Rev. Katherine Pater is a Presbyterian pastor and writer living in Westchester County, N.Y.
Posts By This Author
The Gospel’s Good News for Queer People — and Their Enemies
Rev. Nicole Berry, a United Methodist pastor, holds a sign that blocks off conservative Christians who protested at the August 12, 2023 Pride celebration in Eugene, Ore. Photo by Paul Jeffrey / Alamy via Reuters Connect.
I won’t impose my 21st-century language or conceptions on this person, and say that he was trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming, or queer, but it’s clear that he did not conform to the social understanding of gender binaries or sex in the ancient Greco-Roman or Jewish world. There’s no getting around that. He was also from one of the farthest-off places early Christian disciples had heard of. The Ethiopian in this text is likely not from the Ethiopia that we know today, and instead is likely from a place called Kush that today is now part of South Sudan.
Your Abortion Restrictions Ignore My Faith
A patient looks at her ultrasound before proceeding with a medical abortion at Alamo Women's Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on August 23, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Lost in the conversation about abortion rights and religious liberty is the fact that many Christians are not merely politically in favor of abotion access, but theologically in favor as well. These attempts to restrict abortion care and reproductive rights — even to the point where it puts the lives of pregnant people at dire risk — go against our Christian faith.
About That Bible Verse You See on Anti-Abortion Signs
Protesters outside an abortion clinic in central London hold signs with Jeremiah 1:5. Photo: Michael Kemp / Alamy
I told my congregation that nine years earlier, on a cold January morning, I walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Before you read further, let’s pause: What story do you think I’m about to tell? What assumptions about me or my circumstances did you make? Do you see me as someone with less moral authority than when you started reading? Take a moment to think.