Volume 9, Issue 4

Transformation

Cover Stories

A New Diet for a New Year
By Rev. Candace Chellew
The diet I intend to try is a transformation diet — a diet that promises not so much to transform my body, but to transform my mind.

I Can See Clearly Now
By John H. Campbell
Spiritual growth is to me, at least, an ongoing process — one that is never ending as we grow closer to God in our lives. We may not actually change (at least, the core of who we are and who it is that God made us to be) as people, and I do not feel that God changes nor do I feel that God has ever changed. What I think undergoes a metamorphosis and transformation is our understanding of God, which constantly evolves as we are open, seeking, and finding new wisdom that God blesses us with if we remain open to it.

A Prodigal Daughter’s Tale
By Lori Heine
Most people consider it transformative simply to let go of past mistakes. Some prefer to outrun them, hoping they won’t chase them right into a brand new year. I let mine catch up with me. I had feared this might undo me. Yet at the threshold of this New Year, I find myself breathing rare, clear air.

Transformations: Love the Enemy, Because They May Learn to Love Us
By Steve Pearson
Just because the people in our churches can’t accept us as Christians now doesn’t mean they will never accept us. If we hold to the statement that God is completing the work God began within us, then we can trust that God is doing the same in the lives of everyone else in the Church.

In Pursuit of Holiness
By Rev. Vera I. Bourne
The world in which we live transforms us from the outside in. God transforms us from the inside out.

Transformation
By Jo Ellen Kanne
Am I giving and sharing all that I have with those who have less than me? Am I loving and caring for each life in the world, many far from home? These are questions I ask myself every day. To be seen by people, not by the public. To have people be proud of me, rather than simply admire what I do. This transformation has been a daily journey.

Homospirituality

Be a Queer for Four More Years
By Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon
Many of us are disappointed, depressed, even devastated by the outcome of the election. We cannot imagine four more years and where we will be at the end of the four years. We look back, but only long enough to learn from our mistakes. We may be discouraged for the moment, but we live on hope.

Fractured Faith
By Rembert Truluck
All of the progress in human rights and civil rights during the past 50 years is being threatened and attacked by the growing power and authority of religious and political separatism and division at every level of family, social, business, political, educational and religious life. We are not so much a nation divided as we are a nation fragmented.

Gay, Christian and Proud
By Shane K. Andersen
I hear folk who claim to be loving and understanding Christians saying all the time that an active homosexual is an abomination to God and themselves, taking verses out of the bible which suites and strengthens their arguments against me, and all I can say to them is “Wake up and smell the roses!”

Enough is Enough!
By Archbishop Bruce J. Simpson, OSJB
The Roman Catholic Church is fueling bigotry, discrimination and death by its constant impassioned calls for a Jihad on the gay community.

Standing Up to Big Mama: A Black Gay/Lesbian Requirement
By Herndon L. Davis
We can no longer allow out of reverence, the older black generation to continue their spiritual abuse and spiritual murder of gays/lesbians.

Letter to a Seeker
By Gareth Fenley
I wrote this letter to a gay man who e-mailed me and asked me to recommend books that would help him in his struggle to reconcile a personal relationship with God after growing up in a church that vigorously condemned homosexuality.

He Is Gone
By Forrest Nettleton
A year ago this past March my partner of 10 years passed on. The time since has been a real rollercoaster ride.

Features

Confessing Christ in a World of Violence
By Jim Wallis
Faithfully confessing Christ is the church’s task, and never more so than when its confession is co-opted by militarism and nationalism.

Time To March Again
By Dr. Robin Meyers
I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.

Solutions
By Nathan Bierma
Brown condemns what he calls “the culture of Right Christian Living” for its easy answers and efficient methods to achieve a better life. This presents knowing God as the route to a stronger marriage, more charming children, a bigger congregation, and political influence.

Stroud To File Appeal of Church Trial Decision
By Linda Bloom
Irene Elizabeth “Beth” Stroud has decided to appeal the Dec. 2 decision by a United Methodist trial court to revoke her ministerial credentials.

A Cry in the Wilderness: Is Anyone Listening?
By Archbishop Bruce J. Simpson, OSJB
Make no mistake about it: Most Churches, the Vatican, and the entire Bush administration have declared war on the gay community. They will attempt to roll back every right under the Constitution that we have gained, and drive us back into a world of dark fear and repression. It is time to get serious about the fight we find ourselves in by now joining our political organizations, our social organizations, along with churches that support the true meaning of Christianity, and present a united front to this nation.

An Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
By Rev. Richard Kirker
Homosexual people continue to be deeply offended by the actions of many parts of the Communion where our existence is not even acknowledged, where our voices are strangled before we can be heard or seen as part of the family of God brought into being by the Word.

The Missing 32nd Screwtape Letter
By David S. Roberts
Do not be alarmed by your patient’s recent foray into so-called conservative Christianity. Perhaps it is only a fad; these silly humans are ever looking for external certainty in an uncertain world. But if it is not, splendid! You can use this extremism to your advantage.

Letters To The Editor

Same-Gender Marriage

How the Grinch Stole Marriage
By Mary Ann Horton, Lisa and Bill Koontz
Every Gay down in Gayville liked Gay Marriage a lot…
But the Grinch, who lived just east of Gayville, did NOT!!

Presbyterian Minister Faces Charges for Performing Same-Gender Wedding
Press Release
On November 19, 2004, the Presbytery of the Redwoods in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the regional governing body of the 2.1 million member denomination, filed a disciplinary charge against the Reverend Dr. Jane Adams Spahr, Minister Director of That All May Freely Serve.

Transpirituality

Christians and Cross-Dressers
By Rachel Miller
Instead of two-headed perverts, I found that the world of cross-dressers was populated with mostly very ordinary people. Eventually I was able to understand cross-dressing and balance it with the other aspects of my life. While working out the issues, my wife and I realized that it would be valuable to share what we had learned.

From the Pulpit

Joy
By Rev. Beth Stroud
In the midst of suffering and disappointment, laughter wells up from the depths of a person’s heart. In times of terrible losses and setbacks, a person nevertheless discovers a song in her heart.

Get Real: Read the Book
By The Rev. Canon Lesley Northup
I say it is time true Christians — and by that I mean people who believe in and follow and actually live the teachings of Jesus — it’s time true Christians reclaimed the name “Christian” and stopped being co-opted by persons who have little knowledge, understanding, or practical application in their own lives of Christian principles.

In All Things Give Thanks
By Rev. Candace Chellew
This today, is our calling — to renounce hatred and blood and instead move forward in the world with our hand outstretched and our heart exposed.

Holy Family, Batman!
By Rev. Candace Chellew
I think Batman makes for a fitting hero for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Bible Study and Inspiration

Lepers, Loons and Losers, Part 8: The Shepherds
By Tom Yeshua
Whether as small figurines in a home nativity scene or as a bathrobe-clad participants in a church Christmas pageant, the shepherds are brought out each year for their moment in the sun. Surrounded by cute, fluffy sheep, the shepherds gaze in wonder and serenity at the newborn squirming in the manger. But who were these people?

Righteousness and Justice
By Elaine
Is God’s great commandment of love being equitably administered? No. Most in the church could care less if a gay person has sworn their life to Christ and has made God first in their life (thus fulfilling the first commandment of love). Nor do they care if our relationships are rooted and grounded in love (thereby fulfilling the second commandment of love). All they can see is that we are gay!

Holy Humor

Theology, Kid Style

Leroy and the Little Red Bike