Volume 2: Issue 3
November/December 1997
Let Us Give Thanks and Praise!
Table Of Contents
Cover Story: Let Us Give Thanks and Praise:
The holidays are traditionally a time when we stop and give thanks for the blessings in our lives. Some of our readers took the time to share with us what they're thankful for!
There is far, far too much to do to be
thankful right now; our enemy is strong and if we stop even for a second we
will be overcome
I thank you God for the Rainbow! And for your and All Unconditional Love -
S/HE which saves me from the stigma of mental illness that some people
still associate with persons of same-gendered, bisexual, and transgendered
human identities.
Stopping to be thankful has been hard. I've said to myself the past few days, I've got to slow down, I've got to stop and write about what I'm thankful about. I've asked my readers to do it, so I should do the same! It's been impossible!
Homospirituality:
On the basis of my own years of study and teaching the Bible, I can
assure you that the Bible nowhere says that gays and lesbians can or
should change their sexual orientation.
For many, this is an oxymoron. How can I consider myself Christian, they
ask, and still be a "practising homosexual"? Isn't homosexuality at odds
with the basic tenets of the Christian faith?
She also said during that
time: "Keep God first in your life and everything you do and you will come
out shining." As I sit there I was just thinking how much I was going to
miss her. It always Mom that stood beside me.
Ex-Gay Experiences:
I feel like I'm alive from the dead!
I have a faith which is my own, and an optimism about
the future because I've seen time and again how God uses "bad" things to bring
about our growth and ultimate good.
Bisexuality:
Jesus
does not appear to have spent much energy worrying about the impossibility
of his status, since there was too much Kingdom work to do and since his
experience was that nothing was impossible with God. If I am to follow
Jesus in this way, I can and must relinquish my concerns and anger about
people who deny the existence of bisexuality.
Features:
Why be part of a church society that oppresses our GLBT brothers and sisters with such zeal? Are we as GLBT Christians really Uncle Toms to our community at large?
Born in 1954, and raised in the home of ardent fundamentalists, I was pretty sure we represented The True Church. And, The True Church preached that gays were evil. I figured I would be able
to recognize gays by their cloven hoofs, pointy tails and horns.
The central argument of Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to
Female Homoerotism, is simple: Both Christian and non-Christian writers in
the Roman world were aware of sexual love between women, and nearly all
rejected it.
Brian looked up from the dog and down the road on which his mother had just driven away. "So, Doug. Are you queer or what?"
I don't think Raul's name will ever find its way onto a square in somebody's quilt. Here's your square, my friend.
From The Pulpit:
Giving
thanks for people in our lives and for the many blessings of our
lives is very important. It is good for our relationships. It
is good for our soul.
Beyond Belief
"Light & Life to All Who Live"
--By: William D. Bouton
This is a popular heresy, that if we can force ourselves
to think a certain way, then we have "faith."
But Jesus' whole point was that faith is not a "head
trip"; it's a "heart trip." Faith is not words; it's a
relationship.
Bible Study and Inspiration:
Most people seem to "know" that the cites of Sodom and Gomorrah were
destroyed by God
because of homosexuality. Well, I haven't been able to find the phrase,
"homosexuality"
anywhere in Genisis or Judges or anywhere else in the Bible refering to
Sodom and Gomorrah.
Holy Humor!
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