Volume 10: Issue 2
September/October 2005
The Good
Book
Table Of Contents
Cover
Story: The Good Book:
Learning to Love the Questions
--By: Candace Chellew-Hodge
Not everyone can live in the ever changing landscape
of the questions. People crave certainty because it gives them a sense
of security. They want to know that they're following the right path.
When they read the Bible they read it as love letter meant just for
them. They find what they like, use it to form their hard and fast
answers and disregard the rest - pulling out the "God's Word is inerrant"
argument if faced with any hard questions.
Re-thinking Our Approach to Scripture
--By: Steve Pearson
We in the queer Christian community - LGBTQ and
Allies - fall into this trap all too often. When we
begin to reconcile our faith with our sexuality, we
are tempted to reinterpret everything we've ever been
taught about the Bible. And that's good. But we're
also tempted to throw out anything we disagree with.
And that's not good. We need to take these texts
seriously and give them full authority, even when we
do not like what they are saying.
George and Martha and Adam and Steve
--By: Lori Heine
The best way to read the Bible is to recognize ourselves in it. It isn't merely the story of people who lived and died
thousands of years ago; the story it tells is, truly, our own -- and it is ongoing. T
o read it with our hearts, as well as our minds, it is entirely necessary to understand Scripture this way.
Simon
Says"
(a Biblical rule of thumb)
--By: Catriona Millican
Just because the Bible describes it, doesn't mean the Bible condones
it.
A Work in Progress
--By: John H. Campbell
It is completely possible to embrace the powerful spiritual
ideas, history and teachings of Christ in the Bible without viewing it (or doing as some seem to do and deifying
and worshipping the Bible itself) as the "inerrant, infallible, unchanging" word of God.
I see it more as a work in progress that continues to be written, even after the book was closed long ago.
Confronting Bible Abuse
--By: Micah Royal
Bible abuse is a form of spiritual abuse. Spiritual
abuse is when religious beliefs or practices are removed from the context
they were intended for and used as tools of discrimination or oppression
of others.
My Journey in
The Good Book
--By: Cindi Green
I spent over 15 years struggling with whether the Bible was a book for me. How in the world would I ever fit in?
The Gospel Truth?
--By: Lana Phillips
Since my coming out, it does seem to me that discussions on the authority of Scripture do
tend to center around the issue of homosexuality. When I find myself ready to argue with
someone, I try to find the common ground between us. I believe that time does not change what
the Bible says about some things. "Love your neighbor" still holds true.
The Bible
--By: Roger Stratton
If any fundamentalists began reading this, they have probably already
stopped and judged me a heretic on a sure road to hell, but my
understanding of the Bible's origins does not diminish my faith in God,
in
fact it allows Him to be all the more Godly.
God's Guidebook for Life
--By: Sandra Cox
The key to keeping from wicked ways is in following God's ways and always putting Him first!
We must seek His direction for our lives as we spend time in prayer and in interpreting His word.
GLBT People and the Battle
for the Bible
--By: Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are viewed as easy and
safe targets to persecute! What the Catholic Church and much of the church
world have done, enmeshing their prejudices on selected parts of the Bible,
is help further exacerbate a climate of hate throughout the world against
these already persecuted minorities.
Homospirituality:
Strange Fruit
--By: Tuan N'Gai
I dare not say that all people who profess Christianity are like the
evil and mean spirited white folk of yesteryear who took perverse pleasure
in lynching black men.
Why Are Gay People the
Way They Are?
--By: Bob Minor
In a very straight-dominant society, LGBT people internalize not only
the negative images of them society installs in everyone even before some
know they're not straight. They have also absorbed the very negativity
of these images.
Mourning the Passing of Joan (of Arcadia)
--By: Suzie Chamness
The cancellation of the show "Joan of Arcadia" is the final straw
for me. After all, where will I go to enrich my mind about how God
infiltrates the world today?
Old Wine?
--By: Edward J. Ingebretsen
Catholic gay persons who waited out the papacy of John Paul II, hoping that the new pope would usher in a
"freer and gentler" church have now to face the reality.
Cardinal Ratzinger was the author of John Paul's doctrine on homosexual persons.
Features:
The HRC Finds Religion ... Finally!
--By: Candace Chellew-Hodge
Finally, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national LGBT political organization, seems to understand the need
for this very basic ingredient in any successful civil rights campaign and have launched a new religious and faith
program. They could not have found a more fitting founding director for this endeavor. Harry Knox, a long-time LGBT
activist and strong man of faith, comes well-equipped to lead this fledgling program.
Never Judge a Book by it's Cover
A Review of JESUS and the Shamanic Tradition of Same-Sex Love
by Will Roscoe
--A Book Review By: Dan Greshel
Let's face it, you rarely
see His name mentioned anywhere near the word SEX, never mind same-sex love for God's sake! And I can't
recall any mention of shamans in the Bible much less a tradition of them where Jesus was concerned. Do I sound put off?
Hardly!
Living in Hope When
You're Not an Optimist
A Review of Paul Loeb's The Impossible Will Take
a Little While
-- By: Bob Minor
Loeb's book would be worth it if only for his introductory essays. "Hope,"
he reminds us, "is a way of looking at the world - more than that, it's
a way of life."
Black Gay & Christian Author Debuts Syndicated TV Talk Show
--By: Herndon L. Davis
Herndon
L. Davis, author of last year's controversial book, Black, Gay
& Christian, is at it again. Reaching into nearly 16 million
households, he is debuting the world's first black gay/lesbian, TV
news/talk show on DirecTV channel 227 and on Comcast Cable TV101 Southern
California.
Letters To The Editor
Same-Gender
Marriage:
The Non-Wedding: A Poem
-- By: Allie Jo Conkle
The
grooms wore white, as
slim as candles in the
rainbow light
from the church's stained-glass
window -
Transgender
Spirituality:
A Sense of Spirituality
-- By: Janice Josephine Carney
The Faith
Action Network is a project of the Michigan office of the American Friends
Service Committee. Their goal was to bring together people of faith that
are lesbian, gay, bisexual, as well as the transgender umbrella, and our
allies. With the help of the Eastern Michigan University they were successful.
Discrimination
- A Challenge We Must Meet!
-- By: Rachel Miller
I intend to utilize the power of a man-in-a-dress in a wide variety
of public venues, including with family and friends, to prod people to
confront their prejudices.
From the Pulpit:
What a Load!
--By: Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge
The Sanskrit word for "yoke" in this passage is the same word that "yoga"
is derived from. It means "to unite" or "to join together." To make the
yoke light and the burden easy requires joining ourselves not only to
God but to each other. We must join together. We must unite because alone
that load will always be heavy.
God Bless America
--By: Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge
When I say "God bless America" this is
the blessing I seek for all of us - blessings of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness for everyone, no matter their place in our society.
Jesus' Family Values
--By: Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge
All this is good news to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people
because it shows that Jesus' idea of family values doesn't have a lot
to do with what modern Christians value. It's not the physical make up
of the family that counts - it's the strength of the character of the
people involved. It's about the strength and integrity of the relationships
between the people in the family.
Prophet Versus Grace
--By: Gary Simpson
There
are times when asses are more open to God than those who say they speak
for God. And many times those who society feels are just donkeys compared
to the "real spiritual leaders" speak for God with more accuracy and with
more authority than those who think they have the God-given authority
to speak for the Lord. We see many gay Christians coming out of the closet
and articulating God's love and grace more clearly than it has traditionally
been spoken from pulpits.
Bible Study and Inspiration:
Lepers, Loons and Losers Part
12:
The Poor Widow
--By: Tom Yeshua
Jesus remains seated by
the treasury of God to see what you and I will do with the varied riches
lavishly bestowed on us by a gracious God who will demand an accounting
of these gifts at the end of our life.
Examining the Beatitudes Part
3:
The Most Misunderstood Beatitude
--By: Debbie Graham R. N.
In our
American minds, inherit the earth brings up pictures of world domination.
That of course, does not flow from the Greek and Aramaic words translated
as meek.
The Christian's Disciplined
Study
--By: John R. W. Stott
Scripture itself lays great stress on the conscientious Christian use
of the mind, not of course in order to stand in judgment on God's Word,
but rather in order to submit to it, to grapple with it, to understand
it, and to relate it to the contemporary scene.
Holy
Humor!
Where was Jesus Born?
Mother Teresa in Heaven
