Pursuing a unity that is deeper than agreement
Welcome to Oriented to Love
Oriented to Love creates space for honest, thoughtful conversations about faith, sexuality, gender, and belonging — conversations many Christians are longing for but unsure where to have.
Are you a faith leader who feels unprepared for (or just uncomfortable with) some of the questions you are asked and the people you serve?
Do you need spaces where you can wrestle honestly, and in community, with these challenging questions — matters that may seem academic for some but for others can mean the difference between Christian community and isolation/loss of faith, sometimes even between life and death?
We can help.
Through dialogues, webinars, and public conversations, we invite people to ask better questions, listen deeply, and engage a diversity of LGBTQ+ Christian voices.
If you are an LGBTQ+ Christian who has felt misunderstood, unwelcome, or treated as a problem to solve, we want you to know there is space for you here. We support people seeking to follow Jesus within a theologically diverse community committed to vulnerability, deeper discipleship, and mutual care.
If you are a family member, friend, pastor, or church leader trying to navigate these conversations faithfully, we can help equip you to love across deep difference through dialogue training, conflict transformation, and community-building rooted in the love of Christ.
Christians disagree on sexuality and gender, but we believe unity deeper than agreement is still possible—and so is authentic Christian community. Explore our events below to learn more.
Oriented to Love is a program of Christians for Social Action.
What Oriented to Love Participants Say
“I’m hopeful now because I've experienced something that seemed impossible before Oriented to Love: seeing people who hold fundamental disagreements come together and learn to listen to and love each other. I now feel I could possibly be brave in other spaces too, and hopefully create the same type of environment for people to dialogue.”
- Danny, full-time campus minister, Orlando, FL
“It was healing to sit across from people whose beliefs were different from mine regarding such an important part of myself. The love that centered us all was palpable and beautiful.”
- Stefie, graduate student, San Francisco
“Oriented to Love has afforded me a model to imagine applying in my church, where there is difference of position, thought and experience. The work of peacemaking on the ground in light of the hard and heavy conversations is something that I ache to see in my church.”
- Matt, pastor of teaching and outreach, Christ City Church, Washington, DC
“Oriented to Love eliminated my fear of having to have all the answers. The conversations I start now flow from a heart of wanting dialogue and knowing how to ask good questions.”
- Briana, entrepreneur, London, England
Featured Articles
Living a Theology of Contrast Instead of Opposition
By Bridget Eileen Rivera
Originally published Jul 27, 2020
I’ve been thinking a lot about “positions” lately and what it even means to hold a position.
When people ask about my “position” on “homosexuality,” it’s rarely in the interest of broadening their own perspective, understanding my own, or (God forbid) adjusting their beliefs.
Webinar: “Members of the Same Body”—A conversation with theologically diverse LGB Christians
With Juan Pablo Herrera, Beth Carlson-Malena, Elizabeth Delgado Black, and Grant Hartley
Listen in on a powerful conversation among four queer-identifying Jesus-followers, two who hold a more traditional understanding of sexuality and two who hold a more progressive understanding.
I Prefer Belonging
By John Betten
What’s the difference between acceptance and approval?
When I think of straight friends who love and support me as a gay Christian, I think of my friend Chico. Chico is not “affirming” in the way Christians normally use that term, and he does not always approve of my actions or opinions when it comes to sexuality.
Oriented to Love Team
Barnabas Lin
Facilitator & spiritual director
Kristyn Komarnicki
Program director & lead facilitator / trainer
Shae Washington
Facilitator & spiritual director
Francesca Nuzzolese
Spiritual director & co-trainer
Ben Conachan
Spiritual director
Brad Wong
Spiritual director
