This morning I listened on the radio to portions of yesterday's hearings in the Wisconsin legislature on the same-gender marriage/Civil Union ban. It was a sad day.
Worse still, the Pope's most recent pronouncements on homosexuality bode ill for the future of all LGBT Christians. This is a link to an excellent article (aptly titled "Gland Inquisitor") providing an analysis of the development of the recently announced policy on gay priests and how this reflects the Pope's view of homosexuality.
I need to write more about this, but I offer a quick response here. The Pope's view is deeply grounded in a profound heterosexism. The pope seems to suggest that homosexuals are so sub-human that they can offer no positive value to society at all. Any form of discrimination is justified in order to limit the harm that this "disorder" can do to society.
More comment on this in the near future.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Anti-same gender Union Amendment in Wisconsin
Soon this morning Jim and I will be going down to our State Capitol to a hearing in order to register our opposition to an amendment to the State Constitution that would forbid same gender marriages or anything that is similar (e.g. Civil Unions). In the meantime we keep hearing of friends going to Canada to legally "tie the knot." I look forward to the day when we don't need to leave American soil to be free.
Comfort ye, my people
This coming Sunday those churches that follow the lectionary will hear a reading from Isaiah 40. I can't read this passage without thinking of Handel's Messiah and, of course, Christmas. This passage also reminds us of what we used to call "the social gospel." This Advent season we are not just looking forward to Christmas morning and the goodies under the tree with our names written on the tags. We look forward to the salvation, the liberation, which God intends to bring to all God's people.
"He will feed his flock like a shepherd." We are used to applying the image of the shepherd to God. We especially remember the picture of Jesus as "The Good Shepherd." But the shepherd image was also applied to Kings in the Hebrew Scriptures, and God is depicted as the ideal and true king of Israel. Kings and governments have a responsibility to all the people they govern. Who is a shepherd to the people who are now exiled from their homes in New Orleans? How about all those who are left behind and left out of the affluence our economy generates for the few? Our government has a democratic form and we have no king, but the principle remains the same. This Advent season lets remember our responsibility as a government (and as the people of God) for those who suffer under the bondage of poverty.
"He will feed his flock like a shepherd." We are used to applying the image of the shepherd to God. We especially remember the picture of Jesus as "The Good Shepherd." But the shepherd image was also applied to Kings in the Hebrew Scriptures, and God is depicted as the ideal and true king of Israel. Kings and governments have a responsibility to all the people they govern. Who is a shepherd to the people who are now exiled from their homes in New Orleans? How about all those who are left behind and left out of the affluence our economy generates for the few? Our government has a democratic form and we have no king, but the principle remains the same. This Advent season lets remember our responsibility as a government (and as the people of God) for those who suffer under the bondage of poverty.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Our Gay Agenda
In my circle "gay agenda" is something we joke about. The adversaries of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality like to refer to the "gay agenda" in the way anti-semites used to refer to the "protocols of the elders of Zion." "Homosexuals" according to this mind-set have a nefarious plot, known as "the gay agenda" to drag down Christian civilization
What was on our gay agenda this Thanksgiving holiday weekend? My partner, Jim, and I spent Saturday painting & decorating an expected granddaughter's room. One of the two daughters that Jim & I raised together lives only a few miles away. She and our son-in-law are expecting a baby in April. We are looking forward to be grandfathers for the first time! Our "agenda" is no different than any other family--except maybe that we have a particular concern that all our family members will have the liberty to pursue happiness no matter what their sexual orientation or identity.
I attended church this morning. One of the readings for the day was from Isaiah 64. Israel is longing for God to appear, a God who, for the time-being, seems to be hidden. Aren't we in the same fix? Their are those of us in the United Methodist Church who are so certain of our own knowledge of God that we have no hesitation in telling a person he/she cannot be a member of the church because he or she is a "unrepentent homosexual." Don't get me wrong--I believe in the first baptismal vow that demands that we "renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world and repent of your sin." There is a disagreement in the United Methodist Church over the question of whether homosexuality, in and of it self, is a sin. The United Methodists that I worship with in Madison do not consider the mutual devotion of Jim and I to be a sin--quite the contrary! The United Methodists I worship with view the loving relationships of LGBT persons to represent to be among the positive forces in our world--not "forces of wickedness."
Well, time to wrap this up. Jim and I are off to a dinner party this evening with our local Affirmation group, which includes other LGBT persons among whom are another long-term couple who went to Canada last year to be legally married. They call each other "husband," and they say it really does make a difference! We look forward to the day when we don't need to leave American soil in order to enjoy freedom.
What was on our gay agenda this Thanksgiving holiday weekend? My partner, Jim, and I spent Saturday painting & decorating an expected granddaughter's room. One of the two daughters that Jim & I raised together lives only a few miles away. She and our son-in-law are expecting a baby in April. We are looking forward to be grandfathers for the first time! Our "agenda" is no different than any other family--except maybe that we have a particular concern that all our family members will have the liberty to pursue happiness no matter what their sexual orientation or identity.
I attended church this morning. One of the readings for the day was from Isaiah 64. Israel is longing for God to appear, a God who, for the time-being, seems to be hidden. Aren't we in the same fix? Their are those of us in the United Methodist Church who are so certain of our own knowledge of God that we have no hesitation in telling a person he/she cannot be a member of the church because he or she is a "unrepentent homosexual." Don't get me wrong--I believe in the first baptismal vow that demands that we "renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world and repent of your sin." There is a disagreement in the United Methodist Church over the question of whether homosexuality, in and of it self, is a sin. The United Methodists that I worship with in Madison do not consider the mutual devotion of Jim and I to be a sin--quite the contrary! The United Methodists I worship with view the loving relationships of LGBT persons to represent to be among the positive forces in our world--not "forces of wickedness."
Well, time to wrap this up. Jim and I are off to a dinner party this evening with our local Affirmation group, which includes other LGBT persons among whom are another long-term couple who went to Canada last year to be legally married. They call each other "husband," and they say it really does make a difference! We look forward to the day when we don't need to leave American soil in order to enjoy freedom.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
More Vile
John Wesley (1703-1791), Anglican Priest and Methodist Founder, peppered his prose with an abundance of biblical quotes and allusions. One interesting instance is Wesley's description of his decision to begin field preaching (Wesley's Journal April 2, 1739): "At four in the afternoon I submitted to 'be more vile,' and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation. . . ." Wesley was alluding to II Samuel 6:22 where King David says (in the King James Version) "And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou has spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor."
Here David is speaking to his wife, Michal, who has just rebuked him for dancing before the Ark of the Covenant and exposing himself (David was apparently wearing little more than a ceremonial apron). Michal said (in the New Revised Standard Version), "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!" To which David responded, "It was before the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord, that I have danced before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible (i.e. "more vile") than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes; but the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor."
Strange tale. For Wesley, Michal's attitude symbolized Wesley's own early attitude: "I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields. . . . having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church." Field-preaching was as contemptible as David's scanty dancing costume. Michal's apparent disparaging attitude towards the "servant's maids" may have resonated for Wesley with his own British society's ingrained classism. Wesley was not preaching to the "better sort of people" in the fields, coal pits and brickyards of 18th century Britain.
In the 21st century United States lesbian and gay people may be among those who are "vile and contemptible" in the eyes of some church people. The Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church has now given the green light to officially bar lesbian and gay persons from the church. One member of the council, the Rev. Keith Boyette, even suggests in his concurring opinion that pastors and congregations might put lesbian and gay persons who are already church members under official discipline. Break up your same-gender partnership of no-matter-how-many years. Become heterosexual or face forced chastity. Fail to "repent" of your "sin" of being gay or lesbian and you will face the threat of a church trial and removal of membership in the church.
I have named this blog "More Vile" in honor of Wesley's daring to defy the discriminatory attitudes of ruling elites of church and society. I dedicate this blog to the proposition that it is not a sin to be gay or lesbian and United Methodist. I will write in support of those who are working to change the discriminatory laws of the church, especially the Reconciling Ministries Network, Affirmation, the Methodist Federation for Social Action, United Methodists of Color for a More Inclusive Church, the Parents Reconciling Network, Methodist Students for an All-Inclusive Church and Soulforce.
With Soulforce I accuse the United Methodist Church of practicing spiritual violence by using its spiritual authority to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. The United Methodist Church defines "homosexual practice" as "incompatible with Christian teaching." Based on this erroneous idea the United Methodists not only bars "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from service to the church in the ordained ministry, but a recent decision the Judicial Council ("Supreme Court") of the United Methodist Church (Judicial Council Decision No. 1032) has given the denomination's blessing to an all-too common attitude amongst United Methodist clergy which defines "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" as "unrepentent sinners" who are deemed unable to take the vows of baptism and membership, and who may be subjected to disciplinary procedures including church trials leading to removal from membership in the church.
The spiritual violence of the church harms lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in many ways. Anti-LGBT religious attitudes are used to justify countless laws used to harass and discriminate against LGBT persons in civil society. Perhaps the most egregious example of the harm which results from spiritual violence is the fact that LGBT youth are at greater risk than non-LGBT youth to commit suicide and that those who come from Christian families are at even greater risk because they must live with the disapproval of their families and congregations and are taught to believe they cannot please God and continue to live as LGBT. They may seek to obey their church's teachings and try to "change," and when they fail, they despair of ever pleasing God and their families, and turn to suicide for relief.
The United Methodist Church needs to follow the example of Wesley and change its attitudes about "decency and order." The church needs to "submit to be more vile and proclaim the glad tidings of salvation" to all persons. Following Wesley's first general rule of the the Methodist societies, the church must cease to do harm, in this case the harm of spiritual violence against LGBT persons.
Here David is speaking to his wife, Michal, who has just rebuked him for dancing before the Ark of the Covenant and exposing himself (David was apparently wearing little more than a ceremonial apron). Michal said (in the New Revised Standard Version), "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!" To which David responded, "It was before the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord, that I have danced before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible (i.e. "more vile") than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes; but the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor."
Strange tale. For Wesley, Michal's attitude symbolized Wesley's own early attitude: "I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields. . . . having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church." Field-preaching was as contemptible as David's scanty dancing costume. Michal's apparent disparaging attitude towards the "servant's maids" may have resonated for Wesley with his own British society's ingrained classism. Wesley was not preaching to the "better sort of people" in the fields, coal pits and brickyards of 18th century Britain.
In the 21st century United States lesbian and gay people may be among those who are "vile and contemptible" in the eyes of some church people. The Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church has now given the green light to officially bar lesbian and gay persons from the church. One member of the council, the Rev. Keith Boyette, even suggests in his concurring opinion that pastors and congregations might put lesbian and gay persons who are already church members under official discipline. Break up your same-gender partnership of no-matter-how-many years. Become heterosexual or face forced chastity. Fail to "repent" of your "sin" of being gay or lesbian and you will face the threat of a church trial and removal of membership in the church.
I have named this blog "More Vile" in honor of Wesley's daring to defy the discriminatory attitudes of ruling elites of church and society. I dedicate this blog to the proposition that it is not a sin to be gay or lesbian and United Methodist. I will write in support of those who are working to change the discriminatory laws of the church, especially the Reconciling Ministries Network, Affirmation, the Methodist Federation for Social Action, United Methodists of Color for a More Inclusive Church, the Parents Reconciling Network, Methodist Students for an All-Inclusive Church and Soulforce.
With Soulforce I accuse the United Methodist Church of practicing spiritual violence by using its spiritual authority to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. The United Methodist Church defines "homosexual practice" as "incompatible with Christian teaching." Based on this erroneous idea the United Methodists not only bars "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from service to the church in the ordained ministry, but a recent decision the Judicial Council ("Supreme Court") of the United Methodist Church (Judicial Council Decision No. 1032) has given the denomination's blessing to an all-too common attitude amongst United Methodist clergy which defines "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" as "unrepentent sinners" who are deemed unable to take the vows of baptism and membership, and who may be subjected to disciplinary procedures including church trials leading to removal from membership in the church.
The spiritual violence of the church harms lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in many ways. Anti-LGBT religious attitudes are used to justify countless laws used to harass and discriminate against LGBT persons in civil society. Perhaps the most egregious example of the harm which results from spiritual violence is the fact that LGBT youth are at greater risk than non-LGBT youth to commit suicide and that those who come from Christian families are at even greater risk because they must live with the disapproval of their families and congregations and are taught to believe they cannot please God and continue to live as LGBT. They may seek to obey their church's teachings and try to "change," and when they fail, they despair of ever pleasing God and their families, and turn to suicide for relief.
The United Methodist Church needs to follow the example of Wesley and change its attitudes about "decency and order." The church needs to "submit to be more vile and proclaim the glad tidings of salvation" to all persons. Following Wesley's first general rule of the the Methodist societies, the church must cease to do harm, in this case the harm of spiritual violence against LGBT persons.
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