Volume 14, Issue 4

Testifying to the Light

Cover Stories

Lighten Up!
By Rev. Candace Chellew
Even if we can’t perceive it, or we’re told that we’re mistaken to think it — we each carry light within us. Our job is the same as John the Baptist’s — to testify to that light.

Escaping the Darkness of Shame
By David R. Gillespie
We GLBTQ Christians stand in a unique place wherefrom we can shine the light of a positive attitude toward sex into a world of darkness and need.

God’s Blessing for Us
By Robert Hanchett
Not only GLBT’s, but many other people suffer cruel injustice and persecution for being poor, or being of some racial, religious, or ethnic minority. But insofar as we were chosen to be where God needed us to be, our lives are a living testament to the presence and power of the Kingdom of God.

Confessions of a Christian “Broad”
By Lori Heine
Showing forth the great, grand, generous broadness of God testifies to the Light. We do that by transcending our other-ness and sharing the burdens even of those with whom our own, narrow experience has not taught us to relate.

Shine, Don’t Explain
By Lincoln Rose
It’s not our job to answer straight people’s questions, or use up our last breath on right wing radicals who will never listen. We were not put on this Earth to dance for the folks in charge. Our people are hurting and dying.

We Are Not People of Darkness
By Rev. Suzie Chamness
We who believe that Christ is the light also believe that the light is meant for all people. We are not people of the darkness. We are full of meaning and light. There is no darkness in us as we are full of the love that Christ gives to us freely.

The Opportunity To Shine
By John H. Campbell
I feel that every day, not merely December 25th, or any other time, should be a celebration of the Light that Jesus shone into all of our lives with His teachings as well as a time to allow that same light to flow through us into the lives of others.

Features

Homophobia Stems from the Unconscious
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
In the case of homophobia, it is eminently clear that ignorance and/or hate are the root causes of those prejudices, and that hateful animus that propels and compels one to consistently seek to demean the other, and deny equal rights to Gay people, is coming from the unconscious of that person, those tempestuous forces of which he/she is largely, if not solely, unaware.

Decline in Conservative Churches
By Martin E. Marty
Has the United States begun to follow the overall pattern of decline in membership, attendance, activity, support, and visibility that is so patent in, say, Western Europe?

Marriage: Where Are We Now?
By Dr. Robert N. Minor
If we use marriage as the measure of what’s happening for LGBT people in the country, we’ve chosen the wrong measure. It’s a sensational issue, for sure. On both sides, national organizations have bet donation asks on it. But expect more disappointments ahead.

Unnatural Acts
By Melissa Conroy
While many cultures have what anthropologist Serena Nanda has called “gender variants,” that is, a range of sex/gender positions that lie between purely male/masculine and purely female/feminine people, we have become accustomed to thinking that two sexes are natural. In popular, medical, and some forms of religious discourse, sex and gender appear to be “naturally” aligned.

The Toxicity of Roman Catholic Clergy Sexual Suppression
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
Roman Catholic clergy presumably do not engage in romantic/sexual relations, so why do people give credibility to those RC clergy who would dare teach us on the subjects of romance and sexuality?

Letters to the Editor

From the Pulpit

TEOTWAWKI: The End of the World as We Know It 
By Rev. Candace Chellew
As followers of Christ, we are called to create a new world — a world without greed, a world without injustice, a world without hunger, a world without poverty, a world without suffering, a world without despair, a world without grief. The end will come, Jesus said — but it’s the end of a world that sorely needs to end — a world where it’s “us” against “them”.

Take a Message
By Rev. Candace Chellew
I invite you to consider that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for — we are the ones who have been called to “take a message” — and not in the sense that we take a message in an effort to avoid doing something. No, I believe God is calling us all to be modern day Malachis — to take a message of peace and love and justice into this world.

Holy Humor

Poor Preacher

Army of the Lord