Volume 2, Issue 1

Morality: Living a Life of Integrity as an LGBT Christian

Cover Stories

Homosexual Morality: Living a Life of Integrity As a Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Christian
By Candace Chellew
To many, homosexuality equals immorality. How can we lead lives of integrity and morality as gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people?

Lifestyle or Licentiousness?
By Rev. Paul M. Turner
Think “gay lifestyle” and you think sex. That’s the lesson my mother taught me. She told me that the “gay lifestlye” is all about sex.

Morality and Me
By Neil Ellis Orts
Morality is no small issue for me. I have often joked, and it is only a half joke, that I find guilt to be a great motivator and if not for guilt, I’d never get anything done.

Building Bridges Across the Divide
By Maggie Heineman and Steve Calverley
Disagreements about the morality of homosexuality extend in many directions. They are ripping apart communities of faith. They have led to the promulgation of half-truths and lies in the name of science. They have prevented us from listening to, much less honoring, the life journeys of others.

Homospirituality

More Through the Lens of Homospirituality: Gifting the Golden Rule to Ourselves and One Another
By Carol Stabel
As many a truth contains its paradox, loving your neighbor as yourself implies loving yourself. It seemed to me that I was programmed toward a compromised sense of self-love (shame?). Fearing I was a homosexual didn’t help.

God Is Love
By Margaret Curry
God is love. Oh, wait, only if you’re not on the list, that precious list of Those Who Cannot Be God’s Children.

What God Has Done for Me
By Christopher Hobbs
I was first diagnosed as HIV+ in 1985. At that time I just assumed that I would be dead within the year.

Features

Presbyterians in Transition: From Amendment B to Amendment B-Plus
By Kate August
Amendment B requires church officers (elders, deacons, clergy) to “live in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”

Living in Faith in Launceston, Australia
By Colin Roberts
The Uniting Church of Australia struggles with acceptance of its gay and lesbian members. Here is one person’s personal struggle to find acceptance in his church.

Attitude Is Everything
By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say.

Bible Study

Song of Solomon
By Wanda Floyd
The book is almost out of place in the Bible. There is no mention of God anywhere, but it exudes the type of love that Christ wants us to have for each other.

Romans: Exposing the Lie That Paul Condemns Homosexuality
By Dave In Phoenix
Romans is being misused today to bash homosexuality much as the Jewish and Greek Christians were bashing each other in Paul’s day.

From the Pulpit

Learning How To Blush
By Rev. Dr. Mary Ellen Kilsby
Do we… know how to blush? Don’t you get the sense in our society today that “everyone is greedy for unjust gain” and that too many “deal falsely” and that we are “treating the wounds of the people, (our neighbors), carelessly?”

Holy Humor

Practicing Tolerance: To a Point

The Story of Sodom