Volume 6, Issue 1

Living as a Whosoever

Cover Stories

Whosoever Living
By Candace Chellew
As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians we are lied to all the time. We are told we’re filthy sinners who will never enter the kingdom of heaven. We begin to believe these lies and fall away from God and the church. Living as a Whosoever means recognizing these lies for what they are and beginning to believe that we are not cursed, but blessed.

A Pearl Without Price
By Rev. Vera I. Bourne
What is it like to live as a “Whosoever” person? Why, it is to be given opportunities for God to prove to us what we would have missed if we had been born part of the majority, rather than a minority. It is to have one’s personality and spirit honed by unusual circumstances, so that the real and precious beauty with which we are created is revealed.

My Thoughts As a “Whosoever”
By Maureen Hope
The love, grace, guidance and communication I have with God every day is stronger now than at any other time in my life. I believe that coming to understand exactly who I am and how precious I am to God has opened the way for a greater depth of relationship with Him. Everything is deeper — revelation, understanding and compassion.

Playing God
By John H. Campbell
If it were revealed through research that bisexuality, homosexuality, heterosexuality, or being transgender were all conscious choices, who is to say that these are not directly put into us by God? When we call any one of these the “wrong choice” and demonize the others, I feel we are quite potentially questioning God’s Will for others, which to me seems a bit like trying to play God and decide for God what the sexuality of another should or should not be.

Living as a Whosoever
By George Bourne
I have been well supplied with years. There was undoubtedly a period soon after my reaching adulthood when I battled against my homosexuality. But that has long gone. Then there was a long period when I battled against the teachings of those who `professed and called themselves Christians’ who told me all sorts of things to do with the error of my ways. Many stories of my living as a Whosoever are there.

Who Are They?
By Jeffrey A. Gifford
Being a Whosoever is a tough calling. It requires accepting oneself as is and praising God for it. It means showing the Light of Christ in one’s life so others may not walk in darkness.

Homospirituality

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. All I can say to them is, “Wake up and smell the roses!” I have, in so many ways, and at so many times, felt the love and presence of God in my life as a Gay individual.

Faith Can’t Shatter Homosexual Love: My Own Spiritual Journey To Understand My Faith’s Religious Intolerance of Homosexuality
By Elizabeth Medina
“I won’t even begin to explain why I’m in love with Mary let alone engaged to her.” The words were barely comprehensible and came amid tears. The tears flowed heavily down my cheeks. The whole “coming out” process just took place after a fairly heated mother-daughter argument one May evening of this year.

The Spirit of Gay Pride
By Ezekiel J. Krahlin
A great warrior whose brave men and women perished in battle, still stands tall before her enemies. Unslain and proud, she dances the war dance high up on a ridge, where the enemies stare from below. They are boiling with anger, for now, she taunts!

Features

Strange Fruit: Comparing the Struggles of African-Americans for Civil Rights with the Struggles of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Peoples
By Miss Poppy Dixon
This essay is not intended to minimize in any way the unique sufferings endured by African-Americans due to racism in this country. The purpose is to show that the full rights enjoyed by white Americans are denied to both blacks and homosexuals; and that the crossover between these groups frustrates efforts to pit them against each other.

Jazz Funeral Rocks Southern Baptist Convention
By Laura Montgomery Rutt
The culmination of two days of vigils in New Orleans was a historic jazz funeral, followed by a press conference and civil disobedience and arrests. Hundreds of people lined the streets as over 100 Soulforce supporters followed a jazz band through the streets of New Orleans around the Superdome, mourning for the suffering and deaths of gay Southern Baptists.

Life or Death
By Rembert Truluck
After the casket was taken away, the New Orleans Jazz Band played “When the Saints Go Marching In.” That really got to me and made me cry. I never cry for myself. But I cried a lot on Wednesday as I was made to remember the many gay friends who have suffered and died because of neglect, rejection, misinformation, self-hate and other evils dumped upon us by sick abusive religion.

The Difference Soulforce Can Make
By Luann Conaty
Those of you who have never considered attending a Soulforce event don’t know what you are missing. If you have been injured by the teachings of your church, you need to be with us. If your family has rejected you because of what they believe about the Bible, you need to be with us

Letters to the Editor

Transpirituality

A Transgender Search for a Church Home
By LariAnn Garner
With much dialogue and sharing between us and church leadership, we were able to show them that we were just like them and that being transgender did not make us any less loved by God than anyone else.

Call the Question!
By Rachel Miller
In recent years my attention shifted to the spiritual concerns of Christians who cross-dress. Their primary desire is to be accepted as they are and to participate fully in the affairs of the church.

Transgender Pride
By Vanessa Sheridan
Some people think that the phrase “transgender pride” is an oxymoron. Now, I’m neither an ox nor a moron, but I’m here to tell you that we can take tremendous pride (not vanity or self-importance, hopefully, but a quiet, fulfilling sense of dignity and personal fulfillment) in being differently gendered. We are special and valuable to God and to the human race, whether we believe that or not.

Poetry

Three Poems
By Louie Crew

Midnight Prayer
By Darrell Grizzle

Three Poems
By Rima Kane

From The Pulpit

Let Go and Hold On
By Candace Chellew
When we let go, God promises us, in Ezekiel, that he will put a new spirit in us and that spirit will change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. God promises if we’ll open ourselves to the spirit our cold, selfish nature will change … our heart of stone will dissolve. In its place we’ll find a warm heart, a heart open to compassion, justice and righteousness. Our encounters with the Holy Spirit make us into new creations.

Bible Study and Inspiration

The Good Samaritan?
By April O’Flaherty
A simple story, told by Jesus was often worth many lessons in a synagogue, and so it is with the story of the Good Samaritan. This must have frustrated those listening that day, because as much as they wanted to shout out that no Samaritan was good, they could not argue with the fact that, in this example, the Samaritan was good.

Righteous Among the Nations: Luke 7:1-10
By Tyler Connoley
After a few moments he spoke with force, “Philip, I know what I want you to do. Go and find Shlomo and that healer, Yeshu. When you find them, say you come from me. Apologize for the inconvenience, then tell them not to come. Tell the man Yeshu he can perform the healing from a distance. Just like I tell you to fetch a bowl of water or go get a garment, and you do it, he can tell the angels to tend to Zonen and they will. Tell him, I’m a centurion, I know about giving orders. Tell him to make the order for Zonen to be healed. Only, be sure he doesn’t come here. Tell him not to trouble himself with coming to my house. I’m not worthy to have him in my house. Go on, lad. Go. Tell him.”

Summer Snow: A Look at Proverbs 26:1
By Rev. Chancellor Carlyle Roberts, II
So, what is Solomon saying? He’s saying that, like snow in the summer or rain in the harvest, celebrity and social position are not suitable or fitting for someone who acts unwisely or has no common sense.

Holy Humor

The Politically Correct 23rd Psalm

Christian Pick-Up Lines