Important Update from LOVEboldly

Friday, September 5, 2025

Dear Friends,

We are reminded in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 that “We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.” It’s definitely not melodramatic to feel afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down as LGBTQIA+ people in September 2025 in the United States. The current administration has launched and driven others to cooperate in legal and physical assaults on our rights and the rights of other already marginalized communities. These attacks remind and reinforce that our struggles are intersectional and our liberation is collective. 

At those intersections, we’re witnessing major cuts to federal and state funding for health care, housing, food, and other basic necessities for life. This strain is diverting private philanthropy from programmatic, political, and advocacy organizations. In recent months we’ve watched nonprofits of all sizes announce the need to scale back operations and/or lay off staff members. Unfortunately, LOVEboldly is no longer able to remain an exception. 

As an organization, we feel strongly that we need to be upfront about the impact the current moment will have on our capacity and our programming while being absolutely clear that LOVEboldly will continue to operate, albeit at a reduced level. Below is a partial list of our priorities which will remain unchanged; resources and programs which will be scaled back; and resources which will be discontinued effective immediately.

Priorities - These programs and resources are unique to LOVEboldly 

• Website and all the resources which live there including: 

  • List of Affirming Churches in Ohio

  • Words Can Crush

• Weekly Monday Moments

• “Coming Out Christian” Podcast (the first episode of Season 2 drops on Sunday!)

• The Church Partner Program

• LOVEboldly’s partnerships with Stonewall Columbus, Honesty for Ohio Education, and other organizations

• LOVEboldly’s ongoing work on-the-ground in Cincinnati

• The annual Interfaith Pride Service during Pride Month

• Scheduled programs on September 11 (“Queering the Message”) and October 11 (“Brunch with a Queer Bishop”)

Scaling Back

• Ben will become an hourly employee and will be stepping back his hours while continuing to serve as Executive Director.

• The Bill Tracker will stop following federal legislation and focus solely on Ohio legislation.

• New in-person, hybrid, and virtual programming will be strategically organized and will lean more heavily on collaboration with other organizations. 

Discontinuing

• The weekly Action Alert email will end and only be sent when there are actions LOVEboldly is taking or when there is an update to bills at the Ohio General Assembly.

Friends, we've asked the question before: What would happen if LOVEboldly didn't exist? A year ago you answered with over $8,000 of funding and donations that kept us going in that moment. But LOVEboldly is closer than ever to going dark forever. If you've been waiting to give, now is the time.

If you feel so moved to contribute to the mission and ministry of LOVEboldly today, you can do so by clicking here or visiting www.loveboldly.net/donate. 

<Deep breath.> Ok.

While this news is undoubtedly as frustrating and saddening to receive as it is for us to convey, we are so thankful for your support and witness over the years. We pray you will join in continuing to create spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish in Christianity and beyond.

Faithfully,

Ben and the LOVEboldly Team

Testimony in Opposition to HB486 - "The Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act"

Chair Fowler-Arthur, Vice Chair Odioso, Ranking Member Brennan, and Members of the Committee:

My name is the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp. I serve as Executive Director of LOVEboldly and Pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Columbus. LOVEboldly is an Ohio, faith-based nonprofit working to create spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish in Christianity and Blue Ocean Faith Columbus is a progressive Christian congregation. I’m submitting this testimony in my roles as a Christian pastor and minister of the Gospel. I want to express my strong opposition to House Bill 486, the so-called “Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act.”

This Bill Is Not Needed

First, and most simply, this legislation is unnecessary. Ohio teachers are already fully permitted to teach about the historical influence of Christianity and other religions on American history and culture. The Supreme Court has been clear that objective, academic instruction about religion’s role in history is constitutionally sound. Teachers can and do discuss the religious motivations of the Pilgrims, the faith (and lack thereof) of the Founders, and the role of Black churches in the Civil Rights Movement, among many other examples.

HB 486 does not expand teachers’ ability to provide quality history education. Instead, it creates a solution in search of a problem, suggesting that teachers are somehow prohibited from discussing Christianity’s historical influence, positive and negative, when no such prohibition exists.

This Bill Privileges Christianity Over Other Faiths

Second, while the bill’s language carefully avoids explicit promotion of Christianity, its intent is unmistakable. The legislation provides an extensive list of Christian historical accounts that teachers “may” include, from the Pilgrims’ church covenant to Billy Graham’s cultural impact. No similar list exists for Judaism’s influence on American law, Islam’s contributions to American culture, or the role of Indigenous spirituality in shaping early American thought.

This is not objective history education. This is a roadmap for privileging one faith tradition in our public schools, which serve students and families of all beliefs and none. Our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, and other non-Christian neighbors deserve schools where their children are not subjected to a curriculum designed to emphasize one religion’s tenets or paint that religion as either central to the American story or its supposed superiority.

The framers of our Constitution understood that true religious freedom requires the government to remain neutral in matters of faith. HB 486 abandons that principle.

This Bill Does Not Reflect an Honest Reading of the Gospels

Finally, this bill fundamentally misrepresents the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to promote religious nationalism or to align faith with political power. Quite the opposite. He came announcing good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, and the arrival of God’s kin-dom, a reality that stands in stark contrast to earthly empires and their quests for dominance (Luke 4:18-19).

When the religious and political establishment of his day sought to use faith as a tool of control and exclusion, Jesus consistently sided with the marginalized: the Samaritan, the tax collector, the woman caught in adultery, the people experiencing leprosy. He reserved his harshest words not for Rome, but for religious leaders who laid heavy burdens on others while seeking honor and recognition for themselves (Matthew 23:4-7).

The Gospel I preach and the God in whom I believe calls Christians to love our neighbors as ourselves, including neighbors who do not share our faith. It calls us to humility, not supremacy. It calls us to serve the least of these, not to use political power to assert cultural dominance.

HB 486 promotes a vision of Christianity as a foundation for American exceptionalism and political identity. This is Christian nationalism, not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a pastor, I cannot remain silent when legislation claims to honor my faith while fundamentally distorting its message.

Conclusion

House Bill 486 is unnecessary, unconstitutional in spirit if not in letter, and unfaithful to the Christian tradition it claims to honor.

Our public schools should teach honest, rigorous history, including the complex role of religion in American life. But they should not become venues for promoting one faith over others, and they should not be conscripted into a project of Christian nationalism that serves political interests rather than the common good.

I urge you to oppose this legislation.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Respectfully submitted,

The Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp +

Executive Director, LOVEboldly

Pastor, Blue Ocean Faith Columbus

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Monday, November 3, 2025

Happy Monday, my friends! I spent a few hours on Saturday reading some of the past Monday Moments as I continue working on a project of turning over 200 reflections into a book. As I read through pieces I wrote several years ago, I recognize which ideas have changed and even how my writing style has grown and developed. There are clear contenders for inclusion in the book and others which aren’t bad, but perhaps not up to the level of republishing (this one is probably going to be in the latter category).

I enjoy the process of looking through old materials and items. Memories can help us trace where we’ve been and help us provide context for where we’re going. Every day we seem to learn something new which makes us worry and wonder how we can respond. Sometimes the only thing to do and the only way we can respond is to keep moving forward.

How do you move forward when the world seems so hostile? What helps you see and create the path forward?

Let us pray: Gracious God, sometimes we have to look back so that we can create the context for moving forward. Help us continue walking the paths you have laid out for us which might not always be easy, but which always beckon us on to whatever comes next. We ask this through our savior and liberator, Jesus, who experienced the struggle and joy of moving forward. Amen.

Blessings on your weeks, my friends! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben +