Speakers at that news conference are scheduled to include the Rev. Beverly Dale, executive director of the Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Paul Washington, rector emeritus of Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia.

"Sometimes, in the wee hours of the morning, the truth of the frailty of our existence comes to haunt us,'' said the Rev. Beverly Dale, executive director of the Christian Association.

"Power is used against us, and we are made aware of our weakness; injustice is unveiled in all its hideousness and we are appalled at its strength. A sudden change, an illness or tragedy occurs with a randomness that leaves us breathless with disbelief, and our world comes crashing down.

"Then, we know what it is like to fall under the weight of the cross, to know that sometimes what life gives us is more than we can handle.''

While she was talking, a young man appeared at a second-floor window of the fraternity, listened for a while, and tossed out a scrap of paper, but there was no other participation from the house.

... Relevance, [Carson Ferris] said, "is how we can keep the faith going.''

That was precisely the point for Ms. Dale. "A lot of people can't envision spirituality or religion practiced outside a church sanctuary,'' she said after the service.

"We chose politically relevant places, and some people can't make the leap that religion is supposed to be relevant.''

Both Ms. Dale and Mr. Barasda emphasized that the service was intended as a religious, not a political, observance.

Beverly Dale, executive director of the Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania, said in her remarks that women were right to be angry. "It's called righteous indignation," she said. "It's time for us to pull together as a community and as neighbors. "It means we're in this together, folks, and the sooner we join hands to make a difference to bring about justice and a safe world for all of us, the better world it's going to be."

"There's no question that Paul's Jewish background shaped his understanding of historic events around Jesus,'' says Beverly Dale, executive director of the Christian Association of the University of Pennsylvania. "There's no question that Roman Christianity took that salvific orientation - getting right with God so you can go to heaven - in contrast to Christian morality and ethical living, which is concerned with how does one treat one's neighbor.

"One of the first things that did was take it out of the hands of the listeners, the masses. Only clergy types, specialists, can tell you what truth is.

"My problem has less to do with what some would say is the sexism of Paul than it has to do with the issue of a Jewish-Roman understanding of what Jesus was about. . . . What we have to grapple with today is what to do with this very Jewish issue of atonement, which makes very little sense in a gentile, technological-oriented society.

"I'm not anti-Jewish. Paul couldn't be any other way. My problem is the unwillingness of church professionals to look with fresh eyes at those teachings.

"I would begin with the teaching of freedom and equality, which is at the heart of Paul's theology. If we begin with that premise, you have a whole different way of interpreting what is family, what is morality, and what is truth.

"Paul was doing what every Christian today needs to be doing: Rather than listening to some hierarchical church telling us what truth is, we need to be asking ourselves who Jesus is for me today and how is he going to be helpful to me in everyday living in solving problems and stresses I have.

"I get impatient with people who are too hard on Paul. He was a product of his own times, as we are. . . . It's very hard for me to say this guy was a snake-oil salesman. I never knew that I was OK before God just the way I was until I read the epistles of Paul. I found Jesus in those letters.''

Sharpton was introduced by the Rev. Beverly Dale, executive director of the Christian Association at Penn. Calling him "clearly one of America's foremost civil rights leaders and speakers,'' Rev. Dale said she was shocked when researching her introduction on the Internet to find "the most rude and incivil comments'' made by others about Sharpton.

"I was amazed he was so vilified and his work so trivialized,'' she said. "Rev. Al Sharpton is a truth-teller.''

She then ticked off several racially charged events in New York where Sharpton inserted himself as a vocal advocate for blacks. She did not mention the highly controversial case in Upstate New York that first thrust Sharpton into the spotlight in 1987.

The Rev. Beverly Dale of the University of Pennsylvania's Christian Association, called PK ``an organizing arm for the religious right'' to force Christianity onto the nation as a state religion.

That's not good enough for critics, who said their speak-in last night sought to show a sharply different set of values. "The Promise Keepers purport to speak for all Christians and that is unacceptable," said the Rev. Beverly Dale of Philadelphia Progressive Clergy. She said Promise Keepers' real links are to religious right-wingers pushing an anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-inclusion agenda.

Heterosexual students and members of the University community also turned out to show their support. Beverly Dale, executive director of the Christian Association, said, "We all need to work together to make it a more unified fight and that's what we're here for."

Read more: http://thedp.com/node/16668

"Jesus never said a bloomin' thing about homosexuality," Christian Association Executive Director, Beverly Dale, said, claiming that discrimination against homosexuals is a perversion of Christianity's religious tenets. "Homophobia has no place in the Christian church."

Read more: http://thedp.com/node/26156

For another view on the place where multiple relationships and spirituality converge, I spoke with Beverly Dale.

An ordained Disciples of Christ minister, Dale spent several decades heading the University of Pennsylvania's Christian Association. Currently a freelance consultant on sexuality and social justice, she has both a pastoral and sociological interest in polyamory as a way of expressing integrity and mutuality in intimate relationships — an integrity and egalitarianism she sees as grounded in the person of Jesus.

"To live a life of faith is to live a life of risk," Dale said. "It is to believe in the goodness of God and the goodness within ourselves, to believe that the world needs more love."

The honesty and respect that polyamorous partners demonstrate, and their belief that the world has a need of more of that love, is consistent with a life of faith, she said.

Though Dale continues to see a public interest in the subject, she is troubled that liberal (or progressive) churches haven't come up with ways of discussing the topics of sexuality, love and faith with men and women who are searching.

"Too often churches say that if we get to the prepuberty kids then we've done our part," she asserted. "Sexuality is a lifelong development process."

If church leaders and congregations were willing to talk about Jesus as egalitarian and rule breaker, said Dale, they might not be "quite so strict about the monogamy piece."

But Dale continues to be outspoken on the subject, presenting performances, studies and lectures in venues both sacred and secular — places where she knows that people will gather and ask questions.

And in spite of her dissatisfaction with the pace of change in American culture and American congregations with regard to sexuality and spirituality issues, she sees a ray of hope.

"When I've done some of these programs with church folks, I've been surprised that when I leave people will come up and say 'you know, I've felt that all along,'" Dale said. "I have affirmed what they have intuited themselves. You know that the church may be more ready than we know."

Read more: articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/296459