“It’s Going to Rain, Noah! … How Long Can You Tread Water?”
What Can You Do to Carry You through the Storm?

How to Build an Ark

A six-week seminar and workshop
on Developing Personal Communities
Tuesday evenings • May 15 through June 19, 2012
6:30 – 8:30 pm
Facilitated by Jim Manchester

St. John’s MCC
805 Glenwood Avenue • Raleigh NC
www.StJohnsMCC.org

It may not seem like it is raining very hard right now. But let me assure you – your storm or challenge is coming. Many, many people are in the midst of a storm that is so strong that they cannot see a safe end. Some storms approach so subtly that people don’t even know they are in one! Some people have become so accustomed to living in tragedy that they don’t realize that it is time to do something about it before life becomes a disaster.

Taking a lesson from the story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis, this seminar and workshop will show you how to deal with your current challenge or impending disaster. You may be dealing with issues of

• Substance abuse
• Co-dependency
• Excessive or compulsive pleasure
• Loneliness
• Financial concerns
• Professional or personal conflicts
• Stormy relationships with family, partners, and sometimes-irresponsible friends
• Arrogant self-centeredness
• Or anything that keeps you from living a full and happy life with lots of genuine, loving friends.

Because of the nature of this class, you need to attend the first session and as many sessions as you can thereafter. Materials will be provided for you when you come to the first session on May 15th. So we can be sure we have enough, please register by clicking here.

Register for "How to Build an Ark"

Click here to download the PDF Poster for the class.

Re: Amendment 1

I am the publisher of The Blotter, a magazine distributed throughout North Carolina. The proposed Amendment 1 could, among many other hateful things, forbid companies from providing equal benefits to their gay employees. I and my colleagues hereby state that if it passes, we will categorically refuse to obey it.

At the moment this is a moot point, since we're so small and nonprofit we can't afford to pay anyone benefits, including ourselves. It's a matter of principles instead. The principle that all our employees are American citizens, human beings and children of God, created in His image and loved by Him unconditionally, and therefore deserve unconditionally equal recognition, respect, rights and benefits. The principle that minorities should be protected from the tyranny of the majority, since if majorities got to vote on minority rights there wouldn't be any. (If civil rights had been put to referendums 60 years ago, Rosa Parks would still be at the back of the bus.) And the principle that if any institution—such as marriage—is so fragile that it needs discrimination, injustice, cruelty and constitutionally mandated apartheid in order to survive, then it by God should be redefined.

We invite every organization, business and municipality in this state that supports equality to stand with us and avow that no government or referendum on Earth will ever force us to commit bigotry against our own people.

Martin Smith
Durham

Reprinted from The Independent, "Letters to the Editor," April 18, 2012

A new and thorough examination of the cause and consequences of Bible abuse that is directed at homosexuals can be found at this link. First researched and compiled as a presentation for a local community group, the study has two goals: 1) to look at who it is that commits abuse of specific biblical passages and then directs it toward homosexuals – and why and 2) “to try to determine what the original biblical texts actually say.” Remarkably, it is not the goal of the study “to debate the relevance or infallibility of biblical scripture or to proselytize.”

In its refreshing conclusion, the writer shows that there is more biblical evidence that God loves everyone God created than the spurious notion that God wants to condemn and reject us.

The piece is chock full of notes and interesting facts, making it an enjoyable and fascinating read. I found it well worth the few hours it takes to read all the material.

This study takes a different approach to the Problem of Bible Abuse by religious conservatives. Some of you have taken my class called “Freed from Guilt • Freed from Shame: Overcoming Bible Abuse about Homosexuality.” You will find this study complimentary to that class. I recommend it with two thumbs up.