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Volume 4, Issue 4

Faith for the New Millennium

Cover Stories

Discovering the Unshakable
By Candace Chellew
It’s easy to throw up one’s hands and declare the battle to be welcomed into the church as futile. It’s easy to be shaken spiritually by the shaken time in which we live. … Our resolution for the new millennium should be to discover the unshakable.

Letting Go
By Rembert Truluck
Not letting go of the hurt and misery of the past is as self-centered as it is self-destructive. Make a list of all of the bad things that happened to you this past year, give the list to God, wad it up and burn it. Let go of the past.

Y2K or Y2J?
By Caroline Mason
As I approach Y2K, I’m not worried about a computer bug or about political activism or about my personal career advancement. No, my slogan for the next millennium (or as much of it as I will experience) is Y2J  YES TO JESUS.

Faith for the New Millennium
By Rev. Chancellor C. Roberts, II
What does faith in the new millennium mean? It means being part of the exciting things that our God is doing, and being part of His ultimate victory over the world and Satan.

I Have a Plan for You
By Rev. Vera I. Bourne
In the midst of the unanswered questions and uncertainties our spirits thrill to hear God’s words, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29: 11-13) This is the message we carry with us, the torch we hold aloft, as we step from one century to the next.

Beyond Definition
By John H. Campbell
I give thanks in knowing that no matter what “Y2K” brings, that my love for God and God’s Love for me will last forever, and that to me is what we should all be celebrating as we enter a new millennium together as God’s Children.

A Walk With Joseph
By L. Louise
Faith in the year 2000 will be very much like faith in the year 1999. It’s a progressive walk with our God as we personally understand and conceptualize Him or Her. One man’s walk with God is worth examining as it parallels our own complexities as gay Christians. Let’s look at Joseph of Genesis 37-45.

Toward a Lambda Theology
By Mitch Gould
Where else but inside of ourselves will we ever truly discover the affirmation of our mysterious role in the working of the earth? If anything should have become clear over the past 150 years, it’s that general society has even less of a clue to our purpose and significance than we ourselves do.

Homospirituality

With Feeling — Three: Learning on a Nervous Stomach
By Neil Ellis Orts
In thinking over my memories of first grade, I realize that there was a lot of fear wrapped up in the experience. I realize that no one intended it to be that way and I don’t know why it was so. Throughout my school years, however, I can see a pattern of excitement followed by uncertainty. I can’t explain why that is.

Letter to Lynchburg Friends
By Gordon I. Herzog
Being at Lynchburg with our gay brothers and sisters and straight friends in Christ through our comforter, the Holy Spirit, brought to us not only the Peace of the Lord, which passes all understanding, but also a glimpse, if not the presence, of our souls in communion in the Kingdom of God through the Grace of God’s love made manifest. For these joys, thanks be to God! That weekend also had its sorrows.

An Open Letter to Homophobic Christian Parents
By Olivia Rousseau
You don’t have to understand. You don’t have to approve. You don’t have to “condone.” Just love your child, and be open to the possibility of growing to love someone else who loves your child. And, next Christmas, give your son or daughter what Jesus will give him or her for Christmas (and every other day) — unconditional love.

Manifesto to the Pharisees
By E.J. DiStefano
Your sincere efforts to lead God’s children in matters of faith are a gift to us all. You are undoubtedly earnest, though seemingly misguided, in your attempts to please God, and it is with love for you all through our Lord, Jesus Christ, that I make the proceeding declaration.

Morality Matters
By R. D. Meek, Jr.
I cruised public bathrooms, and pornographic bookstores, for anonymous sex. I am not proud of it. I do not live my life, today, in shame of it, either. However, facts are facts, and the facts are that I did it.

Youth

Young, Gay, and Christian!
By Steve Payne
Being a youth myself and growing up in a church, I’ve gone through the hardships of being a Christian who happens to be gay. The Lord has laid it on my heart to minister to the out cast GLBTQ youth of our society and bring them back to Christ

Features

The United Methodist Church and Spiritual Violence: The Trial and Defrocking of Rev. Jimmy Creech
By Candace Chellew
“What happened to me in terms of the penalty is not as important as the big picture,” Rev. Jimmy Creech said. “The decision of the jury to withdraw my orders is another statement that says ‘we are willing to remove people from the clergy who are willing to give support and affirmation to GLBT people and honor their relationships.’

Kicked Out of the House: Two Georgia Baptist Churches Find Hope in Expulsion
By Candace Chellew
Prior to the vote on expulsion both Rev. Tim Shirley and Rev. Lanny Peters addressed the November 16, 1999 Georgia Baptist Convention in Macon, Georgia, to try to explain why their congregations were welcoming GLBT Christians, but to no avail. The GBC “withdrew fellowship” from the churches …

Letters to the Editor

From the Pulpit

The Joy of Getting Stoned: Virginia-Highland, Georgia Baptists, and Jesus
By Rev. Tim Shirley
We can identify the stones being hurled our way from the Georgia Baptist Convention. We probably cannot control or change that. We can stand tall while they strike us, or we can duck, but the stones will keep coming. We can, however, determine what kind of stones we will be. Figuratively speaking, we know that we are going to be killed, it is simply a matter of choosing how we will die, the kind of death we will experience. That it is a very Jesus thing to do!

Bible Study and Inspiration

Makin’ Pearls
By Kenneth Allen
I was reading Psalm 38 and it hits me like a ton of makeup: I’ve lived this one before.

“My Love, How You Delight Me”: The Song of Songs Through Gay Eyes
By Tom Yeshua
I offer the following meditations out of a deeply humbling appreciation for the love and compassionate patience Jesus has shown me. May these words on the Song of Songs, in the end, be multiple ways of saying “I love you” to him whose passion for me, for all of us, fragile words can scarcely convey.

Holy Humor

All I Really Need To Know I Learned From Noah’s Ark

Gays That I Know