Volume 13, Issue 2

Anxiety

Cover Stories

Consider the Lilies
By Rev. Candace Chellew
Jesus never said life would be easy — but he did say we didn’t have to be anxious about it. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love and a sound mind free from worry.

Consider
By Neil Ellis Orts
Times get hard and it’s easy to succumb to self-pity and despair, especially when all your friends have moved to the cool side of town and you’re still riding the bus in the, um, uncool side of town.

As the World Gives
By Lori Heine
We fear the world outside of us, hesitant to trust the truth we know within. Thus do we jump at the sight of every shadow, even our own. Our anxiety comes from not trusting that God is with us — and within us.

Oh We of Little Faith
By Melissa Capers
Anxiety, it seems to me, interrupts the faith in God that can redound as faith in self. We need to trust ourselves – in our capacity to rise to challenge, in our instinct toward compassion, in our discernment, in our vision of the infinite and the divine.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy
By Rev. Suzie Chamness
If we can learn to concentrate on the end results and be less concerned for our day to day injustice, we will live much happier lives.

Three Little Words
By John H. Campbell
Those three little words, “Do not worry” are still in my opinion the greatest challenge of all the things Christ taught, especially given the challenges life throws at us all the time.

Features

An Open Letter to Sean Hannity
By Rev. Candace Chellew
I hope you are not too far gone, your conscience too eaten away with greed, to understand the violent and vile object lesson that Mr. Adkisson has provided for us in Tennessee, because it’s a lesson you need to learn: Our words matter. Our words have power.

More Faithless-Based Initiatives
By Dr. Robert N. Minor
These government programs to fund faith-based programs enable the decline of faith in the Divine and in the Spirit’s work within the religious organizations. It’s as if their god can’t get this done on His own.

Who’s Responsible for What They Say?
By Dr. Robert N. Minor
Are we surprised that what the right-wing dubbed culture “wars” might become warlike? Surprised that bigoted hate speech that’s thoroughly acceptable on right-wing radio would be quoted by shooters to justify violence?

The Homophobia Behind Studies of the Causes of Homosexuality
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
We must again ask why it’s so important, beyond the intellectual issues involved, to seek to establish why some people are Gay? Why not study why some people are Straight?

The Roots of Fascism: Its Homophobic and Other Religious and Political Manifestations
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
The more strident and homophobic the professing “Christian” leaders and their blind followers to the demand for full equality of LGBT people in regard to the acquisition of full and equal civil and sacramental rights, the more those who are Christians in fact will flee these oppressive structures that sow the seeds of fascism and that all too often align themselves with the most reactionary political and secular forces, and their hateful and exclusionary ideologies, within society.

Letters to the Editor

From the Pulpit

Some Good Weed
By Rev. Candace Chellew
We are not wise enough to know the difference between the weeds and the wheat. What we call weeds, God may call wheat — only God can finally judge anyone. If we appoint ourselves as judges, we may destroy some good weed.

When You’re Out, You’re In
By Rev. Candace Chellew
Whenever you feel out — know that you’re already in. You’re included in God’s realm — even if someone calls you a dog or even if some cocky jocky types disses your ballplaying abilities.

Us, Them, We: Walking the Fine Line of Unity and Diversity
By Rev. David R. Gillespie
I must constantly remind myself that those folks who may not share my theistic worldview are no less human than I, that they are deserving of the same respect that I long to have from them. Hey, humanists are people, too!

Holy Humor

False Illusions

Baptist Cowboy