No. 2

Transforming Despair Into Hope

January 1, 1995
Melanie Morrison

... What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other's despair into hope?
You yourself must change it.

... Though your life felt ...

To Denominational Gate Keepers: A Call to Action

January 1, 1995
Howard B. Warren Jr.

In the midst of our work of building a truly inclusive church where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons will join hands with heterosexuals in full membership, we have said little about our experience with denominational executives who go by many titles but see themselves in this struggle mainly as gate keepers or peace keepers.

The People of the Eyes

January 1, 1995
John Sumwalt

Once upon a time, a millennium or two ago, on a volcanic island that has long since been covered by the waters of the sea, there existed a small nation known as the People of the Eyes. The Eyesonians were distinguished by their large round eyes and by the fact that they valued seeing clearly more than anything else. At the center of their city, on the highest hill overlooking the sea, stood a beautiful temple which had been carved in the shape of an eyeball.

Identifying Race Privilege: From One White to Another

January 1, 1995
Jennifer Simpson

Five years ago, an African American student at the seminary I was
attending spoke her mind and I was fortunate enough to be there when she did. "I have been waiting for the day when white ...

Gender Privilege: A Rural Clergy Couple's Conversation

January 1, 1995
Barbara Lemmel, Mitchell Hay

Imagine a quiet rural town in upstate New York and a large parsonage next to the church. We are drinking coffee in our living room on a Saturday afternoon, having just put our eight-month old baby down for a nap. In the midst of this domestic scene, we found ourselves in serious discussion about gender and privilege.

Mitchell: How do we find a working definition for gender privilege? Obviously it is based in patriarchy...

Heterosexuality: A Privileged Place

January 1, 1995
Patricia Beattie Jung

Patricia Beattie Jung, a Roman Catholic laywoman, is an Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University in Chicago. She has published many scholarly articles and co-edited with Thomas A. Shannon an anthology on Abortion and Catholicism: The American Debate.

Coming Out Old: Issues of Ageism and Privilege.

January 1, 1995
Dorothy Jean Furnish

"You're 74 years old? Impossible! You don't look a day over 60!" I smile with evident pleasure, blush ever so slightly, and reply, "Aren't you kind! Thank you for saying that! I really don't feel old." Everyone is happy. My friend has been gracious by underestimating my age. And my sense of being a "special person"—not like other old people—has been reinforced.

Exploring Disability and Privilege

January 1, 1995
Fred Berchtold

While attending the National Convocation of Reconciling

The Elite and the Other: Thoughts on Classism

January 1, 1995
Karen L. Bloomquist, Rosemary Radford Ruether

American Myth:Class has no relevance to our struggles for justice in this society.

Concentrated Wealth: The Underlying DivisionBy Rosemary Radford Ruether

Attention to injustices ...

Making Tangled Roots Visible

November 30, 1994
Mary Jo Osterman

CEO reviews two equally qualified candidates and hires the man, not the woman.
A local church committee turns down a possible new pastor who seemed a good match for the congregation, but is ...