Chi Rho Press eNewsletter  
Vol. 15 (31/1/00)

Welcome once again to the Chi Rho Press eNewsletter.

To join our list and get your own copy of our eNewsletter, send an e-mail message
to ChiRhoPress-subscribe@egroups.com.

All other e-mail should be directed to Adam@ChiRhoPress.com. See the end of this eNewsletter for a complete list of e-mail addresses at www.ChiRhoPress.com.

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Contents:
1. Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse
2. Book Signing in Harrisburg, PA
3. New book on David and Jonathan is in process!
4. Special Offer -- "Come Home!"
5. Op-Ed piece by William Sloane Coffin on Gay marriage
6. Adam's Last Word
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1. "Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse"

"Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse," by Dr. Rembert Truluck, will be delivered from the printer and bindery this week!

Today is the last day this Special Offer will be available. Checks must be
postmarked by today in order to qualify for the pre-paid, pre-publication sale.

This long-awaited book now retails for $24.95, plus shipping and handling.

Send your check or money order, made out to Chi Rho Press, to us at P.O. Box
7864, Gaithersburg, MD 20898.

Shipping and handling for this special sale is $3.50 for one book, $4.50 for two
books, $5.50 for three books, $6.50 for four books, and 7% of the total for five or more books ordered.

Rembert Truluck says, "'Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse' is far more than a book of information, Bible studies, and personal experiences. It is a book that
will be extended through my web site in on-going expanding resources of updates, bibliography, and new information about our dynamic changing world and our place in it. This combination of book and web site will provide a practical and constantly up-dated resource for individuals and small groups to learn and experience the truth and to share their hope with others."

Send your check or money order for this important, ground-breaking book today to Chi Rho Press, P.O. Box 7864, Gaithersburg, MD 20898. Thank you!

2. Book Signing at MCC of the Spirit, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

MCC of the Spirit in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is kicking off the opening of
their new church bookstore with a book signing featuring authors of the
anthology, "From Wounded Hearts." The date is Sunday, February 6, 2000 starting at 10:30 am for the regular worship service, the book signing will follow.

Roberta Showalter Kreider, who compiled and edited "From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People and Those Who Love Them," will be speaking at the morning worship service at MCC of the Spirit, then leading over a dozen of the authors in discussion about the book.

Contact MCC of the Spirit for directions, 717/236-7387 or e-mail
mccofthespirit@juno.com.

3. New book on David and Jonathan is in process!

Even as we have been patiently (well, sort of patiently) monitor the printing
and binding of "Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse," we have begun work on our next volume. Chi Rho Press has signed a contract with Christopher Hubble to
publish his book,"Lord Given Lovers: the Biblical Romance of David and
Jonathan." Mr. Hubble is a young Gay, Christian scholar living in Denver,
Colorado. The love story of David and Jonathan in First and Second Samuel was
an inspiration to him as he struggled with coming out both as a Gay man and a
Christian.

The David and Jonathan story was so powerful to Mr. Hubble that he decided to do a great deal of research, reading, and study on it. The result is a powerful,
slim volume that provides an excellent exegesis on the love Jonathan and David
shared and how that can inspire and inform gay people of faith everywhere.

Chris' MS (publisher-speak for manuscript) is currently in the capable hands of
Kevin Stone Fries, assistant editor at Chi Rho Press. We tease Kevin a lot,
calling him the "Butcher of Gaithersburg." (Gaithersburg is home to both Kevin
and Chi Rho Press.) But in fact he is a superb editor whose gifts and skills
have brought a great deal to Chi Rho Press over the past almost two years.
"Lord Given Lovers" is the third MS Kevin has worked on. He did extensive work
on "From Wounded Hearts" and on "Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse."

The editing process will probably take another two months. Chris Hubble will be
visiting Gaithersburg in March to work on the book with us and we hope to have
the bulk of the editing work completed by his arrival.

Watch this eNewsletter for more information about "Lord Given Lovers" and when it will be published.

4. Book of the Month! "Come Home!" by Chris Glaser

This month we want to feature "Come Home! Reclaiming Spirituality and Community as Gay Men and Lesbians," (Second Edition) by popular Gay Christian writer Chris Glaser.

Chris first published this book in 1990 with HarperCollins and we are pleased to
offer this completely new edition. It has five brand new chapters added to the
original 20, and a new preface. "Come Home!" is perhaps Chris Glaser's best
book and Chi Rho Press is very proud to publish it.

The five sections of "Come Home!" (each with five chapters) are entitled,
"Welcoming God's Acceptance," "Receiving Our Inheritance," "Discerning Our
Call," "Making Our Witness," and "Declaring Our Vision."

Of "Come Home" The Right Reverend John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop of Newark, said "Powerful, sensitive, and provocative. . . . Glaser stands inside his own humanity as a gay male and hears the word of God through the Bible.
Christians, gay and straight, need this book if we are to be the body of
Christ."

The Rev. Carter Heyward called "Come Home," "an enthusiastic compelling
testimony to the power of faith in the lives of many gay and lesbian
Christians."

Virginia Ramey Mollenkott said, "If courage, honesty, and insight are beautiful,
then this is one beautiful book. . . . I rejoice that in this book all the gay
men and lesbian women who have been robbed of their spirituality are issued an
urgent invitation: Come home!"

"Come Home!" by Chris Glaser offers a vision of faith, hope, and affirmation
inviting gay men and lesbians to come home to their spirituality through
Christian faith and community. Order your copy today!

"Come Home!" sells for $19.95, $14.95 each for six or more copies, plus S & H

5. William Sloane Coffin Article on Lesbian/Gay Marriage

I know this is a rather long piece, but I received it via e-mail recently and
think it is worth sharing. The Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin is the former
pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, the great liberal UCC congregation in the grand building next to the Interchurch Center, the "God Box," which houses the National Council of Churches and many other church offices.

Riverside Church is a grand gothic pile built by Rockefeller for the Rev. Harry
Emerson Fosdick, arguably the greatest preacher of his day. It was Fosdick who
first penned the lines made more famous by Malcolm X, "If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem."

Bill Coffin is known for his activism in civil rights, the anti-war movement,
women's rights, and LGBT rights. I had the privilege of being arrested with him
at the US Capitol during the bombing of Cambodia back in the late seventies.
Almost 200 religious leaders were arrested that day, including bishops, clergy,
seminary professors, and others. I was a small fish in a very big pond, being
head of the Center for the Study of Power and Peace, an inter-religiously funded
research center for international affairs.

After a night in jail all the men who were arrested were herded into a holding
cell, awaiting arraignment -- Bill Kunstler was our attorney -- the women who
had been arrested were held in a holding cell at the other end of the building.
We were in the large space surrounded by bars, with the police sitting and
wandering around outside. Many wore their clerical colors.

Bill Coffin led the group in Martin Luther's immortal hymn, "A Mighty Fortress
is Our God," lining out each verse in a loud, commanding voice. When we got to
the fourth verse, our voices were incredibly loud and strong. We sang the
powerful words, "Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also, The body they
may kill; God's truth abideth still, God's kingdom is forever."

As we finished the hymn with those words we looked out and saw that all the cops
were staring at us through the bars. And to our amazement, a few had even drawn their guns -- pointing them at this middle aged, often overweight group of
clergy and laity as if by sheer force of our hymn the bars would break asunder.
As our hymn of faith and defiance echoed down the halls we heard our sisters
(many of whom really were sisters, nuns that is) singing the hymn as well,
having heard our thunderous anthem.

Bill Coffin looked out at the terrified police, repeated the last lines one more
time, "the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still" and added in a great
shout, "and let that be a lesson to you!"

Now as a Gay publisher, I was delighted to read my old cell-mate's Op-Ed piece
on gay marriage, which I share with you here.

From the RUTLAND HERALD, January 20, 2000, Box 668, Rutland, VT, 05702, (Fax 802-775-2423) (http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/ )

Op-ed: Let us be impatient with prejudice

By the Rev. William Sloane Coffin

An old adage reads, "Good things come in small packages." Vermont is clear
proof. Ever since the Vermont Supreme Court decision of Dec. 20, the eyes of
the nation are upon our state.

Many Americans consider the court's decision a legal milestone and a cultural
turning point. But also, not surprisingly, Montpelier is being flooded with
thousands of out-of-state letters filled with inflammatory rhetoric and spurious
homophobic assertions, many of them written by Christians who use the Bible much as a drunk does a lamppost-more for support than for illumination.

I am reminded of the wise conclusion of William Penn: "To be ferocious in
religion is to be ferociously irreligious."

Readers will remember the court ruled that the common benefits and protection
that flow from marriages under Vermont law must be extended to same-sex couples but left it to the Legislature to craft a remedy for the discrimination the court had deemed unconstitutional.

On the day following the ruling, an editorial in the Rutland Herald suggested
that "the two obvious remedies are to broaden the definition of marriage to
include same-sex couples, or to create another form of legally sanctioned
domestic partnership that guarantees the same benefits."

It occurs to me that all Vermonters should take time out from the clamor of life
to become for a while as reflective as possible. Thoughtful conversations need
to take place in every family, in every church, temple and mosque, in every
field, factory and office. Our representatives in Montpelier must hear from us,
but only the most carefully thought out reasons for our positions. To be
avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought.

For example, many letters sent our legislators enjoin them to remember "the
sanctity of traditional marriage." Yet few traditions have changed more over
the years than marital ones. For centuries, parents knew best - marriages were
arranged. For an even longer period of time, husbands had all property rights
including their wives and daughters themselves. Until very recently interracial
marriages often were forbidden, and Bible readers should recall that the early
biblical practice of polygamy, although later abandoned, is nowhere in the Bible
explicitly forbidden.

In short, with so many traditions, we need both to recover and to recover from
them. All of which is not to take away from the sanctity of marriage, for few
things are more sacred than an avowed commitment between two people to an
intimate, lifelong relationship.

People who say "same-sex marriage makes me uncomfortable" should probably remind themselves that comfort has nothing to do with the issue and that, often as not, change is discomforting. I think those of us who are straight people really
need to sit down quietly and compare our own discomfort with the discomfort of
gays and lesbians who for years have been excluded, isolated, silenced, abused
and even killed.

The argument that gays threaten to destroy heterosexual marriage is an assertion only, not an argument. If anyone destroys marriage, it's married people, not gays.

Finally, I think we need to examine carefully the position shared by many
thoughtful folk who are anxious that whatever the legislators in Montpelier do
"it must be everything as good as marriage."

In 1896 in Plessy vs. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court found "separate but
equal" to be constitutional in educating black and white children. But in 1954
the court ruled that "separate" inevitably meant unequal. Would not the same
inequality prove true were civil marriage reserved for straight couples only
while gay and lesbian unions were designated otherwise? Further, if for all of
us marriage is a profound symbol, and for some of us a sacred one, what right
have straight people to deny it to gays and lesbians for whom it is altogether
as meaningful?

I think gays are right in insisting that marriage by any other name just isn't
marriage. And isn't it ironic that Vermont law today recognizes gay and lesbian
families, but has yet to legalize the marriages which generally precede the
formation of families?

By recalling "our common humanity" the Supreme Court reminded us that all human relationships be judged by their inner worth, not by their outward appearance. That being the case, I believe the state should not hesitate to offer gays and lesbians the same civil marriage available to straight couples. Certainly the legal matter of extending rights would be vastly simplified if the marriage
language were uniform.

As a male I consider myself at best a recovering chauvinist. As a white person
I am a recovering racist, and as a straight person a recovering heterosexist.
To women, African-Americans, gays and lesbians, I am deeply grateful for
stretching my mind, deepening my heart, and convincing me that no human being
should ever be patient with prejudice at the expense of its victims.
___________________________________________________
-The Rev. William Sloane Coffin is a resident of Strafford.

6. Adam's Last Word.

The Washington DC area had a surprise snow storm Tuesday, 25 January and then another storm on Sunday, 30 January. Everything shut down as the snow continued to come down all day and into the evening. The snow is beautiful, but it
reminds me of how vulnerable we are to God's created nature. Washington ground to a halt Tuesday -- the schools closed, the federal government shut down, and all businesses closed.

Yesterday was Sunday and though schools closed today, most people managed to
struggle to work since the crews had all night to clean up over 10 inches of
snow and ice. Snow, a FedEx screw-up, and other delays have delayed our
publication date for "Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse" by a couple of days,
but we will be shipping out pre-paid, pre-publication orders this week! Just
about 10% of the initial press run has been sold in the pre-publication sale,
which is great news for the Press!

I hope that whatever the weather where you are, you are enjoying the awesome
(and sometimes inconvenient) beauty of God's created nature. And if you don't
like the snow, do what we do here in the DC area -- wait a few days, it will
warm up and melt of its own accord.

Thanks for reading the Chi Rho Press eNewsletter. We appreciate your support.
I hope to see many of you in Harrisburg at the book signing next Sunday.

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We are glad you are partners with us here at Chi Rho Press. We are eager
for your comments, your suggestions, your assistance with selling our books, and
your own purchases! And of course, we covet your prayers for this ministry.

Grace and peace,

Adam DeBaugh, Director
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Our snailmail address is:

Chi Rho Press
P.O. Box 7864
Gaithersburg, MD 20898.

Our telephone and fax number is 301/926-1208

You may order any of our books via snailmail, telephone or e-mail at:
ChiRhoPrss@aol.com or on the web at
www.chirhopress.com

We will ship your order with an invoice. Include your mailing address and telephone number please.

Copyright 2000, Chi Rho Press.

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