Origins of Integrity name

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

> Dear friends at Integrity,
>
>        Do any of you know why Louie Crew called the organization
> Integrity?
> 


My full article  "Compulsions and Affirmations" from CHRISTIANITY & CRISIS
46.4 (1986): 78-81 appears at
http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/pubd/compulsi.html.  The section
"Recovering what is Violated:  The Founding of Integrity" appears about
two-thirds of the way through.

Elsewhere I accounted for the more-or-less spontaneous choice of the name
INTEGRITY in paragraphs 2-4 of my 2003 essay "The Wideness of God's Mercy",
published online by THE WITNESS at http://thewitness.org/agw/crew111203.html

Also, one of my more extensive reflections on the name/word INTEGRITY
appears in "Integrity Dialogue Hopes Thwarted," an article which I wrote for
THE WITNESS  72.9 (September 1989): 22-23.   It is online at
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/pubd/integdia.html.  In it I reflect on
the Old English word HAL as well as on the word "integrity" (as several
places in the essay) as they led to my experience of integrity first in my
marriage to Ernest (Feb. 2, 1974) and in my founding of INTEGRITY later that
year.

In the article I state, "When I named Integrity, I had only an inkling of
how big a truth had found Ernest and me. We had united our lives almost a
year earlier....."

The editorial to the first issue of INTEGRITY:  GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM
(November 1974 -- 36 years ago this month) began:

    The Christian Gospel is for all persons....

    The word Integrity derives from integer, Latin for 'entire.' All 
    Christian wholeness demands affirmation of God-ordained sexuality; 
    and gays and straights alike are charged with the responsibility of 
    using their sexuality in healthy human sharing rather than 
    perversely trying to change or exchange the Gift of God.

For more of details of the early history of the organization see

 o   my "Brief History of Integrity" Integrity Forum 4.2 (December,
     1977-January 1978), online at
     http://rci.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/pubd/briefhist.html

 o   my longer article "Changing the Church" in Combating Homophobia,
     edited by James Sears & Walter Williams, Columbia University Press, 
     1997: 341-353, online at 
     http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/gayhist.htm

For a more personal context of my use of the word INTEGRITY, see my 1997
autobiographical essay "Growing Up Gay in Dixie" which first appeared as
"Just As I Am." Southern Exposure 5.1 (1977): 59-63 and was reprinted in
part in their 10th anniversary issue, 11.3 (May/June 1983): 57.  It is
online at http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/growingu.html

Sorry about the overload of information.

Thank you for your interest.

Louie

Louie Crew, 377 S. Harrison St., 12D, East Orange, NJ 07018. 973-395-1068
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew