Spotlight ministry: Revolution NYC

Last Summer, I had the chance to speak with Jay Bakker over the phone. If you don't know Jay's story then you should Google him.

I was in the middle of transferring my wet clothes into the dryer when my phone rang. I checked to see who it was and my undependable razor phone said, "Jay Bakker." I immediately clammed up, and for a moment, contemplated not answering because I knew the hot mess I would be while talking with him.

Without giving it much thought, I answered, "This is Azariah." Trying to sound as calm and collective as I could manage. "Hey, this is Jay," he responds. Jay informed me how terrible he is with returning phone calls and apologized for taking so long to return my call.

The whole time, I was nervous, trying to finish my laundry, and then my phone wanted to die on me!!! So I started to make a mad dash to my apartment to plug in my phone. Now I'm nervous, out of breath, trying to maintain the conversation, and let him know what a big inspiration he has been to me without sounding redundant.

The conversation didn't last long but I was able to say what I wanted to say for so long. I told him I read his book a few years back, and watched his show on the Sundance Channel, all before I came out, and what a inspiration he was to me.

With that said, I want you to check out Jay Bakker's ministry Revolution NYC. It's pretty stellar. Not only that but they could use your financial support. Jay's ministry is reaching people the church is incapable of reaching with all their political and marketing campaigns. Revolution NYC reaches those who would never attend a mega-church or purchase the latest Hillsong United CD. Revolution NYC reaches the Mary Magdalene's, the Saul's, the Zacchaeus's of our day. Revolution NYC reaches the "us's."

Support this ministry through prayer, encouragement, word of mouth, and financially.

Much love,
Azariah Southworth

To the Church

To the Church,


You were so quick in your response when she asked about birth control. Today, she is pregnant, and your repeated harsh words gave her no other option but the streets. Her spirit couldn’t take another ounce of your judgment the day she decided to have the abortion. She knew the clinic wouldn’t turn her away. She still tries to envision the color her eyes might have been as she lies once more on her back to pay the rent.

He was only 13 when you disowned him. He was nervous. He was shaking. He still remembers the moment time froze after he spoke the words, “I’m gay.” The silence broke with a loud weeping then a sudden thump as the door swung shut. He still wonders if you receive the letters from those who say he is no better than the child molesters. Like the one you shake hands with every Sunday who raped his sister on the church floor.

She’s 75-years-old now and still broke. Her husband just died and can’t pay for the funeral. Yet, she still tunes in, and you tell her if she sows her seed of $777.77 on her credit card God will pay her bills and the arthritis will be gone. Her bill is due now and she can no longer afford her medicine for the arthritis.

His belly protrudes from malnutrition. At the age of three, he has only eaten meat once, and doesn’t know what clean water taste like. He won’t this year either. Your organization just spent over fifty million dollars on a political campaign, because you want this nation to maintain its “Christian” status. Tonight he will die under the sky God painted for him as I pass a church on the highway that spent over ten million dollars on the interior design alone.

You say, “Jesus told us the poor will always be with us.” Yes he did, but will we always be with the poor?

What will we do now?

It is time for a reformation.

The reformation which needs to take place is with how we love one another. It’s not a theological or philosophical reform but it is one of the heart. In turn, your theology and philosophies will more than likely change, but your concern shouldn’t be with whether you’re right or wrong but whether you’re loving.

Be love.

Azariah Southworth

Breaking down the rhetoric

"Pro-homosexual activists will describe the issue as one of identity – 'who they are.' But the real issue is one of behavior – what they do. And what Harvey Milk (like other homosexual activists) wanted was not only the freedom to engage in homosexual sex, but the right to do so without ever being criticized (maybe we should start citicizing the manner in which you practice sex. I don't think it meets God's standards because your wife isn't popping out a baby every time you do it) Milk told one audience that 'it is madness to ... be ashamed of the sexual act, the act that conceived you. ...' Yet homosexual acts never conceived anyone, which is what separates them, undeniably, from heterosexual acts (the sexual acts of a infertile woman or sterilized man has never caused anyone to conceive either, yet that isn't considered 'wrong' by you and the omnipotent FRC). Since Harvey Milk died from an assassin's bullet, over a quarter million American men have died of AIDS, which they contracted because they had sex with other men (They didn't "contract AIDS because they had sex with other men." They contracted AIDS because they had sex with other men who already had AIDS. Just like heterosexual people get AIDS from other people who already have it). What's truly 'madness' is that someone whose only claim to fame is that they promoted such deadly behavior should be honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom." (do I sense a little jealousy here Mr. Sprigg? Do you too wish to have a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Try chaning the world instead of judging and criticizing it Mr. Sprigg.) - Family Research Council "senior fellow" Peter Sprigg, writing for World Net Daily.


Mr. Sprigg,

It is the rhetoric and judgment that people like you spew out which drives so many away from God. As Christians, we are not called to govern politics or shape culture, rather, we are called to preach the Good News.

The Good News is this, love.

Sure, roll your eyes and say this is too general and watering down "true Christianity" or "traditional Christianity." But when it comes to being love, are you able to do it? I am not asking you to change your stance and recognize my humanity as a gay man or to validate my faith in Christ. However, I would like to challenge you to demonstrate the same love Christ offers all of us every moment without you gaining any political or social clout from it. Could you love me, a gay man, and my transgendered friends as we are and not as we "should be?"

My parents receive your newsletters and I have seen some of them that pertain to LGBT people. If I was someone searching for God's love, I would have never found it through your organization. Remember, we are called to preach the Good News which is Christ's love. That is your call.

Be love.

-Azariah Southworth

Let God OUT!

John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness, “Prepare Ye the way of the Lord!” Whatever he could find he ate it, including locust. We often see him characterized as a man living in the desert, covered in dust, wearing rags, barefoot, with unkempt hair and a rather long beard.

His name wasn’t trademarked, his face wasn’t plastered on billboards, he wasn’t the founder and CEO of a successful non-profit, he didn’t pass around a collection plate, and he wasn’t married with two kids who were on honor roll. John didn’t even have proof that the Lord was coming. Yet he continued on with his message, “Prepare Ye the way of the Lord!”

I would have written him off as a lunatic. You would have done the same. C’mon, a man who lives in the desert, eating locust, telling US to prepare the way of the Lord?! Who is he to tell us elite, educated, privileged people this? Of all people, we would have known that! We would have read it in the latest “who’s who” Christian magazine or seen one of those tongue talking, prosperity believing, anointed men of God on TV talking about it. Surely, we of all people would have known, right?

Its hard for us to imagine God would go outside of our boxes we placed him in. If I referred to God with female pronouns from here on out, it would still be too much for some of you. Why? Because it doesn’t fit in with the God in your box. If I said Jesus was black and never showed another picture depicting him as white, some of you would call foul.

I believe it was the same for John the Baptist. The religious leaders at that time couldn’t believe that God would use a crazy man, living in the wilderness, to prepare the way for the Messiah. That idea just didn’t agree with the God they boxed up so neatly.

Its not easy for us when God steps outside our boxes. Some think I am too liberal and “out there” with my religious beliefs. However, I know I am not. I am rather moderate really. I do, however, like to be the opposing voice, even if I don’t believe it. Why? Because I hope by doing so, it will provoke people to think outside the box. I try very hard not to box God in, yet, I often find ways that I have.

Like John the Baptist, I have joined many in the desert. I don’t by any means think of myself reputable or highly esteemed like John but rather I feel him and I have a similar calling, to prepare the way, to show God is too big to fit in anyone’s box.

Many of you have already assumed the message which I believe is coming out of today’s wilderness and already tuned me out. What I am talking about here is not about gay rights. I do not believe it is a call for same-sex marriage or allowing gay couples to adopt. These things may come about when this message is put into action, but it is not the focus here.

I believe the call coming from the wilderness today is to expand our limits. It is a call to love one another with a unconditional love. It is a call to abandon our fears; our fear of not having enough, the fear of being wrong, the fear of hell, the fear of being vulnerable, the fear of silence, the fear of speaking, the fear of being whole. It is a call to take care of others before ourselves. It’s a call that goes against all the social norms and makes us look crazy, but it is our call.

So how have we responded?

We have created non-profits that are profitable. We have justified our prosperity by quoting, “ask and you will receive.” We give after we have had enough. We live like we’re giving but take more than we give. We have become more politically motivated rather than being motivated by love. We demand everyone’s family to look like our own, sometimes, even down to the skin tone. Yet, we forget without love this is all nothing. It is void. It is incomplete.

We forget that one can give without loving, but one can not love without giving. We forget that love makes a family not gender. We forget that God doesn’t live in our boxes and when he steps out of them, we refuse to acknowledge it as anything divine.

John the Baptist may not have looked like us, smelled like us, or had a financial portfolio like some of us. However, the God he served didn’t live in a box like ours.

Let God out of the box. She may surprise you.

-Azariah Southworth

Prophet James Goll says Obama is the Anti-Christ

Popular self-proclaimed Christian website, World Net Daily has top-posted an "exclusive" story, claiming that Jesus prophesied that the name of the anti-Christ would be Barack Obama.



Although James Goll wanted to remain anonymous, his voice is easy to recognize. Compare the voices yourself by watching this video...




Really James? Now you have to make things up? This lie only encourages a fear-based faith.

"I report. You decide." More like, "I provoke. You fear." James, lets stop wasting our time making up these lies and creating fear in people. Instead Mr. Goll, lets spend our limited time on earth loving people with the same love Christ gives us.