Louie Giglio

An Episcopal priest selected to deliver the closing prayer — or benediction — at President Obama’s inaugural ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Monday was one of the leaders in 2009 of an interfaith group of clergy that campaigned for D.C.’s same-sex marriage law. Rev.... [ Read more → ]

As public opinion shifts, churches that do not fully affirm LGBT people will leave many in their flock behind. Scripture that is void of compassion is merely words, and our ability to have compassion for every human being is critical to our faith and in an increasingly diverse world. If conservative Christians cannot stomach this evolution, they should not be surprised if progressive Christian traditions, like the U.S. Episcopal Church, gain more traction in society. For some, this is a necessary consequence to maintaining their biblical interpretation on homosexuality, but this shift should not be depicted as a decline of Christian beliefs in our society. [ Read more → ]

For fifty years, Bob Jones University, in Greenville, S.C., prohibited interracial dating and Bob Jones Jr. once claimed that Catholicism was a “satanic counterfeit” of fundamentalist Christianity. Despite the ugly rhetoric and vile policies, Republican candidates regularly flocked to the school and groveled for its endorsement. The GOP luminaries who appeared at the university include Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, and Bob Dole. This ignoble political ritual ended in 2000 after presidential candidate George W. Bush was excoriated for appearing at the school... [ Read more → ]

The pastor chosen to deliver the benediction at President Barack Obama's inauguration has withdrawn from the ceremony after a recording surfaced Wednesday of a vehemently anti-gay sermon he delivered in the mid-1990's. The Rev. Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta said in a statement he withdrew because it was likely that the "prayer I would offer will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration." [ Read more → ]

The Georgia pastor selected by President Barack Obama to deliver the benediction at his second-term inauguration has come under fire for an anti-gay sermon in which he advocated for “ex-gay” therapy, and made references to biblical passages often interpreted as advocating for the execution of gays. Rev. Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta — whose selection was announced Tuesday by the Presidential Inauguration Committee — reportedly delivered a sermon in the mid-1990s in which he preached “rabidly anti-LGBT views,” according to... [ Read more → ]