So, for the foreseeable future, my online efforts will be focused on the UC blog, both with writing and editing. And, if by chance you have some writing you’d like me to consider for publication, please send it my way — I’d love to hear from some new voices!

One of the canards of the anti-LGBT industry is the tired argument that accepting LGBT equality will lead us down the slippery slope of moral corruption. Capitulate when it comes to gay marriage and just around the corner we’ll be facing, in words from the film Ghostbusters, “a disaster of biblical proportions … real wrath of God type stuff … Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! … Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes … The dead rising from the grave! … Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together … mass hysteria!”

In a recent episode of his Focal Point radio program, conservative Christian blowhard Bryan Fischer puts it this way:

One of the things we’ve talked about on this program is that once the threshold of man-woman marriage is crossed, once we cross that threshold, where we said there are other sexual unions that are permissible outside of the union … there is no logical place to stop. … Once there is some kind of endorsement of homosexual behavior then they’re going to move on from there. … when ground is given to the homosexual lobby, when their agenda is catered to, surrendered to, capitulated to, they’re not happy with that, they’re not satisfied with that, now they’re already pressing in to transgender rights, special rights for transgenders. … They’re pressing on to incest: I read you that story a couple weeks ago that’s now been mainlined in The New Yorker magazine [New York magazine], the story about an 18 year old woman who’s going to marry her father, her biological father … And now, this story in American Thinker talks about pedophilia being in America’s future, and this is what he sees coming, that the next barrier that’s going to be challenged is going to be the taboo against pedophilia.

According to Fischer, if you support marriage equality, the next thing you know incest and pedophilia will be the norm.

Never mind that the New York magazine article isn’t about incest simpliciter, but is about Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA), a rare occurrence between genetic relatives who have been separated by adoption and first meet as adults.

Never mind that the American Thinker article he references is nothing more than a rambling screed utterly lacking in substantive arguments and reveling in the salacious details of a few tragic cases of pedophilia.

Never mind that acknowledging the right of consulting same-sex adults to marry has nothing to do with pedophilia or incest.

Fischer, never one to let facts get in the way of sensationalistic fear-mongering, is quick to jump on the big gay slip’n slide, riding it all the way from gay marriage to transgender rights to incest to pedophilia.

Similarly, Owen Strachan, the stalwart defender of a bevy of so-called ‘biblical’ causes — manhood, sexuality, morality — also jumps on the slippery slide. But Strachan’s ride begins at a different point, starting not with LGBT equality, but with gender equality.

For Strachan, complementarianism — the pernicious view that God created women as second-class beings whose sole purpose in existing is to serve men — is the issue that Christians must defend.

Strachan has the audacity to hold up the suppression of women’s rights as the “last bastion” in the war against homosexuality. For Strachan, once we treat women as equals — once we recognize their humanity and inherent worth — we might as well toss in the towel because the gays will overrun society.

Strachan says that:

Complementarianism really is the last dam holding back the waters that would sweep over evangelical churches. If complementarianism falls, then the last bastion of resistance to full-fledged endorsement of both homosexual and transgender identity falls with it. This is it. We’re down to the last refuge. If the church gives up its overwhelmingly-held historic position–being complementarianism–then it will no doubt, with tremendous speed, endorse both homosexuality and transgenderism as not only viable for believers, but good.

Never mind that complimentarianism finds its opposition in the New Testament itself and that those Christians opposed to it have firm biblical grounds for doing so.

Never mind denominations such as the Assemblies of God and the Salvation Army that condemn homosexual practice as sinful, yet have long recognized the full equality of women in ministry.

Never mind that Strachan’s slide really began when the church renounced slavery — surely acknowledging the humanity of non-whites was the first step toward our capitulation on marriage equality.

In his textbook A Concise Introduction to Logic, Patrick Hurly points out that “many slippery slopes rest on a mere emotional conviction on the part of the arguer that a certain action or policy is bad, and the arguer attempts to trump up support for his or her position by citing all sorts of dire consequences that will result if the action is taken or the policy followed.”

This is precisely what Strachan, Fischer and their ilk are intent on doing. To support their hate and bigotry they reject reason, logic and thoughtful reflection, instead perpetuating lies, distortions and dire warnings about the slippery slide toward complete and utter destruction. For them, recognizing the dignity and humanity of LGBT people means we’ll all be drowned in an inevitable tsunami of depraved hedonism.

But there’s no need to jump on Strachan and Fischer’s Big Gay Slip’N Slide. Instead of trafficking in hate and fear, we can choose to walk in truth in light, to evince love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We can recognize the dignity, worth and beauty of LGBT people — and of all people — without fearing the collapse of human civilization, we can embrace the full equality of all races and genders and orientations without fear. The choice is ours to make.

N.T. Wright’s new book, released today, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good (HarperOne, $24.99) sets out to reorient and refocus the Christian faith by examining its central tenet: the gospel.

Continue reading on Patheos …

This is the work of Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser: to chisel away at the stone of everyday life and discover the poetry already hiding inside. Kooser’s new collection, Splitting an Order (Copper Canyon Press, $23), does just that: Kooser’s careful observations of objects, animals, people and places reveal the beauty that exists everywhere around us.

Continue reading on Patheos …

Stephen J. Patterson’s, new book, released today, The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins, explores the origins, context, text and interpretation of the Q Gospel, along with another early non-canonical Christian document, the Gospel of Thomas. Read more …

In her new collection of poetry, Copia, Erika Meitner writes about urban and suburban life, consumption and excess, desire and disappointment, and perhaps mostly about loss and hope. Read more …

Markie Hancock’s new documentary film casts a much needed light on the stories of Wheaton College’s LGBT alumni. Read more …

The hallmark of modern Christian fundamentalism is an unwavering adherence to the notion of Biblical inerrancy. In its most extreme forms, belief in the inerrancy of the Bible stifles inquiry, perpetuates ignorance and glorifies dogmatism. Read more …