Chi Rho Press eNewsletter
Volume 19 (5/00)

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Contents:

1. New Printing of "Called OUT!"
2. Truluck Tour in August
3. A Letter from the Mother of a Gay Son
4. Fasting for Soulforce
5. New $500 Promissory Notes Are Now Available
6. Travel
7. Hot Selling Books that You Won't Want to Miss!
8. Adam's Last Word

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1. New Printing of "Called OUT!"

We are almost completely out of the first printing of "Called OUT: Voices and Gifts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Presbyterians," edited by Jane Adams Spahr, Kathryn Poethig

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2. Truluck Tour in August

Chi Rho Press will be bringing Dr. Truluck to the Washington area for up to two weeks at the end of July and the beginning of August. He is booked into a meeting with Integrity Northern Virginia on Friday evening, August 4, and to preach and lead a workshop after worship at Holy Redeemer MCC in College Park, Maryland on Sunday, August 6.

Dr. Truluck will be available for up to two weeks (three weekends), beginning with Saturday, July 29 through all day Sunday, August 13. The exact length of his visit will, of course, depend on the number of events you all would like to schedule. He is available to preach, lead workshops based on the book "Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse," lead workshops on many other topics (such as those found in the appendices of the book), and do book signings. At Holy Redeemer, Clay Witt is having Dr. Truluck lead a workshop designed to be an introduction to the 52 week Bible study Holy Redeemer will have using the 13 steps in the book.

We hope to be able to schedule book signings at Lambda Rising, Politics and Prose bookstore, and perhaps a Borders or Barnes & Noble in Washington, but these haven't been firmed up yet. Other book signings, of course, are possible.

Naturally, we encourage non-weekend events. If those work well for your church, I would strongly encourage you to consider inviting Dr. Truluck for a mid-week event. I will be coordinating Dr. Truluck's schedule, so please e-mail or call me to arrange for a visit to your church.

We hope to be able to avoid hotel expenses, so we will be seeking homes (with a guest room) for Dr. Truluck to stay in while he is in the area. In addition, I will not be able to chauffeur him to all events, so we may rely on you for transportation to and from your event.

Your cost will be a love offering or honorarium for Dr. Truluck for each event you schedule with him. If you care to purchase copies of "Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse" for resale to your church members, we have discounts so that your church can even make some money!

(By the way, I am available on some Sundays to come to your church to set up a Chi Rho Press bookstore, and would welcome the invitation to visit you for that purpose. Please check out the range of our books and products.

You may contact me at 301/926-1208 or by e-mail at Adam@ChiRhoPress.com in order to arrange for Rembert Truluck to visit your congregation. I look forward to hearing from you.

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3. A Letter from the Mother of a Gay Son

This is a Letter to the Editor from the mother of a gay son. You may very well have seen it, because Sharon Underwood has written moving, powerful words which are well worth reading and many people have already sent it around the internet. I apologize if you have seen this already.

Sunday, April 30, 2000
By SHARON UNDERWOOD
For the Valley News (White River Junction, VT/Hanover, NH)

As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided people can be. Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.

I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.

In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.

You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.

At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.

If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?

A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."

You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.

You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.

How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage. You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.

The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"

Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?

Sharon Underwood lives in White River Junction, Vt.

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4. Fasting for Soulforce

Chris Hubble resides in Denver, Colorado, and is the author of "Lord Given Lovers: The Biblical Romance of David and Jonathan," to be published by Chi Rho Press later this year. Chris has been a student of satyagraha, the non-violent civil disobedience taught by Mohandas K. Gandhi in India and utilized by the Rev. Martin Luther King in the civil rights struggle here in the United States. Now satyagraha is being taught and used by the Rev. Mel White, and openly gay clergyman in the Metropolitan Community Churches. Dr. White is bringing "Soulforce" to bear on the religious opponents of LGBT people, with significant effect.

Chi Rho Press asked Chris to write about his experience of fasting along with Dr. White and thousands of people around the world, as Soulforce confronted the United Methodist Church General Conference in Ohio this last week. Here is Chris' report

"Hey Chris, you hungry?"

"No."

Christina, the receptionist at my workplace, looked shocked. "I have a piece of carrot cake, here." I have a reputation around our office of always knowing where the free food is.

"I really can't. I'm fasting today."

"Are you stupid?"

I asked Christina if she'd ever heard of Soulforce and explained that, collectively, Soulforce is the principles of nonviolent resistance taught by M. K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Of course, she'd never heard of Mel White. Rev. White is a gay minister who used to be a ghostwriter for many figures of the religious right. He came out about ten years ago and is now a cofounder of Soulforce, Inc.

Soulforce, Inc. is a, "network of friends learning nonviolence from Gandhi and King seeking justice for God's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Children." Mel has devoted his life to applying these principles in our collective struggle for LGBT Justice. Over the past year and a half, he has accomplished many modern day miracles:

Last fall, he co-hosted an anti-violence forum with Rev. Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia. Mel and two hundred other Soulforce Activists engaged in a weekend long dialogue with Jerry and two hundred of his fellow church members and students at Liberty University.

This February, Rev. White and several fellow clergy members staged a nonviolent demonstration outside FoxFamily Network, who broadcasts Pat Robertson's "The 700-Club". A week or so after the demonstration, the president of FoxFamily e-mailed Mel and invited him to join in negotiation. A little over a month after Soulforce's demonstration, FoxFamily agreed to give Soulforce, Inc. public service time to rebut Rev. Robertson's antigay rhetoric.

Last week, Soulforce organized a mass arrest in Cleveland. Roughly 200 hundred people including Arun Gandhi (M. K. Gandhi's grandson), Yolanda King (Dr. King's daughter), and several other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement protested the antigay policies of the United Methodist Church. The mass arrest coincided with the United Methodist General Conference.

When I first discovered Mel's teachings I was cynical. "I'm sick of suffering! I left suffering behind when I came out of the closet," I wrote Mel. I felt our best hope for achieving justice was to live our lives openly and to continue our efforts in the political arena.

In his 1963 letter from the Birmingham jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote, "Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored."

With his Direct Actions, this is exactly what Mel is doing. He is dramatizing that we aren't evil, that we are precious Children of a Loving Creator who deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and equal treatment under the law. He has, rightly, directed his efforts at our religious opponents because the greatest untruth told in our society is that the Bible condemns homosexuality. Of course it doesn't! The story of David and Jonathan is one of the most moving and clear examples of same-sex love and Holy Union (I & II Samuel). Unfortunately, the "Terror Texts" have been mistranslated, misinterpreted, and misrepresented to justify condemnation, persecution, and the continued denial of our civil rights.

This is why I chose to fast while Mel White and Soulforce were in Cleveland. I couldn't be there, but I wanted to do something. I conducted a water fast during the entire Soulforce Direct Action in Cleveland - from 7 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Thursday. Fasting is one means by which one can detach one's attention from sense attachments, obtain greater concentration, and focus in prayer. This act of voluntary redemptive suffering was my demonstration of commitment to our movement and Soulforce. The vow to Voluntary Redemptive Suffering is one of the five Soulforce vows, or promises. The other four Soulforce Vows are the vows to Truth, to Love, to control passions, and to limit possessions.

"Don't you know you can DIE if you don't eat?" I looked at Christina and said, "Yes." This is part of the power of Soulforce. Through demonstrating our willingness to give our very lives, we demonstrate our persistence and dedication to bringing our truth to our opponents.

My conversation with Christina was one of many opportunities I was given to dramatize the issue of LGBT Justice for my coworkers. We seldom realize how important a role food plays in our daily lives. One simply cannot fast in our society without drawing attention.

The fast went well and was relatively painless. I drank plenty of water, lost six pounds, and didn't die.

In fact, this evening I enjoyed a wonderful piece of carrot cake.

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5. New $500 Promissory Notes Are Now Available

The Board of Directors has decided to offer $500 Promissory Notes to supporters who wish to invest in Chi Rho Press. Like our $1,000 Promissory Notes, the $500 Notes are repaid at 8% simple interest over a two-year period, with payments being made every three months. For more details, e-mail Adam@ChiRhoPress.com.

Promissory Notes in both $500 and $1,000 denominations are available now. Income from these investments will be used to complete debt consolidation and retirement and as capital for the production of new books and for new printings of existing inventory.

We are especially looking for people to invest in the reprint of two of our popular "Handouts," called "What do We Believe" and "Welcome to MCC." Please invest in YOUR LGBT Christian publishing house now and get a good return on your money!

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6. Travel

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7. Hot Selling Books that You Won't Want to Miss!

These are the Chi Rho Press books that are our best sellers this spring:

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"Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse," by Dr. Rembert Truluck; available for $24.95 each, six or more copies for $18.75 each, plus shipping and handling.

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"Come Home! Reclaiming Spirituality and Community as Gay Men and Lesbians," second edition, by Chris Glaser; available for $19.95 each, $14.95 each for six or more copies, plus shipping and handling.

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"From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People and Those Who Love Them," compiled and edited by Roberta Showalter Kreider; available for $19.95 each, $14.95 each for six or more copies, plus shipping and handling.

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"The Bible and Homosexuality," fifth edition, by the Rev. Michael England; available for $10.95 each, $8.95 each for six or more copies, plus shipping and handling.

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"My Memory Book! A Journal for Grieving Children," second edition, by Gretchen Gaines Lane; available for $10.95 each, $8.95 each for six or more copies, plus shipping and handling.

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Chi Rho Press' shipping and handling charges are $2.50 for orders up to $19.99, $3.50 for orders of $20 to $39.99, $4.50 for orders of $40 to $59.99, $5.50 for orders of $60 to $79.99, $6.50 for orders of $80 to $99.99, and 7% of the total for orders of $100 and over.

Send your check or money order, made out to Chi Rho Press, to us at P.O. Box 7864, Gaithersburg, MD 20898. You may also order via e-mail and be invoiced, write to Orders@ChiRhoPress.com with the books you want and your mailing address and phone number

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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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Chi Rho Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 7864
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phone or fax: 1-613-386-5711; or toll free (leave a message) 1-877-245-9569.

Copyright 2000, Chi Rho Press, Inc.

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