(8-24-26) During a recent sermon, executive pastor Katie Gilbert at the United Methodist First Church Birmingham, Alabama excoriated the authority and inerrancy of the bible…

Katie Gilbert

“We love you, Bible, just not like that’

Over the years, we have worked to make sure that we aren’t worshiping the Bible or putting the Bible on a pedestal over and above the teachings and example of Jesus.

…The Bible is full of contradictions, and that’s to be expected from a text that was written by a variety of different authors, living at different historical periods of time, writing for different reasons, and in different languages and genres of text.

There’s simply no way to reconcile all of these differences to find one coherent literal and linear progression throughout our text. Even beyond those contradictions within the text, we have to consider those historical inaccuracies as well.

…I like to think of [stories in the bible] as the stories that I grew up on, Aesop’s fables. These tales weren’t factual accounts of our world, but they were a part of an ancient oral tradition, some dating all the way back to the Egyptians, and they were passed down over time, eventually written down by the Greeks and the Romans.

And Aesop’s fables were intended to teach a truth or land a moral of the story. You might recall stories like Tortoise and the Hare… or The Boy Who Cries Wolf,…these stories were written to share not facts, but truth, and something similar is at play when we consider the biblical authors.

NOTE: The video of the complete August 2nd, 2026 service has been deleted from the church’s Facebook page

About Katie Gilbert…

Rev. Katie Gilbert is the Executive Pastor at First Church Birmingham (First United Methodist Church), a historic downtown congregation in Birmingham, Alabama.

She appears on the church’s current staff page alongside Senior Pastor Kevin Thomas, Pastor Jonathan Goss, Associate Pastor Rea Green, and other ministers.

Church details

• Address: 518 19th St North, Birmingham, AL 35203

• Phone: (205) 254-3186

• Website: firstchurchbhm.com

First Church describes itself as “an open place for ALL to worship, grow, and serve” and is a Reconciling United Methodist congregation emphasizing hospitality, diversity, justice, and inclusion.

Background notes

Gilbert has served in various pastoral roles at the church for several years (earlier listed as Minister of Invitation, later Executive Pastor). She regularly participates in worship leadership, preaching, and pastoral care.

She has also been publicly involved in progressive advocacy alongside church colleagues, including signing a clergy letter supporting transgender children (see below) and participating in a 2021 TikTok protest (dressed as characters from The Handmaid’s Tale) against restrictive abortion legislation.

We Care – An Open Letter of Support to Transgender Children and Their Families

We understand that the recent state legislation limiting access to critically needed care and support for transgender and gender-diverse children and their families is a devastating loss for you and your families. As clergy and faith leaders in the state of Alabama, we want to express our sincere love and concern for your physical, emotional, and spiritual health. While we may not fully understand your unique experiences, many of us know what it is like to feel rejected, left out, cast aside, bullied, targeted, and denied access to civil rights. We also know the vital importance of hearing voices of love and support. That is why we want to make sure you know that we care.

We care about your physical health. While we may not fully understand the biologics or therapeutics regarding transgender medical care, as we are not specialists in this area, we support the doctors and healthcare providers who are. We also support the efforts of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ pursuit to ensure comprehensive care and support for transgender and gender-diverse children and their families in a safe clinical space.

We care about your emotional health. While we may not fully understand the psychiatric, neurological, behavioral, or mental health therapeutics regarding transgender mental health care, as we are not specialists in this area, we support the doctors and healthcare providers who are. We also support the efforts of the American Psychiatric Association’s pursuit to provide appropriate mental health services to transgender and gender-diverse children and their families in a safe clinical space.

We care about your spiritual health. As faith leaders in the State of Alabama, we recognize there are diverse faith perspectives regarding LGTBQIA+ issues, even within the same religion, denomination, and congregation. We also recognize that religious leaders, institutions, and ideologies have caused great physical, emotional, and spiritual harm to the LGTBQIA+ community. The religious voices against you are often the loudest ones. We repent for this spiritual malpractice, and we regret not raising our voices louder for you to hear our support above the clamor. We hope that you might hear our voices now.

As individual specialists in the areas of religious belief, congregational leadership, spiritual care, and theological studies, we have concluded that:

You are loved by God.

You belong in this world.

You are beautiful.

You are wonderful.

You are not alone.

Should you need a safe space to explore your faith, please know you have a home in any of our communities. Should you need prayer or encouragement, we are here. Should you simply need to know that there are people of faith who support you and those caring for you, we have signed our names and listed our congregations below.