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Volume 3, Issue 6

Love

Cover Stories

But I Love You!
By Cindy Davis
Love is the very nature of God. And since His love is spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit we should also have the same love nature of God in us to love others. When we submit to God he gives us the grace we need to allow his love to flow out to others.

Can You Pass God’s Love Test?
By Rachel Miller
I want you to assume that cross-dressing is sinful. Given that assumption, how should a Christian, a follower of Christ, respond to a cross-dresser such as myself? Are you to condemn me or love me?

Apocalyptic Temptations and God’s Call to Love
By Amanda Udis-Kessler
Every time we challenge injustice on any level, we are acting in love, and every time we let stand the hundred thousand ways that people are demeaned or unduly privileged, we are not taking up the work that is before us. If this is love, it will be the toughest demand that is ever made on us. But if God is love, God will be present in our actions, supporting us every step of the way.

Love’s Hard Lessons
By Blyth Jori Kirtley
My most difficult journey has been as a lesbian Christian. It has been, at times, like leaping off a cliff in hopes that somehow, some way, God will catch me.

But the Greatest of These …
By Brian Croft
Gay people are not about to disappear from the face of the earth. We have always been here and will always be here. God loves us as he loves everyone who believes in him.

Love and the Lepers
By: Rev. Vera I. Bourne
Jesus spelt out very clearly the demands of discipleship: that we love God, and that we love each other with the same love we nurture ourselves. There are no clauses denoting “special circumstances” which allow us to avoid these commandments.

Forget Love! What About God’s Wrath?
By Candace Chellew
I suppose that one can become so focused on God’s love, compassion, and mercy that one can totally forget about the many displays of God’s wrath depicted in the Bible. However, the reverse is also true.

Defining Love
By Ruth F. Simon
Christ has promised to walk with us in our times of trouble and sorrow. He is our family, yet He will never turn His back or cast us out for being gay. He is our closest friend, yet will not tell our secrets, dreams and fears to another.

Where There Is Love
By John H. Campbell
Love is how I am able to discern that something is from God. Every time I have been somewhere where I felt God’s Presence more intensely or profoundly than others such as my church, my

Homospirituality

The Time for Freedom
By Marsha Stevens
I have to learn to be careful when I ask questions. The answers do come.

Why Homophobic Legalists Don’t Listen
By Dr. Rembert S. Truluck
Legalism is a mental disorder that masquerades as religion. Suspicion and fear are the chief characteristics of paranoid delusions and legalism.

Be Encouraged!
By Shurron Farmer
No matter how bleak the single scene may seem to be, don’t give up on finding someone special. Perhaps it’s better to say don’t give up on someone finding you.

Puppet Stranger
A Poem By Brian Bennett

Two Poems
By Mary Warejcka

Transpirituality

Transgender Blessing
By Terri Main
Some people turn away from us and refuse any attempts from us to bless them. This is hard to take, but I would suggest that those are the very people who need God’s blessings most of all. So what are some ways we can be a Transgender Blessing in our daily lives?

An Open Love Letter to My Brothers
By Georgia Dahlberg
Over the years I have been fortunate to have many conversations with my F2M Brothers and have found another new world so similar to mine, with the same depth but opposite orientation. What a wonderful gift!

Features

Embracing the Exile: An Interview With Rev. Greg Dell
By Candace Chellew
Rev. Dell joins Rev. Jimmy Creech as the first refugees exiled by the United Methodist Church.

Changing a God of Fear Into a God of Love: An Interview With John J. McNeill
By Candace Chellew
In his new book Both Feet Firmly Planted in Midair, he recounts the 30 years he’s spent in ministry to gays and lesbians, and the struggles he had to face to even get his words out to the community.

Special Eye-Witness Report From the 3rd Annual P-Fox Conference
By PFAW
P-FOX was started in 1996 by Religious Right activists from Transformation Ministries, an affiliate of the ministry for ex-gays, Exodus International and Gary Bauer’s Family Research Council.

Ordaining Gay and Lesbian Priests in Norway
By Brian Croft
Recently, one of our bishops who is gay-friendly appointed a priest who is a lesbian openly living in a partnership. The Church’s learned men are now debating the issue but as before they cannot agree and have postponed judgement.

Letters to the Editor

Readers Give Praise!

From the Pulpit

Loving Those Who Cannot Help Themselves
By Dr. Rodney E. Wilmoth
To love those who cannot help themselves means to take seriously the understanding that the home is a place where we not only teach values, but live the values we teach. It also means that we understand that the home is where we teach the Christian heritage, so that everyone within the home can have a first-hand knowledge of the love of God.

Be Still
By Rev. Paul Tellstrom
At times, it does seem that we are climbing in place. And when we are at that place of doubt on the road, we can do one of two things; cave in to our doubts and fears about our purpose in life, or hear “Be Still and know that I am God”, and we can feel that the ground is firm under our feet, and we can know that we are not alone on our respective journeys.

Bible Study and Inspiration

Love and Truth
By Dane Christiansen
Truth is like gravity. We can defy it, but we can’t escape it!

Holy Humor

Homework Assignment: Explain God

Cat in Heaven