Volume 18, Issue 3

Waiting

Cover Stories

Elizabeth and Mary: A Lesson in Joyful Waiting
By Rev. Candace Chellew
Advent is meant to be a time of “joyful waiting,” a time to reflect on how this world, even in its meanness and cruelty, remains pregnant with new and awe-inspiring possibilities. We are impatient people, however, and as our world becomes quicker, and our needs satisfied faster and faster, we have little patience for waiting.

When Our Number Comes Up
By Lori Heine
Sometimes I think LGBT Christians have become too patient. We’ve gotten so used to waiting that we’re almost comfortable there. Like the children of Israel, we’ve been wandering in the desert for so long, we’ve come to think of it as home.

The Best Things in Life
By John H. Campbell
Regardless of how distant our goal — whatever it is — may seem, no matter how long we have hoped for something, we can truly begin to arrive at a sense of no longer worrying about when, but being grateful for the gift of the present and cherishing each moment.

When Should We Wait?
By Simyona Deanova
I often grow impatient with God, with His timetable. But God is not people. When God tells me to wait, He is not debating my worthiness of His plans. He is telling me to pay attention and relax so I don’t miss the wonders He has in store for me.

Features

Will Marriage Equality Matter to the Community?
By Dr. Robert N. Minor
For LGBT people, one question is: will becoming married mean forsaking any LGBT community with the shared interests, problems, and concerns of all of us that it had in the past? If so, how will we be reminded that we are all in this together till death us do part?

Evangelical Pullback/Retreat
By Martin E. Marty
Sensitive leaders like the Pope, Russell Moore, and great numbers of those who would be faithful to their core values but can’t live with the peels, are more and more the new agents of change.

Strange Bedfellows Scapegoat Russia’s Gays
By Bryce E. Rich
Rhetoric from America’s culture wars has also found a place in Russia’s anti-gay campaign.

Churches Must Forfeit Tax-Exempt Status
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
Withholding funds, such as removing churches’ tax-exempt status, can be a major way of gutting the homophobic rhetoric and actions that exists in many, if not most, denominations and churches, because those churches would then lack sufficient funds to bankroll the prevention of equal civil rights as has hitherto existed.

Holy Humor

Solving the Squirrel Problem

Is There a Santa?