M. G. Radhakrishnan of India Today: "This meeting is absolutely important. For it is the first of its kind to happen in Kerala."

"The first of its kind in Kerala" - to talk about LGBT issues "within a Christian theological context" - M. G. Radhakrishnan, Associate Editor, India Today

By Rev. Steve Parelli July 19, 2011 Classic Ave Hotel, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

Just hours ago, here in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, Rev. Steve Parelli and Jose Ortiz, Other Sheep Executive Director and Other Sheep Coordinator for Asia respectively,  spoke “On being evangelical Christian and gay in the USA” to an audience consisting of  three LGBT activists and Kerala University students who were primarily Hindu, two each of the Christian and Muslim faith, and two who identified as non-religious.  At the door, 24 individuals registered with name and contact information. 

Mr. M. G. Radharishnan, Associate Editor of the India Today magazine with a readership of over 20 million, “one of the very few newsmen in Kerala who are at home in both English and Malayalam, handling both with equal ease and consummate fluency” sat with the audience and asked questions, made comments, and at times translated from Malayalam to English when Malayalam was used by individuals in the audience.

Following the meeting, Mr. Radhakrishnan spontaneously left an unsolicited written comment on a sheet of paper at the registration table in his own hand writing which he signed.  It reads:  “This meeting is absolutely important.  For it is the first of its kind to happen in Kerala – where issues like sexuality, homosexuality, etc., are openly discussed – within a Christian Theological context.” Signed, “MGRadhakrishnan”

Quoting Manvendra Sigh Gohil, member of the royal family of the princely state of Rajpipla, as saying he wanted to come out “because I wanted people to openly discuss homosexuality because it is a hidden affair with a lot of stigma attached,” Parelli said by telling their story as gay and Christian he hopes to show the Christian community worldwide that “homosexuals are as common within religious communities as they are in every area and walk of live.”  He said he hopes “the Christian community will fully accept homosexuals as part of God’s diversified creation.”

Coming from the evangelical Christian tradition themselves, and noting the strong presence of evangelicals in Kerala, Parelli cited Faith Baptist Bible College of Ernakulam, and the ministry of Pastor G. S. Nair, Field Director of Fundamental Baptist Mission to India as two evangelical ministries in Kerala in association with the evangelical circles in the States to which Parelli belonged at one time.  Highlighting the evangelical’s absolute belief in the Bible, Parelli said “Generally, for the (fundamentalist) evangelical, the Bible trumps experience, social science, psychology, science, and culture.” 

Parelli said Christians use six different passages from the Bible to condemn homosexuals.  He gave a brief overview of the passages and a pro-LGBT rendering of each.  He said the story of the destruction Sodom and Gomorrah, from which the word “Sodomy” is derived, is found in both the Bible and the Koran.  Referring to Chuck Colson’s doomsday remarks on same-sex marriage in California as an example, Parelli said, American evangelicals justify their certainty of God’s eventual judgment upon America from the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone. 

Parelli, to show the correlation between Indian and American evangelicals, said an Old Testament professor of a Bible college of the state of Tamil Nadu (India), after hearing

Steve and Jose tell their story as Christian and gay, last week, to faculty members and the college president (by invitation of the president and a faculty member), emailed them saying “I pray God may open your eyes to see your folly of misinterpreting the Word of God . . . Because of these abominations USA is under condemnation and under the judgment of God.  So God’s plea to all the people like you, the blind leaders to truth, is Repent! . . . “

As a young gay Christian adult, Ortiz said he “was overwhelmed with guilt and inner turmoil to the point of even wishing that God would just ‘take me home to heaven.’ That was a ‘spiritual’ way of saying I no longer wanted to be in this earth – a death wish!’  Ortiz said he agonized over the realization that the Christian community would reject him if they were to learn he is gay. “My experience,” he said, “is shared by many other gay Christians all over the world.”

Two Kerala University students, both heterosexual and interested in human rights, arranged the July 18 student meeting after having met Jose and Steve in Trivandrum, Tuesday evening, July 12, outside their college hostel (student dormitory) where Jose and Steve were handing out leaflets on the new Malayalam publication (an abridged version) of Rev. Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connoley’s book The Children Are Free:  Reexamining the Biblical Evidence on Same-sex Relationships.

The Children Are Fee in Malayalam was distributed at the July 18 student meeting.  From the audience, the comment was made that there has not been since the translation of the Bible itself, as revolutionary a book in the Malayalam language as The Children Are Free.

The 5:00PM student meeting was held at the Dr. G. Mirmalam Memorial Hall Kerala Veterinarian’s Building on Dharmalayam Road in Trivandrum.

BOOK REVIEW: Mark D. Jordan (2011). Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality. hicago: University of Chicago.

Reviewed by Tom Hanks www.fundotrasovejas.org.arg
July 19, 2011
Posted from Trivandrum, Karala, India (Classic Ave. Hotel) by Steve Parelli, July 19, 2011
Today, while in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, I received this review in an email from Tom Hanks - SP

“Jordan has once again written a compelling, concise, exciting, and important contribution to the study of sexuality and religion, which will most certainly shape scholarly work and cultural debates for years to come.  Jordan confirms his reputation as one of the leading voices in the study of religion and sexuality.” -Michael Cobb author of God Hates Fags: The Rhetoric of Religious Violence. 

In Recruiting Young Love, Mark D. Jordan explores more than a half century of American church debate about homosexuality to show that even as the main lesson—homosexuality is bad, teens are vulnerable—has remained constant, the arguments and assumptions have changed remarkably.  At the time of the first Kinsey Report, in 1948, homosexuality was simultaneously condemned and little discussed—a teen struggling with same-sex desire would have found little specific guidance.  Sixty years later, church rhetoric has undergone a radical shift, as silence has given way to frequent public, detailed discussion of homosexuality and its perceived dangers.  Along the way, churches have quietly adopted much of the language and ideas of modern sexology, psychiatry, and social reformers—deploying it, for example, to buttress the credentials of antigay “deprogramming” centers and traditional gender roles.  Jordan tells this story through a wide variety of sources including oral histories, interviews, memoirs and even pulp novels; the result is a fascinating window onto the never-ending battle for the teenage soul [front flap, book cover].  

Mark Jordan is the Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, author of many books, including The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (1997), also available in Spanish (2002).  Since he grew up in Mexico he has great interest in Latin America and is available for lectures in Spanish.  Although the focus of this work is the United States, anyone familiar with the similar debates in Latin America and elsewhere (where American TV evangelists were broadcast in Spanish) will find much that has been duplicated here. 

I was just 14 years old, hyperactive in the neighborhood Presbyterian church, and only recently had learned the word for my “homosexuality” when in 1948 the St. Louis Post Dispatch shocked me with its front page headline regarding the finding of the first Kinsey Report: 37% of the males interviewed had had same-sex experience!  It was strangely comforting to learn that, though afflicted with what the scientists then considered a psychological problem/illness, at least I had a lot more company than I could have imagined.  Now, having lived through the 60 years history of religious-sexual conflict that Jordan so astutely analyzes, I found his work fascinating and highly instructive. 

As a Protestant missionary Bible professor in Latin America, probably I have been overly allergic and not sufficiently analytic regarding all the reports of clerical sexual abuse and the high percentage of male Roman Catholic religious reported to be homosexual (Jordan’s estimates range from 25 to 75%, depending on the type and area).  Jordan, however, enables us to perceive the coherence of an institution that systematically creates conditions that attract persons of homosexual orientation to religious callings but then develops a vast control network in which strict silence is maintain regarding its main focus of concern.  The great haven for Roman Catholic youth who recognize they want to avoid traditional marriage thus becomes a lifelong torture chamber to keep them from acting out their deepest emotional needs. 

Jordan’s analyzes church history, but if we link this history to Ted Jennings’ portrayal of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament as uniquely and highly homoerotic literature, we can see the basic continuity between Scripture and church (with sporadic efforts to incorporate ancient patriarchal households, as in the NT Haustafeln, and 20^th century “family values” as highly exceptional rather than normative).  Hence typical gay activists, who commonly view “religion” simplistically as their great monolithic “problem,” need to be challenged to take religion with utmost seriousness in order to comprehend the complexity of the phenomenon, deconstruct the negatives and build bridges to potential positive allies.  In this effort this and other works of Jordan, as well as those of Jennings, can be of invaluable help.

BOOK REVIEW: Hultgren, Arland J. (2011). Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Reviewed by Tom Hanks, Other Sheep, Buenos Aires.
July 19, 2011
Posted from Trivandrum, Karala, India (Classic Ave. Hotel) by Steve Parelli, July 19, 2011
Today, while in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, I received this review in an email from Tom Hanks - SP

Some books are worth two taxi fares and a 2-hour wait in Argentine customs and this proved to be one of them!  In this most recent of major commentaries on Romans (804 pp.) the author recognizes that in Romans 1:26-27 Paul does not condemn all homoerotic acts or relations, but only those that are “abusive” (see the attempted gang rape of visiting angels to Sodom in Genesis 19:1-11).  In this regard he differs significantly from Robert Jewett’s recent work (which rather uncritically followed Robert Gagnon’s highly prejudiced treatment). Otherwise, Hultgren who is Professor of New Testament at Luther Theological Seminary, St. Paul Minnesota and author of several highly respected works, represents a more traditional reading of Romans (interacting with, but not accepting some of the most radical conclusions of the “New Perspectives on Paul”). 

Although published by Eerdmans (conservative and evangelical), Hultgren’s commentary, has an unqualified recommendation from Donald A. Hagner of Fuller Theological Seminary (an evangelical institution with a longstanding anti-gay policy): “Hultgren’s wonderful treatment combines the highest level of scholarship in a nontechnical presentation, with a down-to-earth and insightful application”!  And lest we dismiss the work as simply popular devotional propaganda, Robert Kysar adds: “In this veritable encyclopedia Hultgren masterfully employs a wide range of the best scholarship in the service of the church….A treasure for both scholars and preachers” (both comments on the back cover) 

Hultgren treats Rom 1:26-27 exegetically (pp. 95-103) and again in Appendix 2 “Romans 1:26-27 and Homosexuality” (616-622, with a respectable 2 pp. bibliography).  His conclusion, briefly stated is: “That larger context of this section….favors the view that even in those verses reference is being made to destructive and/or abusive behavior” (617).  As he points out: “Throughout 1:19b-27 the indicative verbs in Greek are in the aorist (simple past) tense.  The effect is that Paul carries on his discourse as though he is talking about something that happened at some point in the past (in illo tempore, ‘in that time’ of mythical origins) that explains the present” (617).  He concludes: “As soon as the concept of sexual orientation is brought into the discussion and the words ‘heterosexual’ and ‘homosexual’ exist and can be used, the judgments made concerning persons must be changed significantly.  There can be no virtue in perpetuating an error in judgment, even if it is tradition and is, according to a traditional reading, thought to be expressed in Scripture itself.  Although the Bible knows about same-gender relationships, it knows nothing of sexual orientation, and therefore it knows nothing of ‘homosexuality’ or ‘homosexuality’ as descriptors of conditions or behaviors” (620).   

Hultgren even goes a bit out of his way to comment similarly on another traditional “clobber text” (1 Cor 6:9) and in such a way as to deprive homophobic interpreters of any Biblical basis:  “The degree to which 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 should be included within a discussion of Romans 1:26-27 is unclear….Perhaps the wisest course is to conclude that the precise meaning of the terms is inconclusive [he translates arsenokoitai literally as “male-bedders”] but that from the context it is clear that they are examples of persons who exploit others” (100-101). 

Hultgren could have presented an even stronger case.  He recognizes that “their women” (Rom 1:26) only practice  some behavior “against/beyond nature,” but not necessarily same-sex relations, and he even cites James E. Miller’s article (99, note 65), but follows the same-sex interpretation (initiated by John Chrystostom ca. 400 AD). He correctly interprets Rom 14:14 and 20 as affirming not just “food” but all things clean (517) but fails to cite William Countryman and relate this to the sexual “uncleanness” of 1:24.  Hultgren also recognizes that later in Romans Paul refers to God himself acting “against/beyond nature” (11:23-24) but fails to see the significance for the interpretation of Rom 1:26-27 (96).  Hultgren envisions Paul as referring to abuse and exploitation in such practices as pederasty (following Robin Scroggs), or those of clients of male prostitutes and the prostitutes themselves (101).  However, he points out that now “A new reality has come on the scene for the church, in which persons of the same gender claim to be Christians (not idolaters), know themselves to be homosexual (not heterosexual deviants), pledge themselves to lives of fidelity (rejecting promiscuity) and want their relationship public (not hidden away)” (619). 

NEWS RELEASE: Trivandrum Theological Forum features USA married gay couple at young Christian lay leaders conference in Kerala, India

NEWS RELEASE

July 12, 2011
Trivandrum, Kerala, India

CONTACT PERSONS

Sam L. Sone – Chairperson of Trivandrum Theological Forum (email: ttftvpm@yahoo.co.in)
R. S. Ajith – Secretary of Trivandrum Theological Forum (email: ttftvpm@yahoo.co.in)

Rev. Steve Parelli - Other Sheep Executive Director http://www.othersheepexecsite.com/
Mobile: 952 640 9736 (Classic Ave Hotel, Trivandrum)

Jose Ortiz Other- Sheep Coordinator for Asia http://www.othersheepexecsite.com/
Mobile: 952 640 9441 (Classic Ave Hotel, Trivandrum)

NEWS RELEASE
by Steve Parelli

Trivandrum Theological Forum (TTF) of Trivandrum, Kerala, India, a forward thinking lay-led Christian organization concerned, in part, with equipping the church to act and speak out on behalf of the marginalized of society, held its annual Young Lay Leaders Conference on July 7-9, 2011, in southern Kerala, India.

Rev. Steve Parelli and Mr. Jose Ortiz, a “husband and husband” gay couple legally married in California in 2008, were the featured guest speakers.

In his presentation, Rev. Parelli, formerly a Baptist minister, said “the church needs to understand what 'grid' it is using when reading the Bible. Is it an inclusive grid, or a discriminating grid; is it culturally and socially subservient or subversive.” Parelli said the church should be open to radical and critical thinking in moving towards inclusion.

Parelli, who knew he was gay since the age of 13, said he moved from "thinking Biblically" to "thinking critically" when he awoke one day to the thought, "What if the church is wrong with regards to its condemning view of homosexuality?" He called this his "first epiphany" in moving towards accepting himself as a gay man. He said his "second epiphany" came when he realized Romans 1:26, 27 - the "against nature" passage from the Bible - was not about him. He said it was an intellectually violent upheaval, an about-face when he came to the realization that "nothing in Romans 1 is about me as a gay man."

Citing the psychological research of Clock and Stark, Mr. Jose Ortiz, a school counselor in the public schools of New York City, said there are five dimensions of how people are religious: Intellectual, Experiential, Ideological, Ritualistic, and Consequence (Behavioral).

Ortiz said his religious expression during his youth showed greater strength in the Ideological and Behavioral dimensions, and that it was later in life, when confronted with the reality of his sexual orientation as homosexual, that he realized he needed to increase the Intellectual dimension of his religious life.

Ortiz said he was seventeen years old and soon to enter Bible college to become a missionary when he first discovered his attraction to those of his sex. He said the confusion he experienced as Christian and gay conflicted with the Ideological dimension of his religious life. He had very little information on the topic of homosexuality in the conservative Bible College he attended. He said the agony and inner turmoil of his being gay and Christian brought on periods of depression and suicidal thinking. Ortiz said this is the case with many gay Christians around the world.

When asked how they experienced the TTF conference, they said they “were honored to be able to present alongside gifted and highly qualified speakers.” Jose said he was “very impressed” with the young Christian lay leaders who, added Steve, are “committed to achievement, education and the welfare of the Christian community.”

On the first day of the three-day conference, Jose and Steve introduced themselves as "husband and husband." “Throughout the conference,” they said, “we kept ourselves involved and interactive with the young lay leaders. They were friendly, responsive, talkative, and appeared very accepting. It was a totally positive experience for us as a married gay couple presenting ourselves.”

Ortiz said the highlight of the conference for him was the unveiling of the TTF publication of the book The Children Are Free: Re-examining the Biblical Evidence on Same-sex Relationships, an abridged version, in Malayalam, the language of Kerala. Mr. Sanjeeva Ghosh of Trivandrum presented a copy of the Malayalam version to Rev. Anilal M. Jose of Kollam, Presbyter, Church of South India and Anil A. who received his copy on behalf of Sangama, an LGBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) center in Bangalore.

Jose and Steve said that Sam L. Sone and R. S. Ajith, Chairperson and Secretary of TTF respectively, by their “tireless leadership, progressive vision, and networking abilities,” had “created and directed a meaningful, instructive conference. We thank them, along with Dr. David Joy of Untied Theological College of Bangalore, for their joint invitation to be a part of this conference.”

Rev. Steve Parelli, ordained with Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) and member of MCC New York, is Executive Director of Other Sheep. Mr. Jose Ortiz, who, with his husband, is a member of The Riverside Church, New York City, is Other Sheep coordinator for Asia. Other Sheep is an ecumenical Christian ministry that works worldwide for the full inclusion of LGBT people within their respective faith traditions.

The Youth Lay Leader Conference, a function of Trivandrum Theological Forum (Trivandrum, Kerala, India), was sponsored by Trivandrum Theological Forum (TTF), Amirtham Ecumenical Trust, and Other Sheep.

Young church lay leaders in India shown underlying psychological dynamics of church bias towards sexual minorities

By Steve Parelli and Jose Ortiz
Classic Ave Hotel, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
July 10, 2011

Jose Ortiz, first row and last person at far right,
with attendees and speakers,
Young Lay Leaders Conference, July 7-9, 2011,
southern Keralal, India

On the second day of the Young Lay Leaders Conference (July 7-9, 2011) in Kerala, India, sponsored by Trivandrum Theological Forum, Amirtham Ecumenical Trust and Other Sheep, Jose Ortiz, Other Sheep Coordinator for Asia, spoke on the psychological aspects of relationships in the Church and how they apply to the gay Christian and the Church community.

Citing the psychological research of Clock and Stark, Ortiz said there are five dimensions of how people are religious:  Intellectual, Experiential, Ideological, Ritualistic, and Consequence (Behavioral).

Ortiz said his religious expression during his youth showed greater strength in the Ideological and Behavioral dimensions, and that it was later in life, when confronted with the reality of his sexual orientation as homosexual, that he realized he needed to increase the Intellectual dimension of his religious life.

Ortiz said he was seventeen years old and soon to enter Bible college to become a missionary when he first discovered his attraction to those of his sex. He said the confusion he experienced as Christian and gay conflicted with the Ideological dimension of his religious life.  He had very little information on the topic of homosexuality in the conservative Bible College he attended.  He said the agony and inner turmoil of his being gay and Christian brought on periods of depression and suicidal thinking.  Ortiz said this is the case with many gay Christians around the world.

Concerning the majority view of the Church towards sexual minorities, Ortiz said motivation and conformity are two factors that contribute to the rejection of homosexuals within the church.  Ortiz said extrinsically motivated church-goers are those who are in the church for the social benefits they derive and are not generally interested in truth and justice.  Often this group constitutes the majority.  Ortiz said research shows that prejudice, racism and maladjustment factor highly among those who are extrinsically motivated.  Quoting Sara Savage of Cambridge University, Ortiz said pastors and lay leaders should encourage the extrinsically motivated to “seek to enable the healthy, truth-oriented aspects of a person’s faith to gradually take ascendancy over any defensive purposes lurking behind religious faith.”

Ortiz said due to his desire to conform, he could not, while in Bible college, allow himself to seriously consider some literature he had read which called for the inclusion and acceptance of homosexuals within the church.  Ortiz named the six factors that contribute to conformity within groups and said the church has all six factors.  He said studies do show that minorities can change the view of the majority though dialogue and by their own behavior style.  Ortiz said this is why he and his partner are here in India dialoguing with Christians.  Ortiz said the majority will reconsider its rejection of homosexuals when they see the homosexual’s face, hear their voice, and see the love of God and the peace of God in them.

Rev. Steve Parelli tells young Christian lay leaders in India the Church must move towards welcoming the gay community

Reporting from the conference grounds,

Thursday, July 7, 20100
By Rev. Steve Parelli

In the second session of the first day of the Young Lay Leaders Conference, sponsored by Trivandrum Theological Forum, Amirtham Ecumenical Trust and Other Sheep, Rev. Steve Parelli, Executive Director of Other Sheep, presented a paper, using the medium of PowerPoint, on "An Inclusive Community or What the Church in India must consider towards becoming a Welcoming and Affirming Church for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) people."

Young Lay Leaders Conference, southern Kerala, India,
July 7-9, 2011.
Jose Ortiz and Rev Steve Parelli of Other Sheep, third and
fourth from left, front row (on knees)

Before presenting his paper, Parelli gave an overview of his life as a gay Christian from his teen years to his mid-life adult years when, at that time, he accepted himself as gay and Christian.  Parelli introduced his husband Jose Ortiz who is presenting on the second day of the conference.  They were married, he said, in the USA, in the state of California, on August 25, 2009.

In the first part of his presentation, Parelli said the church needs to have an understanding of its own history of exclusion and make whatever correctives are necessary.  Quoting Dr. George Nalunnakkal of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, Parelli said, "India's traditional silence on 'sexuality' is nothing but a celebrated myth.  In fact, the Indian mind had always engaged sexuality in a very open and radical manner.  It was, in fact the colonizers who had brought to India their 'values' and ethos, which suppressed the Indian tradition."

In his second part, Parelli said the church needs to understand what 'grid' the church is using when reading the Bible.  Is it an inclusive grid, or a discriminating grid; is it culturally and socially subservient or subversive.  Parelli said the church should be open to radical and critical thinking in moving towards inclusiveness.

Parelli said he moved from "thinking Biblically" to "thinking critically" when he awoke one day to the thought, "What if the church is wrong?"  He called this his "first epiphany" in moving towards accepting himself as a gay man.  He said his "second epiphany" came when he realized Romans 1:26, 27 - the "against nature" passage - was not about him.  He said it was an intellectually violent upheaval, an  about-face when he came to the realization that "nothing in Romans 1 is about me." 

In his third part, Parelli talked about the church's need for a love ethic.  Parelli said James B. Nelson makes the claim that there is no biblical sex ethic, only a love ethic;  that, for example, "there is no explicit prohibition" in the Bible on premarital sex between consenting adults.

Parelli said the religious leaders of Jesus' day "narrowed the love of God until it included only themselves" whereas Jesus had "widened the love of God until it reached out to all men" [William Barclay].

Parelli, making reference tp David Myers and Letha Scanzoni (What God Has Joined Together), said we are social beings with the innate desire to belong.  Parelli noted that Mr. Shyam Divan in Voices Against 377, said "Homosexuals suffer tremendous psychological harm.  Fear of discrimination leads to a concealment of true identity."

An American-African civil rights activist of the 50's and 60's, once told Parelli that the African-American, rejected openly by society, had his church and his family as a place where he could go and belong, but not so for the homosexual who often experiences rejection by society, his family and the church, and has nowhere to go.

Parelli concluded that "the reign of God on earth" is what Jesus demonstrated in his crossing social boundaries and in his disruption of the "habitual arrangement of things." 

"Jesus' teachings and actions were subversive," said Parelli. "He freed things and people."

The First Malayalam Edition of The Children Are Free is hot off the press!

TTF (Trivandrum Theological Forum) of Kerala, India, releases a first-of-its-kind Malayalam publication (a translation of the English version of TCAF) that claims the Bible does not condemn same-sex relationships

By Steve Parelli, Exec. Dir.of Other Sheep



Sam L. Sone, one of the twe
General Editors of the
Malayalam translation of TCAF,
and Chairperson of
the Trivandrum Theological Forum.
July 4, Classic Ave Hotel,
Trivandrum, Kerala, India

 You can imagine our joy when just this evening, here in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, we (Jose and Steve) were presented with copies - fresh off the press this late afternoon - of the translation of The Children Are Free: Re-examining the Biblical Evidence on Same-sex Relationships (TCAF) in Malayalam, the language spoken in the state of Kerala. The Kerala edition is an abridgement of the original English version.

Sam L. Sone, one of the two General Editors of the translation, and Chairperson of Trivandrum Theological Forum (TTF), called the new publication "the starting point and the platform" from which theologians, church leaders, theological students and the church in general in Kerala will now discuss the question of Christianity and same-sex relationships.




Left to right:  Rev. D. L. Paulson, Presbyter, Church of
South India; Sam L. Sone, General Editor and
Chairperson of TTF; Jose Ortiz, Other Sheep
Coordinator for Asia; D. Mano, translator;
R. S. Ajith, General Editor and Secretary of TTF.
July 4, 2011, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

 
The book is a Trivandrum Theological Forum (TTF) Publication (email: ttftvpm@yahoo.co.in). This first Malayalam edition is a printing of 2000 copies. Beginning next week, we (Steve and Jose) hope to distribute 1000 copies over a period of three weeks to interested parties throughout Kerala.

(For additional photos visit Other Sheep web page)

Steve Parelli and Jose Ortiz
Classic Ave. Hotel
Trivandrum, Kerala, India
July 4, 2011

We are the Unseen Outcasts within the Church

Written by Jose Ortiz, Dubai International Airport, July 1, 2011

Edited by Rev. Steve Parelli, Classic Ave. Hotel, Trivandrum, India, July 4, 2011

Our Other Sheep 2011 work in India actually began while in flight from New York to Dubai where we made a connecting flight to Trivandrum, India. Our seating – in a row of three-seats – placed me right next to a middle-aged Indian who I will call Deepak. Deepak, who has lived in America for 16 years, is a nationalized American citizen originally from Chennai, India. He was returning home to India to attend a wedding. His wife and children had returned earlier for the special event. He was happy to be joining them.

Jose Ortiz, left, and Steve Parelli
Jose typing out his composition from his handwritten notes
Dubai International Airport
July 2, 1011

Deepak had noticed the Bible Steve had passed to me to place in his seat pouch. He soon asked if we were Christians. When we answered “yes,” he responded with a broad smile (reminding me of that joy I would feel upon discovering a stranger to be a Christian) and said, “I am, too.” His spontaneous smile communicated to me his sense of enthusiasm in finding another Christian. I told him Steve had been a Baptist pastor and I . . . , but, as if on cue, he interrupted and immediately told us about the Baptist Church he attends in Florida where he lives. He asked if we had heard of his pastor, giving the pastor’s name and ministry.

At some point he asked us why we were traveling to India. After learning that we did human rights work for gays and lesbians in religious contexts and that we were a gay Christian couple, he politely said he would have plenty of questions for us during our flight. We welcomed this and said we would be glad to discuss anything he desired.

Read more . . .