SteveSchalchlin
05-20-2007, 08:31 AM
I didn't know we had forums here until Jamie mentioned it on our Out & Closeted Baptist listserv.
My name is Steve and I participated in the first March to Lynchburg which I describe here (http://www.bonusround.com/book2-3/lynchburgdiary.html). Before then, I was one of the original participants in the Bridges Across the Divide project, where we engaged in dialogue with members of the "exgay" community. That project has become somewhat moribund when most of the exgays left (once they realized they weren't gonna be able to convert us). Unless they are super intelligent, they usually don't do well in environments filled with out, spiritually healthy and emotionally fulfilled GLBT persons.
I'm a songwriter and composer, having written two hit off-Broadway musicals, The Last Session (http://thelastsession.com) (in which I was able practice Soul Force techniques in helping, with my partner in life, Jim Brochu, to create a conservative Christian character in confrontation with an out gay man) and the recent The Big Voice: God or Merman? (http://thebigvoice.com) about our gay marriage and spiritual journeys.
Jim was raised devout Catholic and I was raised devout Missionary Baptist.
Recently, May 8, 2007, was I greatly honored to be invited to play and sing the song "Imagine" on John Lennon's piano (http://bonusroundblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/thoughts-about-john-lennons-piano.html). It's part of the IMAGINE Piano Peace Project (http://lennonpiano.com) being sponsored by the piano's owner, George Michael and his partner, Kenny Goss who owns an art gallery in Dallas. They're taking this piano to places where violence occurred and photographing it as part of a photo album and documentary.
I recently made a music video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pjKXc_gmx4) of my experience there.
I'm a longterm AIDS survivor. I created one of the first online diaries/proto-blogs in 1986 called "Living in the Bonus Round" and the Soul Force methods are very important to me, especially the list of beliefs about my opponent. I tend to be a bit of a hot head when debating people who use the Bible as a weapon, so I'm not the best example in the world of how to use Soul Force techniques, but I'm good at repenting afterwards. :)
Currently, I am writing a Peace cantata because I believe that religion and governments are currently in a serious failure mode in bringing about role models of reconciliation -- and that only the arts can truly bridge the gap between cultures. Religions and governments are currently the CAUSE of violence in our world rather than the solution and so people of good faith who believe in peace and reconciliation needs tools to get through to their opponents. I hope to supply those tools using music.
I have created another video and song called "Holy Dirt" (http://youtube.com/watch?v=-UBq2hNAAb4) in which I make notice of the fact that whenever religions make a "object" holy, people end up dying over it. The cynic in me wonders if they don't take pride in thinking that the more people die over their "holy" object, the holier they think it becomes, like some kind of unholy death competition.
I'm not a supernaturalist but neither am I an atheist. I think that God works through us and that religions and gods are man-made mirror-masks designed out of ignorance, vanity and fear -- that doesn't make then false, but it does mean they are human. I believe if God has hands, they're our hands. And so we must accept the responsibility to bring Love into our world rather than waiting around for some god to do it for us. However, I respect religions or faiths based upon the principles of Soul Force. HOW we believe is more important that WHAT we believe. For me, the test of any religion is two-fold:
What does it do to its followers.
What do its followers do to others.
And lastly, people say to me, "Where is the Muslim Gandhi?" I say, "Why does the next Gandhi have to be Muslim? If being Gandhi is such a great thing, why don't you do it?"
Oh, and my last name is pronounced SHACK-lin. :)
My name is Steve and I participated in the first March to Lynchburg which I describe here (http://www.bonusround.com/book2-3/lynchburgdiary.html). Before then, I was one of the original participants in the Bridges Across the Divide project, where we engaged in dialogue with members of the "exgay" community. That project has become somewhat moribund when most of the exgays left (once they realized they weren't gonna be able to convert us). Unless they are super intelligent, they usually don't do well in environments filled with out, spiritually healthy and emotionally fulfilled GLBT persons.
I'm a songwriter and composer, having written two hit off-Broadway musicals, The Last Session (http://thelastsession.com) (in which I was able practice Soul Force techniques in helping, with my partner in life, Jim Brochu, to create a conservative Christian character in confrontation with an out gay man) and the recent The Big Voice: God or Merman? (http://thebigvoice.com) about our gay marriage and spiritual journeys.
Jim was raised devout Catholic and I was raised devout Missionary Baptist.
Recently, May 8, 2007, was I greatly honored to be invited to play and sing the song "Imagine" on John Lennon's piano (http://bonusroundblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/thoughts-about-john-lennons-piano.html). It's part of the IMAGINE Piano Peace Project (http://lennonpiano.com) being sponsored by the piano's owner, George Michael and his partner, Kenny Goss who owns an art gallery in Dallas. They're taking this piano to places where violence occurred and photographing it as part of a photo album and documentary.
I recently made a music video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pjKXc_gmx4) of my experience there.
I'm a longterm AIDS survivor. I created one of the first online diaries/proto-blogs in 1986 called "Living in the Bonus Round" and the Soul Force methods are very important to me, especially the list of beliefs about my opponent. I tend to be a bit of a hot head when debating people who use the Bible as a weapon, so I'm not the best example in the world of how to use Soul Force techniques, but I'm good at repenting afterwards. :)
Currently, I am writing a Peace cantata because I believe that religion and governments are currently in a serious failure mode in bringing about role models of reconciliation -- and that only the arts can truly bridge the gap between cultures. Religions and governments are currently the CAUSE of violence in our world rather than the solution and so people of good faith who believe in peace and reconciliation needs tools to get through to their opponents. I hope to supply those tools using music.
I have created another video and song called "Holy Dirt" (http://youtube.com/watch?v=-UBq2hNAAb4) in which I make notice of the fact that whenever religions make a "object" holy, people end up dying over it. The cynic in me wonders if they don't take pride in thinking that the more people die over their "holy" object, the holier they think it becomes, like some kind of unholy death competition.
I'm not a supernaturalist but neither am I an atheist. I think that God works through us and that religions and gods are man-made mirror-masks designed out of ignorance, vanity and fear -- that doesn't make then false, but it does mean they are human. I believe if God has hands, they're our hands. And so we must accept the responsibility to bring Love into our world rather than waiting around for some god to do it for us. However, I respect religions or faiths based upon the principles of Soul Force. HOW we believe is more important that WHAT we believe. For me, the test of any religion is two-fold:
What does it do to its followers.
What do its followers do to others.
And lastly, people say to me, "Where is the Muslim Gandhi?" I say, "Why does the next Gandhi have to be Muslim? If being Gandhi is such a great thing, why don't you do it?"
Oh, and my last name is pronounced SHACK-lin. :)