A True Family Christmas Special with Guest Casey Tinnin
CW: We briefly discuss suicidal ideation.
We discuss the nature of a true family and the importance of maintaining boundaries, especially in religious contexts in which we believe we have good intentions but are inappropriately trying to fix others. At min 41 we interview Rev. Casey Tinnin, one of Jeff’s favorite students over the years, and someone we think of as family. He shares his story of growing up in conservative Lutheranism and ultimately coming out as gay as a Bible college student.
Rev. Casey Tinnin, Pastor of
Casey’s experience helps us think through the importance of respecting personal boundaries, especially within communities that adhere to traditionalist teachings about sex and gender. It is a call to listen before we speak this Christmas and beyond. This is the first of several upcoming conversations with former students to check in on their stories and the wisdom they’ve found since we last connected. A virtual holiday party with our true family, blood related or not. Jeff and Stacie start out discussing an online exchange between two former students (Tim and Jack) and a former colleague to illustrate the poignant nature of religious and cultural conversations. Then they jump into a powerful and enlightening conversation about Casey’s story since college, including his desire to care for the spiritual and emotional wellbeing of LGBT students at his local Christian university and his city.
We hope that, whatever your community teaches about sexuality, you will commit with us to protect the boundaries of all in our midst, to proclaim everyone’s intrinsic value, and allow all to work out their understanding of the implications for their beliefs and their embodied life. No one ought to be cast off into loneliness and rejection this Christmas, even from the most traditional of religious communities or families. Indeed, if there is someone you’ve disowned in your life because of your ideological differences, why not use this season as a chance to offer a word of reconciliation and affirmation of their dignity and your joy that they are still present on this earth even during the darkest of days. The light shall not overcome the darkness, friends.
Rev. Casey Tinnin received a B.A. from Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, Washington, where Jeff was Academic Dean, then got a Master’s in Theological Studies from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and finally graduated from the Pacific School of Religion with a Master’s of Divinity in 2013. He was ordained in 2014 as a United Church of Christ Minister. He currently serves as pastor of Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ.
We Discuss
Finally, check out this video from an old Virtue in the Wasteland Christmas party, to which Dan Van Voorhis and Jeff invited Micah Bournes out to share his only Christmas poem. It’s a gem and it seems appropriate for our discussion: