V - People Files
JONATHAN VANDERBECK |
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March 21, 2021: Queer Theology: COVID SELF-CARE: ONE YEAR LATER
It’s been a year since the pandemic shut the world and we’ve all been anxiously waiting for the curtains to unveil what might be in our future. It was also a year ago when Brian interviewed Rev. Jonathan Vanderbeck on Facebook to talk about handling anxiety and what that means for queer folks during the pandemic. Tune in to hear what Rev. Jonathan says about anxiety 1 year into this pandemic. Feb 16, 2021: Daily Gazzette: Newly unified Rotterdam congregations host first joint event, are hopeful for future expansion
Wright said conversations around unifying began last January as he was looking into making Messiah more accessible, when he and then Trinity Rev. Jonathan Vanderbeck met for something unrelated and realized they could both solve each other’s problems. |
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June 24, 2021: Vanderbeck wrote: For queer Christians, I would encourage us to be bold and honest about our grief, in whatever form it may manifest. If we need permission to feel angry or depressed or anxious, know that Christ himself experienced these things in his crucifixion, in which he must have been grieving the ultimate rejection of his friends, followers, and of God. But more importantly than even being bold about our own grief, I believe that we must examine how we receive the grief of others. If we are, in fact, called to be the body of Christ, that is, the embodiment of Christ on earth, then we are called to also receive the grief of one another. The beauty (and the pain) of our queer Christian family is that we share many of these experiences together. As such, it can sometimes feel overwhelming; the tendency to push past the pain is real. However, we are called to bear this together. What might it look like if our queer family, rather than trying to hide our griefs, instead became a place where we could honestly wrestle through the pain and help each other heal? I think it might look a little bit like resurrection, this side of heaven.
Ed Vitagliano
Rev. Edward Vitagliano is Executive Vice-President of American Family Association and American Family Radio.
He has served in a number of capacities since joining AFA in 1996.
Ed has been an award-winning journalist for the American Family Association Journal, the monthly publication for AFA, and is a co-host on the radio program Today’s Issues, heard weekdays on the American Family Radio network.
He has also helped produce a number of documentary films for AFA and American Family Studios.
He has been in the pastorate since 1982. He is married and has two grown children and three grandchildren.
He has served in a number of capacities since joining AFA in 1996.
Ed has been an award-winning journalist for the American Family Association Journal, the monthly publication for AFA, and is a co-host on the radio program Today’s Issues, heard weekdays on the American Family Radio network.
He has also helped produce a number of documentary films for AFA and American Family Studios.
He has been in the pastorate since 1982. He is married and has two grown children and three grandchildren.
"In the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said that “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” entitled the nations of the earth to a “separate and equal station.” In the context of history, this was a striking statement. Jefferson was arguing – on behalf of the American colonies – that people had a right to govern themselves because God had purposed that it be so. Nature itself demonstrated this in ways that were so clear that they could be understood as laws. In the second paragraph of the Declaration is undoubtedly one of the most famous phrases in modern history: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The statement is breathtaking in its implications. Jefferson acknowledges the existence of a God who created us and with that life-giving act also made it clear that we are equal before Him. In turn, that equality meant that we all had certain rights that could not lawfully – that is, in the eyes of our Creator – be abridged by governments. When Jefferson stated that such truths were “self-evident,” he is referencing natural law. The reality was objectively true – just as much as the laws of science. Human beings, empowered with reason, were expected to see and understand the breadth of blessings bestowed upon mankind"
--Ed Vitagliano (AFA) 09.01.16
--Ed Vitagliano (AFA) 09.01.16