous thing, landing heavy as a bag of flour in your basket. How many other headlines and stories are you carrying after these last few weeks? Bombs dropping in Iran and missiles in Israel. Disinvestment in medical research, veteran services, disaster relief, suicide prevention. Five pounds, five pounds, five pounds. The supermarket basket is too full for more, but there’s additional pounds to come. Open your arms wide to a great bushel basket now—it can carry more. Add to it the pounds from Supreme Court decisions, ICE abductions, wildfire smoke, and political assassination. Palestinians murdered waiting for their sacks of flour. Do you feel the weight? You’re holding this awkward bushel basket, needing both hands, moving gingerly, so heavy in your arms, and unable to do anything else. How much are you carrying, the piled-up woes of the world this week? Fifty, sixty, seventy pounds—what to do with all that weight? There’s so much potential in the flour—enough to make more than a hundred loaves! But by itself the flour is just inert, dead weight.

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Open and Affirming: Past and Future

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Preached at First Congregational United Church of Christ (Moorhead, Minnesota). Texts: Genesis 9:8-16 and Mark 12:28-31

In September 2001, I completed a move from Great Falls, Montana to Moorhead here, and started schooling down the street at Concordia College. The first couple days of classes were the usual overwhelm you can imagine—a new school, new place, new friends, and new studies. But then on September 11th, the rest of the world and I sat in bewilderment as we tried to make sense of terrorist attacks that would change world history. The next Sunday, I went looking for a church that would help me make sense of what was going on. That cool September morning, walking north from Concordia, I was heading to St. John the Divine Episcopal Church north of here. But as usual I was running behind, and would be late for that service. Walking past on the sidewalk, I noticed that worship here was also at 10am. I’d be on time here, and I could always go to that other church the following Sunday. So I looked up the stone steps, heard chatting and a friendly invitation, then entered through the open front door. In all the years since, I have never made it to St. John the Divine.

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Testimony on Trans Ban in Youth Sports

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To the Education Policy Committee of the MN House of Representatives on February 19, 2025.

My name is Oby Ballinger, and I’m the founding organizer of Prism, a multiracial and multifaith network for LGBTQ equality in Minnesota. I’ve also served for fifteen years as a pastor in the United Church of Christ, leading congregations in Edina and near Cottage Grove. Every Sunday, worship in many UCC churches begins with the saying, “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” We believe that every person—of every race, class, gender, age, and identity—is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. In both churches I’ve served, I have ministered to transgender youth who want what everyone wants: to belong, learn, grow and play in supportive environments, and to participate as themselves without having to hide or deny who they are. This is why I oppose House File 12 and other such measures that declare “unwelcome” the transgender youth that God has called beloved and calls us to welcome.

On Monday night, I gathered here at the capitol with a hundred others in the bitter cold to grieve the shocking murder of the Black trans young adult Sam Nordquist, and keep vigil with his Minnesota family. We don’t know yet the full circumstances in his case, but we do know that beloved trans people like Sam are four times more likely than others to suffer from violent crime. Transgender youth are also at significantly increased risk of the mental health struggles that come from constant challenges to a person’s worth or belonging. Youth sports are one of the ways trans people can develop resilience and experience belonging, as well as learning, growing, and playing in supportive environments. Rather than addressing harms against them, this legislation adds to the bullying that many trans youth face on a daily basis, doubling down on the lie that there is something wrong with youth who practice integrity by living according to their God-given gender identity.

To repeat what the Holy Spirit tells the disciple Peter in the book of Acts: do not call “unclean” those whom God has called “clean”. Stop this unnecessary bill that adds to a climate of anti-trans discrimination, violates the image of God’s belovedness in every person, and heightens the likelihood of harm against the trans youth I know and love.

A closeup picture of a quilted stole, showing rectangles of fabric in blues, purples, and other colors.

Known, Called, Commissioned

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Sermon preached at Newport United Methodist Church and Community United Church of Christ in Newport, Minnesota.
Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10.

I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to clergy stoles—so many beautiful and lovely fabrics to wear as symbols of God’s call to ministry! When I left parish ministry to begin full-time faith community organizing,
I hung them up in my closet and wondered when I would wear them again. So when Pastor Anne reached out to ask me to preach and share communion this morning, I’m just vain enough to start asking, “What should I wear??” In most Protestant churches, the Epiphany season of growth and wisdom is marked by the color green. So I went to the green and gold stole that a mentor gave me at my ordination, with the reminder that green is worn most often throughout the year. But I was also drawn to this other green one made by a pastor friend in Duluth, which includes the rainbow colors, fabric showing love, the spiral way of faith, and the Black Lives Matter salute that communicates resilient determination. Then again, anticipating seeing here some of the dear Community UCC members, who ordained me fifteen years ago last month in a sanctuary just down the road, made me reach for another stole that the church’s moderator there once gave me: “Blah, blah, blah”! (I think it was a joke?) Finally, Pastor Anne told me that the color for the day was every color—the rainbow! So I have opted for this stole of rainbow colors, made by a gay man in the congregation where I taught Sunday school while in seminary. You may not be able to see it from farther away, but this stole is made of hundreds of small colorful fabric squares, all stitched together by painstaking work into a colorful and diverse tapestry.

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