About a year ago, I began a new ministry in a nearby neighborhood. Not wanting to muscle in on anyone else's turf and hoping to perhaps network with others in the area, I researched what else was going on around me.

Rather than assuming it knows what people need, the church should ask and listen. Then, with courage and creativity, can the church strengthen once again -- purposeful and alive.

In this situation as in so many others, gay people are serving as poster children -- if not scapegoats -- for other anxieties. In this case it's the status of biblical scholarship and cultural criticism.