Volume 10: Issue 5
March/April 2006
Reaping
the Spiritual Harvest:
Celebrating 10 Years of Whosoever
"Behold
I am Doing a New Thing"
A Vision of Harvest
Table Of Contents
Cover
Story: "Behold
I am Doing a New Thing"
A Vision of Harvest:
God is Still Speaking
--By: Candace Chellew-Hodge
We must constantly remind ourselves that God spoke
before the Bible was written and God continues to speak even though
the canon is closed. Those who worship the Bible instead of the living,
still-speaking God say that God would never do anything to contradict
scripture, but wasn't that the purpose of Jesus' entire ministry?
Vision and Promise for a New Us!
--By: Suzie Chamness
People want identity, meaning in their life and belonging in community. I
call these relational communities. There is discipleship in and through
these communities. They are goal oriented and purpose directed in Christ's
mission. The greatest teaching that Jesus left us; the number one feeling
was LOVE. I see our future oriented toward concern for individuals in
love.
A Beautiful Vision
--By: John H. Campbell
Jesus said in John 14:2 that, "In the House of (God) there are many
mansions," and I have always interpreted this verse as His alluding to
the fact that although all of us may be different, we all are of equal
value and importance to God, and each of us in our uniqueness plays a
part in God's World. We may walk very different paths, but each of us
has a purpose.
My Excellent Cyberspace Adventure
(Or, How NOT to Win Friends and Influence People)
--By: Lori Heine
Whosoever stands in a unique position, perhaps in all of Christian history.
We can help rescue the Christian faith from the Religious Right, and to
bring true renewal to the Church. But we can only accomplish these things
if we are careful to see our adversaries as individuals, most of whom
are trying to live the Christian life the best they can.
Homospirituality:
Check Your Heart
--By: Stacy Reynolds
You've felt the tug on your heart
and you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins on the
cross and rose again in three days. It's the heart that has to believe.
So your heart is in the right place and you have signed up. Believe it or
not that was the easy part. Becoming a Christian is easy. Living a Christian
lifestyle is hard. Especially if you are gay.
Fighting the Lies of the Anti-Gay Right
--By: Alvin McEwen
Despite all of their money and connections, the anti-gay religious right
has one flaw: they don't operate on truth. They lie and liars always leave
a paper trail. It is our job to find this paper trail and expose it.
Those Pesky Little Voices
--By: David R. Gillespie
You won't find it in the DSM-IV, but the fact of the matter is, we all
hear voices.
Comfort in the Pain
--By: Suzie Chamness
As difficult as I sometimes find it, I would think that maybe through my or
other's suffering, God may be able to touch the lives of others.
Exception to the Rule
--By: Tuan N'Gai
I encourage you to be the exception
to the rule. The Creator has given us the power to create and make change
in our realities. That's part of what makes us "His image." We can create
whatever we can visualize. We can build strong families and communities.
We can live and work with each other without tearing each other down.
We can most definitely have long lasting, healthy relationships.
Finding God in the Deepest Distress
--By: Larry Roberts
I am a religious person, have been since I was a small child; going
to church is something I do and during the worst years of depression,
church was the only place of solace and relief. Many of my questions were
directed at God. And I often felt a lack of any answer.
Features:
Giving So It Matters
--By: Bishop V. Gene Robinson
How thankful are you? How blessed do you feel? Probably all of you have
worked hard. Some of you inherited money because of an accident of your
birth. Some of you benefited from the best schools, travel and social
standing. Every time you write a check, a large one or a small one, let
it be a reminder to you about how grateful you are for how blessed you
feel.
Facing the Specter of Schism
--By: Maury Johnston
The
Episcopal Church has a choice set before it: To fully incorporate
gays and lesbians at every level of its common life with full sacramental
and liturgical equality of access to its rites and ceremonies, or
to grant only a limited toleration of their presence, carefully circumscribed
by a curtailment of access to matrimonial rites and privileges in
order to satisfy the demands of the self-proclaimed defenders of "orthodoxy."
Message of inclusion not just 'disputed'
- it's 'urgent'
--By: Walter
Brueggemann
The Jewish church had to make room for the very Gentiles it recognized
it had categorized as "impure." So in our day, conservatives must make
room for liberals and, in a harder challenge for our church, liberals
must make room for conservatives. And all must make room together for
those whom society dismisses as "impure."
When Will the Festering Cancer of
Intolerance and Stupidity Cease?
--By: Most Reverend Bruce J. Simpson, OSJB
It is by the will
of the people that elected government serves in the best interests of
the people. But in order for this ideal to continue with the result of
preserving our union as it has been handed down to us from our ancestors,
we must take the responsibility to become involved to insure the integrity
of our nation.
Why I Am Not a Democrat
--By: Bob Minor
LGBT people have learned that Democrats will betray their interests
if the politicians are afraid it might cause them to lose.
David v. Goliath
In recent years, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people
have faced unprecedented attacks from a highly organized religious right.
David v. Goliath outlines the "parallel" progressive faith movement that
welcomes LGBT people, and has grown simultaneously with the secular rights
movement. It reveals the intense opposition to these progressive faith
groups and the huge forces waged against them by the anti-LGBT industry,
which has unabashedly and effectively rallied conservative people of faith
to its cause.
Articles of Faith:
Religious right's moral failures
a result of repressive religion
--By: Rev. Steven Baines
The moral hypocrisy of many right-wing religious
leaders comes from their fundamental misunderstanding of religion as the
practice of a complicated and esoteric set of rules designed to restrict
human freedom, rather than a way of living which frees individuals to
lives of greater compassion and personal growth.
Reflections on the Life
of Coretta Scott King
--By: Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon
With
the passing of Mrs. Coretta Scott King, we have lost not only a woman
who stayed in the struggle for freedom but also a leader who embodied
the ideals and true values of that freedom.
William Werc's Prayer
--By: Louie Crew
I
come here to your cross, Christ,
a raging quean.
I want to walk with my head high,
a child of God,
but I am feeling too much
like the scum people take me to be.
Backstairs in the Night:
Adding Up the Clues About Brokeback Mountain
-- By: Lori Heine
So when I say that Brokeback Mountain is suffused with patriarchy, just what
do I mean? I mean that it calls attention to its existence not by using the word yet one
more time (I daresay "patriarchy" is one word no character in this movie would ever
have occasion to utter), but rather by showing it in action. Every creative writing
instructor I have ever had pounded it into us to "show, don't tell." This is a film that
shows us patriarchy -- in all its naked ugliness -- as brilliantly as any I have ever seen.
Love Knows No Gender, Only Soul
-- By: Jonathan Shuffield
Finally the lights went down and the previews started. You could feel
the impatience in the room as we waited for it. After what seemed like
eternity, the music started and soon the words hit our awaiting eyes and
I exhaled, as if I had waited my lifetime for this. "Brokeback Mountain"
emblazoned across the screen and I was transfixed!
Letters to the Editor
A
Decade of Whosoever:
New publication helps homosexuals,
Christianity connect
-- By: Diana Shuh
As
Whosoever celebrates its ten year anniversary, we'll be presenting
articles that have appeared over the years about Whosoever or by Whosoever
founder and editor Whosoever Candace Chellew-Hodge. This article originally
appeared in the January 9, 1997 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Growing up as a Whosoever
-- By: Virginia Dicken
God
used Whosoever to answer my prayer for humility in high school. Through
this community, God showed me that I had much to learn about faith
and diversity. As I came out to friends and family, I had to admit
that I had been wrong in my stance against homosexuals in the past.
Mustard Seeds
-- By: John H. Campbell
I think about how, over time, I have grown in my faith and grown spiritually,
and how much both reading and writing for Whosoever has assisted in that.
I feel so blessed and grateful that I did that first Internet search close
to ten years ago now, that I decided to answer the call for contributions,
and that I continue to use the gift God gave me to express myself to possibly
reach out and offer a possible "mustard seed" of faith to others or make
them open to the possibility that God is there for them if they only believe.
Same-Gender
Marriage:
Same-Sex Marriage:
A Test Case In Living Our Principles
-- By: Rachel Miller
In the case of same-sex marriage, we are failing the test of living
one of our country's founding principles - to provide unalienable rights
for all!
O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing:
A Presentation on Marriage Equality
-- By: Rev. Rebecca Voelkel
Ultimately, for me, marriage equality is not the end goal, rather it
is about protecting and blessing families so that they can be freed to
greater faithfulness and so that the culture and the church can be blessed
by the breadth and depth of their gifts.
Protecting All Families
-- By: Candace Chellew-Hodge
Should the family discrimination
amendment pass this coming November in our state it will relegate one
section of the population, and their children, to second class citizenship.
This is discrimination in its purest form, and no fair-minded American
supports any form of discrimination.
Pro-Life, Pro-Family .
. . Anti-Adoption?
-- By: Nate Nelson
Christ warned us that we would know those who claim to speak in his
name by their fruits, the effects of their words and actions. What fruits
can we look forward to from this bill born of the unholy pairing of Ohio's
rightwing political and religious leaders?
From the Pulpit:
Prophet Making Opportunities
--By: Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge
If you stop and think about it, our world is full of prophet making
opportunities - chances for truly prophetic people to move our world forward
in ways conventional wisdom tells us is not possible. Things that we take
for granted today were, at one time, wild prophecies, and the prophets
envisioning these fantastic things were thought to mad - or at least silly.
Transformed By Grace
--By: The Reverend Nancy L. Wilson
We come to this "holy ground" of meeting at the Ninth Assembly of the
World Council of Churches, filled with hope and love. We expect to make
many new friends, to have moments of encouragement as well as discouragement.
We expect to leave here with a new level of commitment to the common ecumenical
movement, and with a deeper sense of our unfinished mission.
Bible Study and Inspiration:
Jesus' Prayer Book
Part 2: Psalm 18
--By: Tom Yeshua
God is, indeed, our strength. We do not have to go through times of
trial alone. We can if we choose to, but the theological term for this
is: stupid!
Seeing the Whole Story
--By: Lincoln Rose
Where we stop reading, stop seeing, and stop asking has a big impact
on the way the stories that shape our existence are formed.
We are Called to be Courageous
--By: Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
God calls us to courage! He calls us to trust Him regardless of seen
circumstances such as disappointments, illnesses, accidents, career disasters,
pains in interpersonal relationships, or anything else.
Holy
Humor!
Hotline to God
Ralph Knows Everybody
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