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Life, Death, Church, and ALS: a Conversation With Nancy Butler

Once upon a time Nancy Butler lived in the Beltway and used her MBA to secure a high paying job with a defense contractor.  But Butler had considered herself a devout Christian since the age of 9, and something about a job with a company that made torpedoes started to bother her. So she left and embarked on a journey that included mission work in Asia and enrollment at Yale Divinity School.

She founded a church that met in the G. Fox building and then moved to the Glastonbury meadows. She calls her church "inclusive evangelical." The second word means the congregation is committed to Scripture and to following Jesus. The first word means everybody's welcome regardless of "gender, sexual orientation, or other external characteristics."

In the short time since the church was founded, the small group of inclusive evangelical churches in the U.S. has gained in number and has begun to organize. Meanwhile, Nancy Butler was living a golden life as a young grandmother with a beautiful family, a longstanding marriage to the guy she met in high school, an affluent suburban existence and a clear, compelling mission to build and pastor the church she founded.

And then she got ALS.

On this episode, Nancy talks with unusual candor about her faith and the way it influences to choices she will have to make.

GUEST:

MUSIC:

Chion Wolf contributed to this show.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.