Via Facebook // Chestor Hitchcock

 

I retired in July of 2019 with a plan to launch a ministry teaching my Gospel Memory Course in churches, first locally and eventually taking it nationwide.  

My wife and I mailed out flyers and were beginning to plan our schedule for evening and weekend seminars; then the pandemic hit in January 2020 and churches canceled their plans.  

Through 2020 I shifted my ministry focus to launching a YouTube channel where I recorded various Bible lessons for people to enjoy at home while church attendance was canceled in some places and greatly limited in others.

One of my YouTube Bible series is titled “God Loves the LGBTQ+ Community”.  

For most of my tenure in pastoral ministry I accepted the general view held by most Christians regarding the LGBTQ+ Community.  While I showed love and compassion, I also believed that all same-sex relationships were sin.  I have to admit that it isn’t always easy to change one’s life-long beliefs when we consider evidence.

Nevertheless, when the need presented itself to consider the evidence, due to questions that were asked by some in my congregation, I fully expected to show how the texts demonstrated what Christians generally believe about being gay.  While my professional training didn’t address the LGBTQ topic, it did provide the biblical research tools and skills to reexamine generally accepted beliefs and to my surprise, I wasn't finding the answers I expected to find there.

The research tools and skills are pretty simple, not requiring a college degree as much as a courageous heart to respond to what the Bible says regardless of what one expects it to say.  My YouTube series on LGBTQ uses these simple principles to examine every passage used to address the LGBTQ topic in the generally accepted understanding.

While the view that I present in each passage may greatly alter the accepted view of the passage, it causes no harm to the Christian doctrines of love, grace and righteousness by faith which is the heart and soul of the Christian faith.

Unfortunately, many loving, grace-oriented Christians struggle with the idea of fully accepting and affirming the gay community even after seeing the evidence.  To do so not only challenges their own life-long view, but also puts them at odds with most traditional and conservative churches where they attend.  Furthermore the topic has become so politically charged that to acknowledge that the Bible isn’t as anti-gay as they once believed, puts many people at odds with their political views.

Suddenly, evidence or no evidence, changing one’s mind regarding what the Bible really says or doesn’t say about the gay community requires more than a simple change in thinking.    It requires more than altering one’s understanding of a Bible passage here and a Bible story there.  It requires an entire altering of our spiritual, political and social relationships.

Sometimes these alterations in life are not possible unless we witness someone close in our family dealing with the pain and suffering associated with being born different from the majority and being accused of choosing a sinful lifestyle.  When that happens, many people are willing to open their eyes to the evidence for the sake of the one they love.

As a straight, cis-gender, heterosexual, white male pastor with all of the privileges afforded to me; I have chosen the road less traveled.  I don’t have “a dog in the fight” as they say.  I don’t know anyone in my family who is LGBTQ.  I am not trying to defend myself or anyone close to me.  I am however, committed to defending God’s Word at all cost.

While defending God's Word from the misinterpretations and speaking out against traditional views, I have suffered rejection, criticism, silence and avoidance for my stand for truth.  When Paul says “rejoice in suffering” I have discovered how difficult that is when it could be totally avoided by simply following the religious crowd, but so it is!  Here I stand!  And I cannot do anything else but be true to my calling.  All professionals must be willing to take a hard stand when necessary regardless of whether it affects themselves or others.  In this case, I rejoice in whatever criticism comes my way if it brings hope and happiness to those suffering from misinterpreted Bible passages.

Watch for my upcoming video that addresses the phrase, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” used by some against the LGBTQ Community.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Chester

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from False Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH Refraining from False Speech False speech is unhealthy. Refraining from false speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning false speech, one dwells refraining from false speech, a truth-speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world. One does not in full awareness speak falsehood for one’s own ends or for another’s ends or for some trifling worldly end. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak falsely, but I shall abstain from false speech.” (MN 8) When one knows overt sharp speech to be true, correct, and beneficial, one may utter it, knowing the time to do so.  (MN 139)

Reflection It is important to speak the truth, even if it is inconvenient for some to hear it. It is even more important to speak up when what you say is likely to be beneficial. When you can help a person or situation emerge from what is unhealthy or unwholesome and become established instead on a more healthy course, it is worthwhile and even necessary to say something. Even so, good timing and sensitivity are useful skills to employ. Daily Practice Speech is such a rich area for mindfulness practice. It is important to be aware of not only your own internal intentions as you speak but also the context and how your words are likely to be heard and received by others. Right speech is skillful speech, and one of the skills to be learned is knowing when and how to say things that are difficult for people to hear. You will need to balance being truthful, helpful, and timely. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Bodily Action One week from today: Refraining from Malicious Speech Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: There Is Just Now

 Invite the mind to pay attention to the body’s time so that the mind can learn a simple truth: There is just now.

Willa Blythe Baker, “Being in Body Time”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - October 5, 2022 💌

"I think in relationships, you create an environment with your own work on yourself, which you offer to another human being to use to grow in the way they need to grow." - Ram Dass

 

Via White Crane Institute // LOUISE FITZHUGH

 

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Author Louise Fitzhugh

1928 -

LOUISE FITZHUGH was an American writer and illustrator of children's books, born on this date (d: 1974), known best for the novel Harriet the Spy. Her other novels were two Harriet sequels, The Long Secret and Sport, and Nobody's Family is Going to Change.

Fitzhugh was the illustrator of the 1961 children's book Suzuki Beane, a parody of Eloise; while Eloise lived in the Plaza, Suzuki was the daughter of beatnik parents and slept on a mattress on the floor of a Bleeker Street pad in Greenwich Village. Fitzhugh worked closely with author Sandra Scopperttone to produce Suzuki Beane, which incorporated typewriter font and line drawings in an original way. Although a parody of both Eloise and beatnik conceit, the book sprang to life as a genuine work of literature. Today, it is much sought after on used-book websites.

Fitzhugh's best-known book was Harriet the Spy, published in 1964 to some controversy since so many characters were far from admirable. It has since become a classic. According to her New York Times obituary, published November 19, 1974: "The book helped introduce a new realism to children's fiction and has been widely imitated". Like Fitzhugh, Harriet is the daughter of affluent New Yorkers who leave her in the care of her nanny, Ole Golly, in their Manhattan townhouse.

Louise’s father, Millsaps Fitzhugh, was a prominent lawyer who told Louise that her mother, Mary Louise Perkins, a ballet teacher from Clarksdale, Miss., died when Louise was a baby.  That was a lie. Mary Louise was alive and well, teaching dance in Clarksdale (about an hour and a half away from Memphis) and trying to see her baby. Mary Louise — who had met Millsaps while vacationing in Europe — had chafed under her husband’s controlling, boorish behavior (he wouldn’t let her teach, gave her a paltry allowance and disparaged her family, calling them “trash”) and demanded a divorce. Despite the emotional abuse he inflicted on his wife, Millsaps won full custody of Louise — he had bragged that he had the courts “all sewn up” due to his family name. 

The Fitzhughs refused to let Mary Louise see the child; Josephine particularly thought Mary Louise, who came from a poor family, was a bad influence. 

Hardly the feminine girl heroine typical of the early 1960s, Harriet is a writer who notes everything about everybody in her world in a notebook which ultimately falls into the wrong hands. Ole Golly gives Harriet the unlikely but practical advice that: "Sometimes you have to lie. But to yourself you must always tell the truth". By and large, Harriet the Spy was well-received—it was named to the New York Times Outstanding Book Award list in 1964—and it has sold 4 million copies since publication. It was very popular among young girls, particularly unfeminine or non-conforming girls who lacked representation in fiction; Fitzhugh, like many of Harriet's fans, was a lesbian.

Two characters from the book, Beth Ellen and Sport, were featured in two of Fitzhugh's later books, The Long Secret and Sport. The Long Secret deals fairly honestly with female puberty; the main characters are pre-teen girls who discuss how their changing bodies feel. Another young adult manuscript, Amelia, concerned two girls falling in love. This manuscript was not published and was later lost.

Fitzhugh illustrated many of her books and had works exhibited in Banfer Gallery, New York, in 1963, among many other galleries.

According to a recent biography, Sometimes You Have to Lie, written by Leslie Brodie,  Fitzhugh led a secret life that would have thrilled her nosy heroine. She was a pint-sized heiress with a wealthy, dysfunctional Southern family. She was a lesbian who dressed in tailored suits and capes and had multiple affairs with women and a few men. She wrote her books before her death in 1974, at the young age of 46, and her last romantic partner took pains to keep as much of Louise’s salacious past — including her sexuality — under wraps. 

Those attempts notwithstanding, Fitzhugh was artistic, rebellious, impulsive and captivating. Standing at a pint-sized 4 feet, 11 inches, she looked like a fairy or sprite — with her delicate frame and sly smile. As a teen she wore overalls and cropped hair and dated both boys and girls. The summer before college, she eloped with one of her high school sweethearts, Ed Thompson, one wild evening in Mississippi, though she was sleeping with a woman, artist Amelia Brent, at the time. (The marriage was quickly annulled, but she and Ed remained friendly.) 

Later, after transferring to Bard to study writing, she seduced her gay male poetry adviser, James Merrill, who recounted in his memoir that Louise “began undressing me” and “what we found ourselves doing proved to be a thrilling discovery.” 

Louise, however, preferred sleeping with women, and in 1951 she moved to Greenwich Village with her old flame Amelia. There, Louise would fall in with an artistic lesbian crowd, including pulp novelist Marijane (MJ) Meaker, playwright Lorraine Hansberry and the photographer Gina Jackson. She frequented gay coffee shops and nightclubs and swore off women’s clothes, preferring button-down shirts, trousers and sometimes a velvet cape.

An inheritance from her grandmother — despite being estranged from her father’s family — allowed Louise to live the life of a starving artist without the starving part, and she studied painting not only at the Art Students League, but also in Paris, where she would meet her second serious girlfriend, France Burke, and Bologna, Italy, where she painted frescoes alongside her friend and lover Fabio Rieti. Rieti and Louise had a tempestuous two-month affair, and she told him that he was the only man she ever loved, though she ultimately decided “I can’t abide a male human being in my bed,” and dumped him. 

“Harriet the Spy” was controversial when it was published in 1964. It was shockingly subversive. Harriet’s parents are rich, well-meaning but clueless yuppies who attend cocktail parties and leave their 11-year-old in the care of her nanny, Ole Golly. Her best friend, Sport, has to cook and make cocktails for his degenerate writer father. Her other best friend, Janie, wants to be a scientist so she can “blow up the world.” Harriet sees a child psychologist, drinks egg creams and uses curse words. One reviewer called the book “depressing”; another called Harriet “pathetic.” But the novel flew off the shelves and ushered in a wave of realism in children's literature, from S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” to Judy Blume’s “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.” 

After a string of live-in girlfriends, she met a nurse named Lois Morehead and the two moved to Connecticut with Lois’ 13-year-old daughter in 1969. Lois helped keep Louise in line — and away from her wild New York friends, to their annoyance. But Louise was productive. In 1974, she finished another book, “Nobody’s Family Is Going to Change,” about a middle-class black family. But a few weeks before it was published, Louise suffered a brain aneurysm and was rushed to the hospital. She died at just 46. 

Lois, as executor of Louise’s estate, would — as Brody writes in the biography — “preserve the mystique surrounding the author of Harriet the Spy." While a few picture books and one other novel have been published since Nobody’s Family Is Going to Change, many of Louise’s manuscripts have remained under lock and key. 

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

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