Christianity and Sexuality: Christians reach out to transgender community

Religion Dispatch features an interesting essay regarding the Christian community reaching out to the transgender community. The essay begins by questioning how “inclusive” the struggle for equality has been of the transgender community. The essay’s author, Becky Garrison, then explores how a gay-friendly church in San Francisco “struggled with how to welcome a very attractive transgender woman who walked through their doors in the mid 1980s.” Fast-forwarding to the new millennium, Garrison explains that “By the time distinguished evolutionary biologist and transwoman Joan Roughgarden came to St. Gregory’s around 2002, the community had learned enough that she could call this church her home.” The essay offers a great deal of hope that the worldwide church will continue to open its hearts to the love and peace sought by transgender people. Garrison shares that:

When the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, Priest and Lead Organizer for The Crossing in Boston tries to engage the church on this issue, she finds that the liberal churches tend to be silent on transgender issues, while the more conservative churches shout that transgender people are living “a lifestyle choice” that is patently “wrong,” “evil” and “an abomination.” She says the balance needs to shift.

Garrison allows includes a powerful comment from Candace Chellew-Hodge:

“there is no sides when it comes to say civil rights and the KKK, there is but one side on this issue. Do we recognize people as having an inherent dignity as being part of our shared humanity?”

Gay Marriage Today: Three articles worth reading

There are three interesting headlines related to gay marriage that I thought QfN readers might enjoy. Spanning a discussion of Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) to an article exploring Judeo-Christian understandings of the struggle for humanity, these three articles are worth a read!

The Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity by Ed Lasky in American Thinker

Adam and Steve after all: Same-sex Marriage by Javier Avitia in The Johns-Hopkins News-Letter

Tony Perkins: Gay Marriage Will Lead to the Complete End of Freedom of Religion by Joe. My. God.

In response to Tony Perkins, I wonder if Mr. Perkins and the Family Research Council realize that our Constitution enshrines a guarantee of freedom of and from religion?

Submit Sermons that Spew Hate: Help us to expose hate and respond to such with love.

Have you sat in a worship or prayer service that has included anti-gay statements? Let us know.

Queer Faith News (QfN) invites you to submit anti-gay statements that you hear at religious services for us to post on Queer Faith News. This will provide an on-going means of sharing anti-gay statements with the masses so as to expose hate. It will give us an opportunity to respond in love. This is only the beginning of this new campaign to end hate with love.

Click here to open the form to submit a hate sermon.

God to anti-gay hatemongers: “Do I know you? For you, do not know me”

Today, I read an article on in the Salt Lake City Tribune titled “Anti-gay hatemongers aren’t doing God’s work.” The article is largely a discussion regarding the Westboro Baptist Church led by the Rev. Fred Phelps. The article’s author, Corey Hodges, explains:

There is no biblical defense for Westboro’s hateful message and insensitive demonstrations. The group’s philosophy and approach are riddled with contradictions. Westboro cannot truly believe in the Bible, which speaks of God’s love, mercy and grace. Jesus vehemently opposed earthly agents of condemnation. He said, in Matthew, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. … Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye.” Westboro’s hate is a huge plank.

Hodges, a Baptist pastor himself, explains that although the Westboro Baptist Church and its leader have a First Amendment right to the freedom of speech (and to and from religion – I would add), he reminds us:

While Westboro’s actions may be not be illegal, they are immoral and unethical. People of faith must remember that the law cannot be the sole decider of behavior.

In reading the editorial by Rev. Hodges, I feel forced to ask: “What is hate?” and “How is hate manifested in our society?” We need only consider how the United States has responded to Muslims in America and to GLBT Americans to understand how hated is manifested. Hate is a powerful word and as such, is often masked behind other words:

• Some may argue that they speak out against Islam because they feel it is “of the devil.” This is hate.
• Some may argue that gay relationships are abominable in the eyes of God and that they love gay people, but they do not love “the sin.” In fact, the mantra goes “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” This is hate.
• Some may argue that it is “us” against “them.” This is hate.

As a society, we have to stop blanketing hate; we have to stop accepting synonyms for hate, because by such we exercise a silence that allows hate to continue to raise its ugly head in the halls of Congress, behind the guise of a pulpit, and in the words of men of our age who claim to be speaking for God. We must stand and speak in one voice in declaring an end to hate.

When President Obama gave his speech last week declaring an end to military operations in Iraq, I couldn’t help but pray for the day that we may have a similar cry for justice, a similar declaration for the end of hate. We are all called to be prophets of our time by living a life that seeks to be void of hate. We must respond to hate with love, a love that does not judge.

I can only imagine what God might say to those who spew hate: “Do I know you? For you, do not know me.”

Mormons censure student at Brigham Young University over views on gay marriage

Does the name Cary Crall ring a bell? If not, it should. Cary Crall is a young hero in the struggle for gay and lesbian equality not only in the secular sense, but also in the world of religion. Cary Crall is a student at Brigham Young University, a Mormon-operated academic institution in Utah. On September 7, Crall’s editorial regarding California’s Prop 8 was initially posted and then removed from BYU’s student-run newspaper’s website… why? Because the newspaper claimed that the content of Crall’s letter was “offensive.” Fortunately, Joanna Brooks at Religion Dispatch preserved the letter; here is the editorial in its entirety:

Defending Proposition 8—It’s time to admit the reasons

By CARY CRALL

Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the recent United States District Court case that overturned Proposition 8, highlighted a disturbing inconsistency in the pro-Prop. 8 camp.

The arguments put forth so aggressively by the Protect Marriage coalition and by LDS church leaders at all levels of church organization during the campaign were noticeably absent from the proceedings of the trial. This discrepancy between the arguments in favor of Proposition 8 presented to voters and the arguments presented in court shows that at some point, proponents of Prop. 8 stopped believing in their purported rational and non-religious arguments for the amendment.

Claims that defeat of Prop. 8 would force religious organizations to recognize homosexual marriages and perform such marriages in their privately owned facilities, including LDS temples, were never mentioned in court. Similarly, the defense was unable to find a single expert witness willing to testify that state-recognized homosexual marriage would lead to forcing religious adoption agencies to allow homosexual parents to adopt children or that children would be required to learn about homosexual marriage in school.

Four of the proponents’ six expert witnesses who may have been planning on testifying to these points withdrew as witnesses on the first day of the trial. Why did they go and why did no one step up to replace them? Perhaps it is because they knew that their arguments would suffer much the same fate as those of David Blankenhorn and Kenneth Miller, the two expert witnesses who did agree to testify.

Judge Vaughn Walker, who heard the case, spent 11 pages of his 138-page decision meticulously tearing down every argument advanced by Blankenhorn before concluding that his testimony was “unreliable and entitled to essentially no weight.” Miller suffered similar censure after it was shown that he was unfamiliar with even basic sources on the subject in which he sought to testify as an expert.

The court was left with lopsided, persuasive testimony leading to the conclusion that Proposition 8 was not in the interest of the state and was discriminatory against gays and lesbians. Walker’s decision is a must-read for anyone who is yet to be convinced of this opinion. The question remains that if proponents of Prop. 8 were both unwilling and unable to support even one rational argument in favor of the amendment in court, why did they seek to present their arguments as rational during the campaign?

It is time for LDS supporters of Prop. 8 to be honest about their reasons for supporting the amendment. It’s not about adoption rights, or the first amendment or tradition. These arguments were not found worthy of the standards for finding facts set up by our judicial system. The real reason is that a man who most of us believe is a prophet of God told us to support the amendment. We must accept this explanation, along with all its consequences for good or ill on our own relationship with God and his children here on earth. Maybe then we will stop thoughtlessly spouting reasons that are offensive to gays and lesbians and indefensible to those not of our faith.

Crall’s editorial asks the tough questions that all faiths must begin to ask about their teachings regarding homosexuality and same-sex relationships in the secular sense. So where did Crall’s strong editorial end up? Joanna Brooks explains:

After running online for hours, Crall’s editorial disappeared from the Web edition of The Daily Universe by the morning of September 8. (I called The Daily Universe’s Editor in Chief on September 8 at about 11 a.m. PST to inquire about the status of the article; my call was not returned.) At 4 p.m. MST on September 8, The Daily Universe issued the following statement on the Web page where Crall’s article had been:

The Daily Universe made an independent decision to remove the student viewpoint titled “Defending Proposition 8” after being alerted by various readers that the content of the editorial was offensive. The publication of this viewpoint was not intended to offend, but after further review we recognized that it contained offensive content. This is consistent with policy that he Daily Universe has, on rare occasions, exercised in the past.

Offensive? Are you serious? So much for freedom of speech! This is a shame. Crall’s editorial provided a much-needed voice on a campus that is probably in need of the prophetic message that Crall and others have for our world today.

No government or legislative body is asking religions to officiate over marriages between people of the same sex and no one is asking religious leaders or followers to attend a wedding ceremony or reception for two people of the same sex. The reality is, that the debate over same-sex marriage is a secular debate, it is not and should not be a religious debate. Let’s talk about “findings of fact” rather than theological arguments that are no basis for policies in a secular society.

We need more Cary Cralls to stand up and be counted. We needed more Cary Cralls to speak out and break the silence. We need to stop the censure.

Little “faith” at the Faith and Freedom Conference

Faith and Freedom Conference

Sarah Posner has a fascinating article on today’s Religion Dispatch on the Faith and Freedom Conference. Posner quickly points out that many reporters at the conference where conferring about where all of the “religion” and “faith” were amidst this political conference. She explains the nature of the conference by breaking down the two key words in the conference’s name:

First, the Faith and Freedom name plays right into the idea, a cornerstone of religious right activism, that “faith” and “freedom” are inextricably linked; that America is a Christian nation whose founders escaped religious persecution (true) but that their descendants’ freedom of religion has been curtailed by secularists who invented separation of church and state and seek to restrain evangelism (which is equated with “religious freedom”) by allowing gay marriage or other legislation conservative evangelicals disagree with (not true). Being able to practice your “faith” (i.e., demand that government legislate morality based on your faith) is freedom, in this view, which is a driving force of the religious right.

After exploring the overarching intent of the conference, Posner touches upon the Manhattan Declaration (signed by Tim Goeglin of the Bush White House) which placed emphasis on “religious freedom.” Interestingly, those who signed the document proclaiming religious freedom are the same group of people (with a few exceptions) that now oppose the construction of a religious worship site and cultural center in New York City.

Posner explains that the Faith and Freedom Conference was filled with “The your-rights-infringe-on-my-religious-freedom argument is the main one you’d hear from an opponent of gay marriage, say.”

What about the your-religion-infringes-on-my-civil-rights?

What Scripture Really Says: A New Series

In starting this new website, we are Queer Faith News have begun to realize that it might be helpful to expose our readers to an array of sacred scriptures/religious texts as a means of introducing them to common themes in scriptures from various religious traditions. Here is the first in the new daily series. Please note that this series WILL NOT include any commentary and will feature a theme accompanied by 3-5 quotes from various religious traditions. We encourage our readers to explore the commonality found in different religions via comparative scripture/religious text studies.

Today’s Theme: Love and Kindness

Islam: Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness. – Qur’an 39.10

Judaism: The world stands upon three things: upon the Law, upon worship, and upon showing kindness. – Mishnah, Abot 1.2

Hinduism: What sort of religion can it be / without compassion? / You need to show compassion / to all living beings. / Compassion is the root / of all religious faiths. – Basavanna, Vacana 247

Christianity: Do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as you would a father; treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity. – 1 Timothy 5:1-2

Dr. Mirus argues homosexuality is an example of the “deficiencies, defects and disorders” that humans encounter

Dr. Jeff Mirus, President of Catholic Culture

It is of course to no surprise that Catholic Culture features an article that attempts to paint homosexuality as a deficiency, defect, and disorder. Wait! Deficiency? Defect? Disorder? Are you serious Dr. Mirus? Lets look at each of these “descriptive” words in some depth:

A deficiency refers to a lack of something. What are gay and lesbian people lacking? Ah, that’s right equality. Okay, so far I agree with your observation.

A defect refers to a shortcoming, a lack, or imperfection. Yes, on this descriptive word regarding homosexuality, I must agree. I am sure that you apply this word as it applies to the anti-gay laws that exist in particular states and areas regarding the ability of GLBT people to adopt children or perhaps you are drawing attention to the lack of benefits that GLBT people have regarding visiting their spouse in the hospital.

Lastly, you claim that homosexuality is an example of a disorder. This word refers to a state of confusion. I hope you are not referring to my living room! On this application of a descriptive word, I must disagree. The only disorder I see, is your own confusion in somehow thinking that gay marriage will affect your own marriage (if you are indeed married) or society at large.

These explanations are far from what Dr. Mirus actually presents in his article on Catholic Culture. Mirus’s article is instead an attack on gay and lesbians that relentlessly argues that homosexuality is a deficiency, disorder, and a defect. It is a very sad day when a man that purports to be a Catholic, spends his time criticizing and condemning other human beings. It’s intriguing how Dr. Mirus thinks he is worthy to condemn those who were created as homosexuals by God in His image and likeness.

So what does Dr. Mirus present in his article? Here is a very telling excerpt:

He or she must not merely integrate, control and channel sexual inclinations, but must largely deny them altogether, not only in their physical expression, but also in a far broader range of affectivity which is conditioned even in small ways by sexual interplay: Heightened interest, a sense of romance, a special tenderness. It is true that a celibate priest must be very careful of what we might call sexually-tinged affectivity, on the altogether sound theory that one thing leads to another. But the person with persistent homosexual inclinations must suppress or redirect such inclinations to an even greater extent. This is an enormous challenge.

And here is an excerpt from the section where he tries to explain why homosexuality is disordered:

In a cultural vacuum, it ought to be relatively easy to understand intellectually that homosexual inclinations are disordered. It ought to be fairly clear that the sexual faculties are both naturally ordered to the propagation and preservation of the species and supernaturally ordered toward a kind of union among man, woman and child which mirrors the essential fecundity of Divine love. When one notices that one’s own sexual inclinations do not tend toward this sort of union and fecundity—or even this ability to reproduce—then one can perceive a very definite disorder in those inclinations. There may be something one can do to alter them; they may be a very confused set of inclinations which are bound up with past experiences or habits, and so amenable to change as one comes to terms with these experiences or habits. Or there may be no way to eliminate the inclinations at all. Nonetheless, that they are disordered can be intellectually grasped.

Read the entire “analysis” by Dr. Mirus online at Catholic Culture’s website.

Feel free to contact Dr. Mirus with your thoughts at http://www.catholicculture.org/contact/.

Gay rights group not allowed to recruit college grads on Catholic campus

St. Edward’s University has denied a request from Equality Texas to recruit recent college graduates for positions with the gay and lesbian organization. According to the University, Equality Texas’ mission is “in direct conflict with the mission of St. Edward’s University.”

Not surprisingly, the right-leaning Catholic student organization, Cardinal Newman Society supported the University’s decision with a release that stated:

“Catholic families will be glad to hear that St. Edward’s University is vigilant in matters concerning its Catholic identity,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS). “The more than 20,000 members of CNS stand behind St. Edward’s administration in this common sense decision, which sets an example for Catholic universities.”

We can only hope that one day the Vatican constitution – Ex Corde Ecclesiae will be appreciated and respected for the freedom that it is intended to protect in academic environments.

If you’re gay and Catholic or just support freedom in an academic environment, email the Cardinal Newman Society and tell them how you feel alert@cardinalnewmansociety.org or email St. Edwards University’s president, George Martin, PhD at georgem@stedwards.edu and remind him that his Fordham University education should have taught him to appreciate all humanity.

This story was originally covered by Catholic Culture.

Observer-Reporter: “Islam not the only religion with haters”

Today’s Observer-Reporter includes an editorial outlining how Islam is not the only religion “with haters.” This article is a much needed voice in the current debate over religion in this country. Someone once said to me that if you took all of the religions in the world and asked all of those without blood or persecution on their hands to stand on one side of the room and all those who have been without to stand on the other … only one side of the room would have religions. This article helps to shed light on that fact.

We must come to a common understanding that all religions have fundamental sects, but that at their core, all religions are devoted to peace and love — two things which are deeply needed in our world today.

Read the entire editorial on the Observer-Reporter’s website.