Volume 14, Issue 1

Have You Still No Faith?

Cover Stories

Jesus, Wake Up!
By Rev. Candace Chellew
What if we have it all backward? What if it isn’t Jesus asleep in the boat, but us?

My Proof of Faith: The Human God
By Steve Pearson
As much as I wish I were like Jesus, sleeping through the storm, I fear that in practice I am a lot like Peter, who couldn’t maintain his faith even when standing directly in front of Jesus.

The Faces of God
By Lori Heine
There have even been incidences when God has worked in my life in ways in which “He” clearly took the initiative. Perhaps there have been more of those than anything else, as I frequently seem to be too dense to know what I ought to pray for.

Beyond Fear: In the Arms of Faith
By Rev. Vera I. Bourne
Jesus taught that faith conquers fear.

Walking on Water
By Steve Schmidt
Great achievement for the Kingdom requires bold dreams, the confidence of God’s will, and reckless obedience.

Faltering Faith
By Rev. Suzie Chamness
When Jesus said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” He is actually telling us we can overcome it. Actually you and I need not be so terrified by fears.

Momentary Lapses of Reason
By John H. Campbell
Often, the method by which God does things can be mysterious and perplexing, and with all we have to deal with in this wonderful adventure called life, it is not surprising to me that we have these “lapses of reason.” After all, we are only human.

Features

Gay Pride: WWJD?
By Steve Schmidt
Would Jesus go to a Gay Pride parade? You bet he would.

Is Stonewall Just Old History?
By Dr. Robert N. Minor
Everything about the activities of Stonewall is liable to offend somebody today. But it symbolizes ideas that go far beyond equality with straight marriages and gaining the attention of businesses that want to make money off of everyone equally.

Toxic Religion and Self-Loathing
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
It must be emphasized that there is literally a world of difference between having a relationship with God and one’s adherence to the construction of man-made religion!

March Down Babylon
By Don Charles
The church of Babylon has been waging all-out war on us for too long: War on our human dignity, our livelihoods, our civil liberties, our physical and mental health. We must make the walls of Babylon tumble to the ground, just like the walls of Jericho did.

The Violence of Right-Wing Religion
By Dr. Robert N. Minor
What’s happened since the rise of the Christian Coalition and the embrace of economic and military conservatives by the religious right-wing is the development of a religious culture of violence. It’s not isolated only among the most extreme. It pervades most right-wing Christianity today.

More Than a Scapegoat: “The Man Jesus Loved” By Theodore W. Jennings, Jr.
By Dan Greshel
Due to the iconic image of the sinless Jesus of Christianity, a tradition that sees any erotic relationship with Him as incompatible, the author is sure that many will find this interpretation both offensive and blasphemous.

The Irrationality of Homophobia
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
Jesus never condemned Gay people, but He sure spent quite a bit of time condemning the proud, the haughty, the legalists who condemned and discriminated against others and put yokes of bondage onto others, all the while claiming to impose those yokes in the name of God.

Called to Love and Forgive
By Ean Barnard
We are called to love, forgive, and serve the very people who would shut us off from the very God that calls us to love, forgive, and serve them. This type of taxing tour de force is simply unattainable by sheer human effort. We need the Prince of Peace. He is the hope that will keep this burden from overwhelming us.

Letters to the Editor

Transpirituality

Trying To See Beyond Myself: On Dating, Being a Christian and a Single Transman
By Lincoln Rose
Coming into myself again as a transgender man into women seems to shrink the dating pool down a lot. So much so that even thinking about it makes me feel like I’m trying to do the backstroke in a water puddle.

Secret Wounds, Magic Words: Eunuchs in the Bible
By Tucker Lieberman
What did these ancient eunuchs feel? Just as I cannot remake myself as a male, they cannot have hoped to regain their maleness, so what motivated them to rise every morning? Whatever wisdom they had, I hoped to absorb so that I might be able to interpret my own experience and to feel part of their collective meaning.

That Sweet Flying
By Theodora Ranelli
Unlike many transmen I have met, however, I relish the friend who signed a book, “to my sister poet, with delight.” I cannot give up my connection to womanhood, does that make me genderqueer or bigender or feminist? Does that make me an ‘it’, am I even a woman?

From the Pulpit

Hypocrites!
By Rev. Candace Chellew
If we sit around and complain about the lack of mercy in the world, but fail to be the mercy, what does that make us? Hypocrites.

Will Work for Kingdom
By Rev. Candace Chellew
There must always be a beginning, and we, as God’s followers, work in partnership with God. We must plant the seeds, tend the garden and conduct the harvest when the seeds ripen. No effort, no matter how small, is wasted. Jesus tells us that even if our faith is as small as a mustard seed, we are valuable workers in the kingdom-making process.

Liberating Touch
By Rev. David Ensign
His healing touch was laying bare fundamental contradictions and injustices at the heart of the social order.

Holy Humor

WWJD?

Jesus and Moses in a Boat