To the Wesleyan Christian Advocate on April 10, 2004

This letter could not be more plain and timely. It is a challenge to the church of John Wesley to decide if we mean it when we say: "if your heart is like mine, then give me your hand."

This letter constitutes a proclamation of the liberty of conscience of the left handed person, in case a question should ever arise.

By virtue of the teaching of Jesus, namely that it is only in spirit that we can be entertained in the mansion in which his father resides, the disciples in utter unity and with the express concurrence of the Holy Spirit, His first act in concert since Pentecost, proclaimed the conditions of Liberty of conscience of the gentile follower of the Way in no uncertain terms (Acts 15). I proclaim that I intend to be bound to those stipulations. And then, quite incidentally, I proclaim that if I had a choice, and I pray God I never will, to make myself left handed if it were to some advantage to do so, and if there were a fear on the part of left handers that they might not be so loved of God, I would be willing to be made left handed for their sake. And so this means that I am a left hander in spirit. This means further that I am perfectly acceptable in the spirit to God in that condition, for God is no respecter of the orientation of the hand. And since the edict of liberation makes no stipulation as to hand orientation, and since this was the place to make such stipulation, I have a basis of faith that in Christ it makes no difference as to whether a person is left handed or right.

Now likewise I wish also to proclaim that if my wife were dead (my only remaining fear in this life) and I found the possibility of even part of that marvelous happiness that blesses my life in every respect by joining in a like commitment to another gentile Christian, than I would not hesitate to do so in Christ, regardless of the sex of that other person. Thus in the same way that I am a spiritual left hander, I am also a spiritual homosexual, and it is in that spirit that I approach the judgment of Christ my Lord, for I take the holy scripture at its immediate word in the proclamation of Acts 15 (and twice again in Acts). It was the time for stipulations, and certain ones were given but none were given with regard to homosexuality nor was any given regarding additional stipulations later.

Now in the face of those who will not eat with a homosexual in spirit or with a left hander in spirit, then they cannot in conscience eat with me, unless we can agree in the spirit of Romans 14 not to talk about things that separate us, but rather what can help us become more and more like Christ in spirit and in mutual encouragement, for sin does not deal with orientation, but entirely with spirit. “If your heart is like mine, then give me your hand.”


As a second letter I wish to submit this testimony about the spirit of Grace Church Atlanta.

I am convinced that the reason that my Yasuko (wife) feels most at home at Grace (joining under J. B. McNeal) is because there are not uncommonly somewhat strange people in that congregation, and yet all members there act as though they were not strange. My wife is Japanese and naturally (culturally) very sensitive about standing out in the crowd. She thinks that people will consider her and myself to appear odd because she is much younger and much shorter than I am. Grace easily dissuaded her of this notion is a most gracious and natural way. And I say to the world: if you want to be loved like that, then go to Grace. Yasuko never felt as unwelcomed anywhere in a United Methodist Church, but she felt most at home at Grace.