SOME MYTHS HELD BY RELIGIOUS AND OTHER HOMOPHOBES

The following is an article I wrote last year that I'd like to reprint here:

On the Question and Answer section of his blog, Donny Osmond, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was asked the following question.

"Here is my question. How do you think Christians should respond to Gay friends who consider themselves 'Married'?"

Part of his response to that question is the following:

"There are many gay individuals that are members of our church. I know many of them. In fact, some of my best friends are gay. You ask how I react regarding their marriages. Well, I do support our Church leaders who say that we can accept those with gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their temptations. Everyone has tenancies [sic] to succumb to temptation, but we all have the same standard given to us by our Father in Heaven. Whether we may be tempted to be immoral with members of our own sex or of the opposite sex, we are expected to live chaste lives. This is very well explained not only in the Book of Mormon, but in the Bible as well."

Although Mormonism is not within the mainstream of Christianity, this one response sums up the "justifications" for a lot of the revulsion, despite all the sanctimonious rhetoric in the world, which many professing Christians have toward Gay people! I want to comment on significant parts of his response, as I think that his response gets at the very heart of what we're fighting against when we engage in the struggle for full and equal rights for Gay people; certainly including the right to marry.

"There are many gay individuals that are members of our church." Why any self-respecting Gay person would be a member of any organization, church or not, that discriminates against him/her and preaches that being Gay is in any way immoral, disordered, evil, a threat to the "sanctity of marriage," a threat to children, etc., is a mystery to me. He/she must have a tremendous degree of self-loathing that is superficially masked by proclaiming, "It's my church too."

Really? Can you preach from the pulpit that being Gay is healthy; faithful same-sex love is just as sacred as is opposite-sex love? Can you feel free to live as a Gay person within that church and among its members? Do you have the right to excommunicate people from “your” church? Get it clear: It's not your church too!

Gay people should flee those homophobic churches as fast as they can, lest those churches wreak more havoc with your psyches than they may have already done. It's not healthy for you, and just gives that church credibility through your very presence and through the monies you contribute so that they can turn around and use that credibility and money to continue to proclaim that your lives are "immoral" and "sinful" and that you deserve to be deprived of full and equal civil rights. Just get out of those churches, and either go to a church that is worthy of you and that embraces you as it does anyone else, or you're far better off not going to church at all!

"...some of my best friends are gay." Yeah! Right! With the feelings toward Gay people that he holds and expresses, how in the world could any self-respecting Gay person be his "best friend" or believe that he is their "best friend?" He's either deluding himself and/or others, or has as Gay "best friends" terribly self-loathing people who lack self-respect.

"...I do support our Church leaders who say that we can accept those with gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their temptations." Saying "gay tendencies" is equivalent to saying "straight tendencies." We don't have sexual "tendencies," but our emotional/sexual orientation and stimulation exist at the very core, the very heart, of our beings, be we Straight or Gay. He would never talk about "heterosexual tendencies," but feels free to talk about being Gay as being a "tendency."

He represents most professing Christians who are homophobic in that they feel that homosexuality is merely engaged in by perverted heterosexuals. They fail to see that homosexuality is as much a part of one's core being as is heterosexuality, and that mere suppression of those "tendencies" is not only doomed to failure, but even if one can suppress those "tendencies," the warped creature that emanates from all that suppression can cause, and frequently does cause, inestimable harm to him/herself and/or to others.

The emotional/sexual urge is so primal, so fierce within one's very soul, that to talk of "Gay tendencies" shows a woeful ignorance of both Gay sexuality and Straight sexuality. Both partake of the very soul within a person; each is just as integral a part of one's soul as is the other.

So, it's just as foolish to ask why a person is Gay as to ask why a person is Straight! Gay people are not perverted Straight people! And that fact must be hammered home to those who insist with oracular authority that that fiction is the case; that very fiction demonstrates their woeful ignorance of sexuality.

"...I do support our Church leaders who say that we can accept those with gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their temptations." That's not at all true! Just as in life, in the Christian life, one size doesn't fit all. God made each of us unique, and it's that very uniqueness that not only defines our humanity, but enables each of us to express the different gifts God has given us in ways that help others and glorify Him.

The only standard of following Jesus was given to us by Jesus, when He was asked, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus then answered, "...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)

Nowhere did Jesus ever advocate shunning another; depriving anyone of full and equal civil rights; denying anyone a seat at the Lord's table, save for the self-righteous legalists who in any way distort, through ignorance and/or malice, the only Gospel to be found in Christianity: the Gospel of grace or unmerited favor God freely gives to us through our faith in Him.

Hear the Apostle Paul: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) Elsewhere Paul asserts, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:21)

The homophobic professing Christians fail to realize that they commit a grievous sin: they "frustrate the grace of God," and see themselves as "righteous" because they seek to articulate and impose on others God's "law," as they see it, a "law" that coincidentally matches their preconceived prejudices. However, when that "law" threatens their own interests, they "miraculously" receive "another revelation," as occurred when the Mormon Church in 1978 gave up its institutional racism; when the Mormon Church officially gave up the preaching and the practice of polygamy.

"Whether we may be tempted to be immoral with members of our own sex or of the opposite sex, we are expected to live chaste lives. This is very well explained not only in the Book of Mormon, but in the Bible as well." Many people view being Gay as being equivalent to being "immoral!" And that perverse view, of course, is learned largely from homophobic clergy and other religious leaders who rail from assorted pulpits throughout the world concerning the identification of being "Gay" with being "immoral," and with being "hedonistic." It is equivalent to defining heterosexuality by focusing on adultery and spouse swapping.

Homophobes have a vested interest in dealing with what they refer to as a seemingly "seamy" side of being Gay while at the same time focusing on the seemingly "healthy, family oriented" side of being Straight. It doesn't matter that it's Straight people who have put the myth to the oft used phrase, "sanctity of marriage," given rampant divorce rates. In order to maintain the fiction that Gay people are "immoral" and "hedonistic," homophobes have to engage in the irrational by blaming Gay people for the downfall of the institution of marriage.

If we are truly consistent in the mandate for Christians to live "chaste lives," it would do well to have them read Jesus' words in Matthew 6:27-28, as by that standard virtually every church would be empty. Moreover, such a personal moral sin as divorce is deliberately avoided by most clergy, as most clergy are not likely to condemn divorced people, lest their church membership dwindles and the financial contributions dry up!

Moreover, to say, "It's in the Bible," seeks to elevate and justify one's prejudicial mind-set that actually contradicts much of what is, in fact, in the Bible. In an article entitled, “Our Judgments of Morality,” that appeared in the November/December 1999 issue of "Whosoever," I wrote the following:

"Jesus as human was the consequence of fornication and whoredom, and He had in His lineage a murderer. The prophet Hosea was told by God to marry a prostitute. (Hosea 1:2) The prophet Isaiah was told by God to walk around naked for three years. (Isaiah 20:3) Can you imagine what the Church world, the Vatican, and we ourselves would make of all these events today? It is important to remember that God's purposes will be fulfilled despite the judgments of man, our traditions, culture, mind-set, and prejudices."

Things in the Bible, as in life, are not as simple and one-dimensional as the legalists would have us believe!

The more Straight people have occasion to know that members of their families, neighbors, friends, and co-workers are Gay, the more likely it will be that the fiction that Gay people are inherently immoral and hedonistic will be seen for the big lie that it is. However, to the degree that Gay people can be seen as "the other," even as "the enemy," it's to that degree that all sorts of irrational rhetoric, with the discriminatory actions that follow that rhetoric, will hold ascendancy in the psyches and actions of many professing Christians and others.

The attempt to impose such irrational views on civil society, and seek to deprive Gay people of basic civil rights, is seen as "justified" by the belief in the myth that Gay people and what Gay people do sexually is "immoral." However, knowledge of the truth must gain ascendancy, and that is currently very unlikely among many, if not most, professing Christians given the mind-sets of people who choose to blindly follow their homophobic clergy-leaders in both thinking and in actions; among those who lack a discerning and critical intellect, especially when it suits their own prejudices.

The definition of "Chaste" is as follows: "refraining from sexual intercourse that is regarded as contrary to morality or religion; virtuous." Being Gay and having faithful same-sex relationships is, indeed, contrary to a great deal of religious rhetoric, but the fact is that faithful same-sex love and relationships are every bit as moral and virtuous as are faithful opposite-sex love and relationships!

So many professing Christians and others miss this truth, and it must be continuously proclaimed to those who are not blinded by mere institutionally religious loyalties to homophobic clergy who insistently proclaim in their ignorance, and thereby show their ignorance, the very opposite of this truth!

Being Gay like being Straight is normal, healthy, life-affirming, Godly, and sacred! And all the homophobic religious leaders and their blind followers in the world can continue to spout their lies but will ultimately never successfully overcome these truths!

And in the not too distant future, all decent and intelligent people, Christians and non-Christians, will come to see the basic depravity of homophobic thinking, much as they now do with its cousin, White Supremacy, that was in ascendancy in this country not all that long ago!

Share |

JOEL OSTEEN: ANOTHER GRINNING HOMOPHOBE

The excellent writer, James Baldwin, wrote that we must come to “…the realization that civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.” (The Fire Next Time, Dell Publishing Company, 1964, p. 77) God’s apostles are not to be “spineless!”

It is spineless people, limited human beings, those who remain silent amidst the oppression of others, who take seriously someone like Joel Osteen, and other such "religious" homophobes who use smarmy God-talk to seem accepting of others while at the same time demeaning them. To equate being Gay with such behaviors as alcoholism is a terrible, ungodly, thing to do!

And why "The View" would have Osteen on their show in the first place is a mystery, and merely serves to confer a credibility upon him that neither he nor others of his homophobic ilk deserve.

Despite Osteen's contention, being Gay is God's best for Gay people! His and many other pastors' ignorance has them condemn others, and yet hypocritically preach "love" and "acceptance," so as to feather their nests, making them seem loving to those who gullibly take them seriously.

Osteen and others like him are wolves in sheep's clothing who do inordinate damage to LGBT people, and also to Straight people, who are inundated with exclusionary messages regarding LGBT people, helping to set the stage for Gay suicides; harassment, bashings, and even murders, by those, and other presumably Straight people, who think they are doing God a favor by so doing.

As the Apostle Paul wrote regarding those who preach any other Gospel than the Gospel of grace (God's unmerited favor): God damn them! (Galatians 1:8-9)

Please watch this brief clip:

Share |

NUNS BLAST BISHOPS OVER GAY TEEN SUICIDE

An organization of American Catholic nuns has denounced the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for reiterating its opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage at its annual meeting in Baltimore this week while remaining silent on anti-gay bullying and gay teen suicide.

In a statement released Tuesday, the National Coalition of American Nuns accused the bishops of acting like “blinded Pharisees” for waging a fight against marriage equality while failing to speak out on gay teen suicides brought about by school bullying and harassment.

“More than a month has gone by since the media broke the news about a series of gay suicides,” the nuns’ statement says. “During that time, the U.S. Catholic Bishops failed to make a single statement regarding these tragic, preventable deaths.”

[See here for the full article.]

Share |

HATE-MONGERING AMONG PROFESSING CHRISTIANS

The following article is one I wrote several years ago, and I want to reprint it here:

“…he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” (Isaiah 5:7)

The above verse of Scripture shows us that God wants justice and righteousness in the world; He wants mercy and compassion to go forth from those who claim Him to be their Lord and Master. Yet, what all too frequently ensues is oppression and torment visited upon others in His name.

If I was the very Devil himself, I would seek to bring down Christianity by placing vocal spokespersons in key positions so that they could have access to the media, such as TV, to not only make Christians look like a pack of harsh, judgmental freaks, but seek to demonize the underdog and the marginalized in our society. Unfortunately, this tactic has been working all too well! Intelligent, sensitive people are frequently turned-off from even exploring the Christian message and the evidence for the Resurrection because of some professing Christians who are hate-mongers!

By selectively picking out certain verses of Scripture, they cause a climate of hate that all too frequently redounds to the disadvantage of marginalized and hurting people. Historically, these people have been people of color, women, gays, and the poor.

The ignorance and biases of the haters and hate-mongers who claim to speak for God, the Bible, and Christians hammer home God’s plea to each and every one of His children, “O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.” (Isaiah 3:12)

Not only do many followers of these haters and hate-mongers have their walk with God and with their fellow man or woman destroyed but they themselves can become destroyed in the process. “For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.” (Isaiah 9:16)

It is easy to hate! The famous nineteenth century sociologist, Emile Durkheim, posited the closest thing we have to a law about social life, which in essence says, “If there is a threatening out-group, the in-group unites to protect itself against it.” Indeed, we have a vested interest in creating out-groups so that we can cement in-group cohesion, thereby giving us a sense of belonging and a feeling of superiority. Moreover, “hate” is a great energizer that can give one a sense of purpose and meaning in his or her life, particularly when it is done in the name of God and in the name of “love.”

By not showing mercy and compassion to all people who are made in the image of God we profane God to them and, most importantly, to Him. These professing Christians, these false prophets, these haters and hate-mongers who hate in the name of God are the people who God talks about when He says, “And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1:15)

They are arrogant, haughty, and proud in their veneer of civility and in their feeling of superiority. They help create a climate of hate where people on the edge can kill and maim and actually believe they are doing it in the name of God.

When a black man is dragged almost three miles to his death, when a person who performs abortions is killed, when a gay man or woman is taunted or killed, when a person of color is disparaged or lynched, when immigrants are discriminated against, when people who think and/or act differently from us are viewed as the “other,” the “stranger,” we set up the climate of hate.

Anyone with even a nodding acquaintance of Scripture knows that we are obligated to love and embrace all other people; show forth mercy and compassion. When I see a professing Christian disparage TV (a medium for which I am certainly no apologist) because it allegedly has twenty-five gay characters out of the thousands portrayed, and who wants programs rated for “gay content,” it makes me sick. When I see another professing Christian, who is frequently
on TV talk-shows, sees a doll meant for babies projecting his homophobia on that object by seeing it as a gay doll that, too, makes me sick.

When I heard a popular TV evangelist say, to loud applause, that the reason some women are lesbians is because they are “too ugly to get a man,” or when another influential “Christian” says that the anti-Christ is now alive and is a Jewish male, that is also profoundly offensive. Hate-mongering, of course, is usually done under the guise of “love” and “values.” It is rarely done in the name of what it is, “hatred!”

Christians must stand up to haters and hate-mongers in our midst who practice the politics of exclusion and seek to deny civil rights to others, particularly when they do so in the name of God. They are purveyors of a false gospel of legalism and perfectionism that reflect their own prejudices which they impose upon Scripture, and they have the temerity to seek to redefine the Gospel of grace, faith, peace, love, reconciliation, and inclusiveness to be consistent with their own prejudices for which they are frequently handsomely rewarded.

If we don’t actively confront these wolves in sheep’s clothing and the injustices that these purveyors of a false gospel perpetrate upon others, upon our society, upon the name of Christ, upon the Church, upon Christianity, and upon each and every Christian, we are not only condoning their false gospel of legalism that has galloped into the Church, and that has frequently been fused with the most reactionary forces in secular society, but we are tacitly condoning the very
hatred and politics of exclusion done in God’s name that these very limited human beings espouse and represent.

Share |

TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

The International Transgender Day of Remembrance remembers all those who have been murdered due to hate crime. It offers a moment for the transgender community and the world to pause for thought and remember.

Every year since 1998 a web project “Remembering our Dead” has recorded as many deaths as they can that have transphobic motives. The site makes shocking reading and reminds us just how dangerous it can be to live as a transgender person in society. Although primarily a US site it has now spread across the world and more are recording deaths on an international scale.

[Click on this link for the full article with links.]

This day of remembrance usually occurs any time from November 13th through November 20th.

Hear the discussion of Sister Paula and Rev. Troy Perry, Founder and Past Moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches that he founded in 1968:

Share |

A BIBLICAL FORMULA FOR EMOTIONAL HEALTH FOR LGBT PEOPLE AND EVERYONE ELSE

“Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.” (Psalm 131)

All of us, to one degree or another, suffer from emotional discontents and problems that are largely and frequently caused by our perceptions and/or our distorted expectations of what this world has to offer. This phenomenon is especially acute for LGBT people who have been the victims of strident homophobia from virtually all quarters of society: the religious, the family, from politicians, and from assorted verbal and physical bashings that have resulted in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for so many.

The consequences of grinding oppression, hateful epithets, denigration, prejudice and discrimination, fear of being "outed" and the possible negative consequences of coming out, are often seen in internalized homophobia, shame and self-loathing that often result in destructive and risk-taking behavior; sexual excesses that come to define one by his/her sexual orientation, rather than in seeing oneself as a full human being made in the very image of God.

Unfortunately, many Gay people equate their being Gay with sexual hedonism, much like homophobes do, so their emotional pain and its consequences put them in the same camp as the oppressor!

As I recently wrote to a friend of mine in this connection: "I think we have to keep underscoring the fact that being Gay, like being Straight, has little or nothing to do with sex. One is Gay even if he/she can't have sex. One is Straight even if he/she can't have sex. Those LGBT 'activists' who are actually sexual hedonists do what the homophobic religious right does: portray Gay people as being nothing more than sexual creatures, thereby they both suffer from the same malady of ignorance; retard the struggle for equal rights."

So, the issue of emotional health has major implications and consequences for LGBT people as well as the future of the LGBT Civil Rights movement!

In this article, I seek to address psychological and spiritual ways all of us, LGBT and Straight, can minimize, if not obliterate, many of our emotional discontents.

So much of our emotional problems, our existential discontents, come from what Sociologists call “Anomie.” Anomie occurs when one’s expectations exceed what the person, situation, or society can deliver.

For example, if I believe that working hard will make me rich, and I find out that when I’ve worked hard others who were “team players,” and who worked far less than I did, have gotten most of the rewards from our employer, I become understandably hurt and angry. My expectations exceeded the reality of what justice I thought would accrue to me because of my hard work.

Hence, my hurt, anger, and basic discontent with both my work and, frequently, with life itself. It is only when we learn how to neutralize our expectations of others, and of life itself, that we are on the way to achieving some level of inner peace to the degree that this sin-cursed world can afford us.

Similarly, if I enter marriage with the idea that there will always be harmony between my spouse and myself, and I later find out that we often argue or differ on certain matters and, therefore, become disillusioned with both my spouse and even with the institution of marriage itself, it is due to “anomie.” My expectations exceeded the reality of what constitutes marriage, and I must come to the point where I realize that we can’t take two different people with two different sets of genetics, different backgrounds, different interests, and different priorities and put them together and always expect “two hearts to beat as one.”

The gaining of “maturity” or, in the above context of Scripture, the status of being “weaned” from our illusions and facing life and our particular situations as they are, and not necessarily as we want them to be, helps confer a certain level of peace that our anomie certainly didn’t afford us. We come to the knowledge, sooner or later, of the truth of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ statement, when he was asked about the secret of his success, “A long time ago I realized that I was not God.”

In other words, what Oliver Wendell Holmes, former Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was saying was that he came to recognize that there are many things in life, and in his life in particular, that he couldn’t “fix” or “control,” and that he had to separate what he could “fix” and “control” from those things which he couldn’t change. Clearly, this understanding resonates with the well known “Serenity Prayer,” often used by people who are fighting an addiction of one sort or another, and it is attributed to the famous theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Just as the incorporation of this prayer is crucial in the life of any addict, it is crucial in the life of every person, addict or not, Christian or not!

The above Psalm of David that precedes this article begins with the basic stance toward one’s life and toward life itself as one of humility, in that David recognizes that he can’t control many things in his life, and he stands humbled before the sovereignty of an omniscient, omnipotent God, the Alpha and the Omega of life, and of David’s life, and he recognizes the importance of maintaining this lowliness of mind.

David’s eyes are not “lofty,” and he doesn’t suffer from the mistake of “anomie” where his expectations exceed what God allows, and what God has ordained for him. This is a man who is content in all of his life circumstances, and resonates well with the stance of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” (Philippians 4:11)

Paul was not saying that he was not necessarily content “with” the circumstances, but he was content “in” whatever circumstances he found himself, because he trusted in the sovereignty of God in his life and in this world, and that rock-like faith was going to carry him through whatever hills and valleys he was called upon to traverse. And, as we know, Paul had many hills and valleys to travel before God called him home via a chopping block!

It is no accident that in Proverbs 6, concerning the things that the Lord hates, “A proud look” is the first thing mentioned. (v. 17) When we’re proud of “our accomplishments” we fail to realize that God made those accomplishments possible; when we’re proud of our talents, we fail to realize that God gave us those talents; when we’re proud of our wealth, we fail to realize that God not only allowed us to acquire that wealth, but like our accomplishments, talents, and all other gifts from God on this earth, all of these accoutrements of what we call “success” are mere straw for the fire. In this connection, it is interesting to note that the noted and prolific theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, stated that compared to the great glory of God, all of his writings were “like straw.”

The above Psalm continues with David’s understanding that he doesn’t try to deal with matters beyond his control or to those things to which his talents and abilities are not equal. Given this understanding, he asserts in verse 2, “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself.” In other words, he’s not going to worry about things over which he has no control; he’s going to leave those things, and all other things that he can’t even understand, in the hands of almighty God.

After getting his fill of the many blessings of God in his life, David asserts that his soul is in a state of being content and at peace in his knowledge of the sovereignty of God, and “as a child that is weaned of his mother,” his “soul is even as a weaned child.” Just as a weaned child has filled himself on his mother’s milk and is now contented and at rest, so is David’s soul in his knowledge of all that has been given to him by God in his life, and he has the sure and certain knowledge that God will never let him down.

David concludes, “Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever.” In other words, David is telling all of Israel, and now all disciples of Christ, the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), that we are to have the same kind of confidence in God as does David.

This Psalm is biblical faith put into action in one’s life! We cannot live a fulfilling life if we are perpetually worried about life-circumstances or potential life-circumstances; by actual threats or the fear of threats. By our worrying, we accomplish nothing of any value, and we blind ourselves to God’s making a way where there is no way in our lives, and we show that we do not profit from understanding all of the seeming insurmountable hurdles that God enabled us to overcome in our past.

Psalm 37 puts a finer point on this matter when David writes, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity…Trust in the Lord, and do good…Delight thyself also in the Lord…Commit thy way unto the Lord: trust also in him: and he shall bring it to pass…Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil…Wait on the Lord and keep his way…And the Lord shall help [the righteous] and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.”

Once we truly understand, not only intellectually but emotionally, that we are not God, and that there are so many things beyond our control, and so many things that our feeble brains are not able to understand, we are put in the position of casting all our cares upon God (1Peter 5:7) with the firm assurance that He knows the beginning from the end; He knows us better than we know ourselves; He and He alone knows the big picture and we can’t possibly know or comprehend that picture; He knows what we are going to say before we say it; He knows what we think; He has our best interests at heart, regardless of what life-circumstances seem to exist.

Once we come to the place where we exercise this biblical faith every moment of our lives, we have achieved the emotional health that most all of us desire. Make no mistake: I am very far from that place, but it is a place worth pursuing, for it is the ultimate expression of our trust in our sovereign God who saved us, who keeps us, who enables us to overcome our enemies, be they people or events, and who, in the not too distant future, delivers us unto Himself forever.

It is this knowledge, this mind-set, and its practice in our daily lives that denotes spiritual maturity and confers emotional health!

Share |

ON THE STATE OF THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH

The following is an article I wrote a few years ago that I'd like to reprint here:

My friend, Bishop Leland Somers sent me the following email that I wish I had written myself. In his typical fashion, he not only says it like it is, but he expresses the anger and frustration so many of us feel regarding the moribund, pathetic, bureaucratic, and legalistic state of most of the institutional Church, and the frequently hateful manifestations of that tragic state, causing untold harm to others by the needless inculcation of guilt, condemnation, and exclusion and, thereby, having Christians worthy of the name tainted with the same stench of the false gospel most of the institutional Church erroneously and loudly proclaims as representing "Christianity."

To be a Christian is to be an agent of God's grace in the world! "Christianity" is about grace and love! And the only Gospel to be found in Christianity is the Gospel of Grace, Faith, Love, Peace, Reconciliation, and Inclusiveness!

That's why Jesus tells all those who would be His disciples that we are not to judge anyone; we are not to condemn anyone!

Anyone who discriminates through word and/or deed, or who preaches the false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion is none of His! That person, like most of the institutional Church, has aligned him/herself with reactionary and oppressive forces that have absolutely nothing to do with Christianity! Indeed, those reactionary and oppressive forces are diametrically opposed to Christianity!

Whenever one does evil, he/she almost always appeals to virtue! So, wolves in sheep's clothing who falsely call themselves "Christians," are not only deluding others, and perhaps even deluding themselves, but are contravening the very Commandments Jesus gave to all who would be His disciples: To love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves!

"Envy not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways." (Proverbs 3:31)

Hey Jerry -

Here's a good one from "Dispatches from The Culture Wars".

This guy is not the first one to notice that industry is doing a far better job on embracing an ethic of inclusion than the church is doing. There are those who predict that the one of the reasons that the Christian Church is in steep decline is that it is not willing to throw off the blinders to injustice that it has worn for
hundreds if not more than a thousand years. I tend to agree. We need to look to Europe for the future of the Christian Church. In Europe, and by that I include the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom and Ireland. (Ireland is a special case where we see the internecine tribalistic Christian blood letting still seething just below the surface.) What we see in Europe is an irrelevant church manifested as what it really is; an institution more concerned about its survival as an institution than in the Gospel of God's Kingdom made manifest in the person, life, ministry death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the same church in this country and I believe that the fundamentalistic evangelistic upheavals are little more than the last gasping for last breath of a religion that has deliberately made itself irrelevant to human strivings, human suffering, and human needs.

When we look to Jesus, particularly as portrayed in the synoptic Gospels, we find a man who is totally committed to the well being of people where they are. That is in their daily lives of struggle against the powers and principalities of this world (not flying demons and dragons of medieval mythologies) but the powers that exploit, demean, diminish, devalue and destroy human life and dignity as the image of God. The Christian Church most particularly since it was subsumed as part and parcel of the Roman Empire, a tragedy from which is has never recovered - not even in the Reformation of the 16th century - which actually cemented the church to earthly rulers and kingdoms - has consistently betrayed the radical nature of the Kingdom of God which was Jesus' Good News. It has instead substituted a kingdom far far away in another time and place - and called it the Kingdom of Heaven in mockery of Jesus own teaching that the Kingdom of Heaven (God) is right here right now but we have to live into it by embracing the values that Jesus showed us in his life. It happens when we live out the values of radical justice and radical love (you can't have one without the other - they are inseparable) here on this earth.

This is the Good News. The Kingdom of God is at hand. What does that mean? It is at the tip of your finger. It is at the end of your arm. It is where your hands do the work of God. That work is the work of Justice. The justice of which Amos and all the Hebrew prophets speak. This is not a mystery hidden in a conundrum. It is plain for all to see. But they will see it only if they choose to see it.

The Gospel of Thomas puts it this way: " Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you."

It is no wonder that Jesus was in such despair on the cross. He had spent his whole ministry trying to get people to actually follow him and live the life he lived. Yet right up to the end when they all ran - except for the women, the really strong disciples - he hoped that they would 'get it'. "My God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?" He was so alone and abandoned that he no longer experienced the connection to God that had sustained his ministry and his vision.

Did Jesus at that moment see that the movement he spent his life to nurture would in a few hundred years utterly betray him to the very Empire which executed him as a traitor and rebel? Did he see that the discussion that he had with James and John about sitting in judgment was one where he made his point but lost to the desire for power and place of honor at the table of the Emperor? Did he see that ultimately only a very few would stand up to the Powers and Principalities in his name and for his Father's Kingdom? Did he see that radical justice and unconditional love were not what people really wanted? Did he see that what they really wanted was fame, power and money? Did he see that his church was to be betrayed over and over and over again and again through the centuries and millennia to come?

Jesus wept. The church betrayed him.

Has the torch of radical justice and love and acceptance passed out of the church and into secular societies? Is there any need for the church? Is it just another source of burden for those of us who struggle for the dignity of the children of God?

Share |

WHAT LGBT PEOPLE CAN LEARN FROM MALCOLM X

In 1964 Malcolm X gave a speech entitled, The Ballot or the Bullet. The following are some excerpts from that speech:

I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you wouldn't need any legislation; you wouldn't need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn't be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now.

I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million Black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million Black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.

I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.

You and I, 22 million African-Americans — that's what we are — Africans who are in America. You're nothing but Africans. Nothing but Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans.

If it doesn't take senators and congressmen and presidential proclamations to give freedom to the white man, it is not necessary for legislation or proclamation or Supreme Court decisions to give freedom to the Black man. You let that white man know, if this is a country of freedom, let it be a country of freedom; and if it's not a country of freedom, change it.

Now, substitute LGBT for "Negro" and "Black man," and we can see that the current state of the LGBT Civil Rights movement is woefully lacking in intensity and in coordination.

Moreover, within that movement there are traitors who wittingly or unwittingly seek to undermine the quest for full and equal civil rights!

Many are against same-sex marriage because it mimics heterosexual marriage which they hold in disdain; many are grateful for crumbs of incrementalism, and pee all over themselves to get access to politicians who couldn't care less about equal rights for LGBT people, despite their rhetoric to the contrary; many demean themselves by begging the voters to affirm their status as citizens who have the same rights and privileges as do heterosexuals under our Constitution; many, if not most, revel in referring to themselves by terms the oppressor uses to demean and even define LGBT people, not realizing or caring that their use merely cements "outsider" status, and serves as a destructive example to young LGBT people; many give credibility to homophobic churches, where the pastor and congregation view them as "sinners," and not worthy to partake of all of the sacraments of that church or, for that matter, worthy to partake of full and equal civil rights; many participate in parades and pageants that irrationally celebrate one's sexuality, further fueling the stereotype that Gay=Sex, and celebrating sexual outlaw status at the same time that many LGBT people seek full and equal civil and sacramental rights.

In distinguishing the "House Negro" from the "Field Negro," Malcolm X, in part, said:

There was two kind of slaves. There was the house negro and the field
negro. The house negro, they lived in the house, with master. They
dressed pretty good. They ate good, cause they ate his food, what he left.
They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near their
master, and they loved their master, more than their master loved
himself. They would give their life to save their masters house quicker
than their master would. The house negro, if the master said "we got a
good house here" the house negro say "yeah, we got a good house here".

It is my opinion that in what LGBT Civil Rights movement exists, there are far too many "house negroes," far too many traitors who are content, and/or often even revel, in their second class citizenship status. These LGBT "house negroes" are fiddling while the Rome of LGBT equality burns!

They are those who like to live in "the master's house" by either celebrating their sexual outlaw status, thereby fulfilling the oppressor's expectations of what LGBT people are like, or by elevating their desire to be "liked" by their heterosexual neighbors and co-workers over engaging in meaningful activism, thereby assuring that they, and subsequent generations of LGBT people, are forever consigned to the status of second class citizens.

It is the relatively large number of such LGBT people, those who are, in one way or another, content with their lives as second class citizens, to give us any reason to be encouraged that this civil rights battle will be won any time soon!

Share |

THE CO-OPTATION OF CHRISTIANITY

The following is an article that I wrote several years ago that I'd like to reprint here:

“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” (Psalm 118:8) "This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9)

One of the definitions of the term, “co-opt” is the following: “to assimilate or win over into a larger group.” (Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, 1997) It is quite easy to be co-opted by all sorts of rewards for conformity to the status quo, to the ways and means of virtually all institutions in secular society.

Indeed, to its detriment, the Church may be seen to have gladly allowed itself to be co-opted resulting in the great loss of members in mainline churches, and the loss of many intelligent, sensitive people both from the Church and from even the likelihood of them taking Christianity seriously enough to even consider it as a viable way to have a relationship with God. Indeed,
the cooptation of Christianity, frequently resulting in no Christianity at all, may well have had the effect of having many people not even want to consider God at all in their daily lives!

Rhetoric that is called “Christian” is frequently a downright embarrassment in its hateful stupidity and studied ignorance where godliness is considered to be synonymous with rank prejudice, xenophobia (fear and/or hatred of foreigners, and anyone or anything viewed as different from the person him/herself and his/her ways of doing things) and, increasingly, blatant advocacy of discrimination.

For example, as you know, I have a burning passion for full and equal civil and sacramental rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. That passion mirrors that which I had in the 1950’s and 60’s in regard to the rights of Afro-Americans.

When I read and hear hateful rhetoric, which contributes to suicides, bashings, and murders of our gay brothers and sisters, I can’t help but recall the naked hate on the faces of professing Christians who carried placards and screamed at little black children going to a hitherto white
elementary school, all the while citing select and distorted biblical passages to justify their prejudice and hate.

What makes the current climate of hate, as with the climate of hate that existed during the civil rights era, so tragic and shameful is the brutal fact that the major impetus for that hate, the rhetoric that fuels that hate, is largely coming from the leadership and their blind followers in most of Christianity’s denominations. Clearly, some denominations are much more moderate than others in their hateful rhetoric and animus. However, apart from the United Church of Christ (ads for which the major networks won’t air because they are deemed to be
“too controversial”), I am not aware of any mainline denomination that seeks full civil and sacramental rights for gay people.

Jesus seems to make it very clear that divorce is only to be had in cases of fornication, and that when one divorces and remarries, he or she is committing adultery. (Matthew 5:32) Yet, if “the sanctity of marriage” and “the well-being of the family” are the real concerns of clergy and others who rail against same-sex marriage, why don’t they deal with the actual threat to those institutions: our very high heterosexual divorce rate, and not deal with same-sex relationships that have absolutely nothing to do with these institutions?

The reason they don’t spew their rhetoric (nor should they)concerning this rational reason for the threats to marriage and the family is that many in their congregations are divorced and have re-married and the clergy don’t want to bite the hands that feed them when it comes time for the offertory.

Diverting our attention from the real threats to marriage and the family by scape-goating a minority group that, by any stretch of a rational imagination, has absolutely nothing to do with those threats, are tactics that most clergy use to please most of their constituents, just as many politicians scapegoat gay people to hustle votes and for purposes of diverting attention from a failed foreign policy and innumerable domestic fiscal and other policies that have considerably eroded quality of life and civil liberties in this country.

The Church is called upon to be the voice of the poor, the displaced, the marginalized, the hurting, and be a vehicle of compassion and ministry to see to it that our light so shines that God is given the glory for our ministries of love. However, the “Church” has allowed itself to be co-opted by opportunistic politicians and clergy where the name of God is used to hurt, demean, condemn, discriminate, ostracize, and even kill others.

That co-optation has ignored the prophetic voice of the Holy Spirit Who puts love in the hearts of all those who have Jesus in their hearts, and that is one reason why I strongly feel that we are entering a post-denominational age where God’s love will trump the Church’s co-optation by the most reactionary forces in our society, and where Christians worthy of the name will, once again, not be embarrassed by the selling out of Christianity by those who have eagerly sought to align themselves with opportunistic and reactionary secular and “religious” forces in society.

UPDATE: 10/28/10: IN THIS CONNECTION, PLEASE READ DON CHARLES' POST, HOW JESUS CHRIST RECLAIMED A LOST AND WOUNDED LAMB

Share |

MUST-READING FOR THOSE INVOLVED IN THE LGBT CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE

The following link takes you to a series of articles by Don Charles Hampton that deal with many dimensions of the LGBT Civil Rights struggle.

Each of these articles are nothing short of brilliant, and are must-reading for all those who are both serious about this struggle, and who are in any way intimidated by professing "Christian" rhetoric that is used to bear false witness and defame LGBT people.

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ THESE SUPERB ARTICLES

Share |

GOD'S UNFINISHED FUTURE: PETER J. GOMES INTERVIEW

In my opinion, the most erudite, reasonable, biblical scholar and expositor is the Rev. Peter J. Gomes. His books: The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart and The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus are among his best, and I strongly urge you to read them.

In this brief video, Gomes elucidates the value of the Bible, and shows fundamentalism, the equation of the Bible with God, to be mere idolatry, a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments.

His approach to the Bible is sure to whet the appetite of all people who seek spiritual fulfillment in this world:



[Thanks to Trinity Wall Street}

Share |

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE "GAY"

I've been an LGBT Rights activist for about twenty years, and have been quite disturbed by the seeming political indolence of many professed Gay people, as well as the counterproductive frivolity and displays that are virtually guaranteed to offend the sensibilities of decent people, both Gay and Straight alike.

Unless decency and dignity, and a fire in the belly, accompany the struggle for LGBT equality, not much will be gained in this area, and much will be lost; the gratitude for crumbs of incrementalism and embracing an appeal to the electorate for equal rights will be embraced by those Gay people who are either filled with recognized or unrecognized self-loathing and/or who are not even Gay at all, despite the fact that they publicly identify as "Gay."

There must be a distinction made between being "Gay" and being a "sexual hedonist" who gets off on having sex with people of the same sex, and I truly believe that the lack of recognition of that distinction is what is going a long way toward retarding true equality and the acquisition of full and equal civil and sacramental rights for Gay people.

Simply put: just because a person has and may even enjoy sexual relations with the same sex does not necessarily make that person "Gay." We know this fact from life in prisons and boarding schools where same-sex relations are not uncommon, and yet many, if not most, of these people, once out of those institutions, behave heterosexually.

It seems to me that many self-proclaimed "Gay activists" are definitely sexually involved with members of the same sex, but may not be necessarily Gay! Merely having same-sex sexual activity does not necessarily make one Gay, and the confusion of the two is what is helping to muddy the waters in the fight for full and equal LGBT equality, a fight that many of the sexual hedonists are greatly impeding!

To be Gay means to have an emotional and romantic affinity with one's own sex, that may or may not include sexual activity! For example, even if one can't have sexual relations, he/she is still Gay or Straight! Mere sexual activity does not necessarily determine one's true status.

Just knowing about one's sexual activities tells us virtually nothing about his/her status as Gay or Straight! In the sexual realm, probably the psychoanalyst Anna Freud gave the best operational definition to distinguish "Gay" from "Straight." She said the best criterion to determine who is Gay or Straight are the fantasies one has when he or she masturbates! And in the sexual realm of life, I concur with her contention.

However, when it comes to publicly defining who is Gay (and who is Straight), mere sexual activity tells us very little about that person's status but, rather, the sex of the people to whom he/she most romantically and emotionally relates.

It is the overlooking of this distinction between feeling and behavior that may be seen to contribute to the false notion that sexuality is fluid! It is only "fluid" if mere sexual activity is considered to define one's status as "Gay" or "Straight."

However, if we see that our status as Gay or Straight consists not merely in who we have sex with but, rather, to whom we emotionally and romantically relate, the notion of "sexual fluidity" is seen as the fiction it is; the notion of being "ex-gay" is seen as being a myth, as one can abstain from sexual activity and yet still emotionally and romantically relate to people of the same sex, thereby defining that person as permanently Gay; self-identified "Gay activists" and others may or may not be truly Gay, but merely enjoy same sex sexual activity.

In sum, it is my contention that a lot of vagaries will disappear if we accurately define being Gay (and being Straight) as primarily involving emotional and romantic components rather than largely defining those classifications in terms of sexual activity.

And it may well be that the frivolity, the counterproductive pageants and displays, and the gratuitous use of hateful words as self-identifiers, all of which are retarding the struggle for full and equal rights for LGBT people, are more likely to come from "sexual hedonists," many of whom view themselves, and are naively viewed by others, as "activists," who enjoy same-sex activities rather than from Gay people as defined above.

Share |

DON CHARLES: TROUBLE THE WATERS

By his kind permission, my pal, Don Charles, has allowed me to print his superb article, Trouble the Waters on my blog. This article of his is the very best article I have ever read on the subject of LGBT rights and issues, and must be read by everyone who truly cares about the LGBT Civil Rights struggle:














When I decided to move "Diary Of A Gay Wage Slave" to my new blog, Ignorance Is Plentiful, it left a hole in Christ, The Gay Martyr that needed filling. I decided to write a new 200th post, and make it a second Gay Rights manifesto. My first manifesto still appears at the bottom of this blog; it's still valid, and I have no intention of replacing it. However, I have some new thoughts about what needs to happen before LGBT equality can be realized. What follows is the closing statement I choose to leave my readership with before making Christ, The Gay Martyr completely and permanently inactive. I won't be posting any more special features here; this is it, folks!

Trolling Google Image for blog photos, as I often do, I stumbled across a stunning piece of art. You can see it yourself over the opening paragraph of this essay. It's a sculpture by the legendary male physique artist George Quaintance, completed in 1936. You're looking at two Art Deco masks fused together to make one: One mask is female, and the other male. I adore Art Deco design, and at first, all I did was admire this beautiful piece of craftsmanship. As I kept looking at it, though, a strange thrill began to course through me.

Suddenly, I realized that this wasn't just a good-looking sculpture. This was a representation of Transgender humanity: Masculinity and femininity occupying the same space, blended so as to form a separate gender all its own. Knowing something about George Quaintance's approach to art, I think that's exactly what he intended it to symbolize. If I'm right, then he did so magnificently; he totally captured the essence of inborn androgyny.

Are you an LGBT person? Then take a good look at that Quaintance sculpture. It's a visualization of your inner self. What do you think? Are you amazed? Are you repelled? Can you handle confronting the truth about what you are? Or can you only see yourself through the eyes of your oppressors?

There's an idea: Let's look at ourselves through their eyes for a moment. Most of the time when LesBiGay people are discriminated against, it isn't because of their sexual orientation. Most Straight people never see us have sex, and most of us aren't in the habit of discussing our sexual exploits with them. We are bullied, threatened, ostracised and assaulted because of our gender expression. Our voices are too high, or too low. Our hair is too long, or too short, or the wrong color. We don't wear clothing that's masculine or feminine enough. We don't have interests that are considered appropriate for "real men" or "real women". We don't carry ourselves in the way "real men" and "real women" are expected to. We don't make sense to anyone whose understanding of gender is binary. We are people who transcend gender (which is why all of us have a right to identify as Transgender), and that makes people who don't transcend it very uncomfortable in our presence.

Fighting anti-Gay bias in this world necessarily involves challenging narrow concepts of gender. Binary gender is like a book that you've only read two-thirds of the way and put down: the story isn't complete until you've read the final chapters! On those unread pages, there's a world that's populated by more than just male and female life forms. Transgender life forms also exist! We always have, we always will, and it's time for us to insist that the world acknowledge our existence.

Scientists like Simon LeVay have recently uncovered biological markers for Transgender status, but I didn't need their findings to discover who I am. I came to know my true gender from studying the Bible and Gnostic texts. Chistian scripture, widely thought to condemn Gay people, gave me the key that unlocked the truth about same-gender sexuality. The Gospel of Philip describes how Jesus Christ gifts a chosen few with "the male and female power" before birth, causing them to be born with the blended gender of God. As I've written before, parallel doctrine exists in the annals of many, if not most of the world's oldest religions.

Carrying both male and female gender in the same body was at one time widely viewed as a blessed state. We should endeavor to reclaim that blessed status, and begin to feel the pride in our uniqueness that we merely pretend to feel now. When Gay Pride becomes more than just a popular concept, I bet we'll feel less of an urge to strip down, booze up, get strung out and/or clown around in the streets under the guise of celebration. We'll no longer need to camouflage our self-hatred that way!

This thing that I call blended gender exists within all LGBT folk. So, you may ask, why doesn't it make us all Gay, or all Bisexual, or all Transsexual? Why is there variation? I think variation occurs because different people respond to its presence in different ways. Or, it may be a question of degree, with some of us possessing more gender neutrality, and others possessing less. Whatever the case, blended gender is inborn; all this bullsh*t speculating about "environmental factors" and "outside influences" should've ended long ago. You can't "learn" how to become Gay or Transsexual; core identity can't be taught to or imposed on a person! The negative experiences of intersexed individuals, forced as children into gender roles that violated their self-concept, tells us as much.

By the way, when I talk about blended gender, I am not referring to intersex genitalia. I'm not talking about genitalia at all. I'm speaking of something that exists on a spiritual level. As gender-transcending human beings, the form our genitalia takes is of very little significance. It matters in our sexual relations, and it matters if we want to produce offspring, but that's about it. The bodies our Transgender souls are born into don't define us like the bodies of binary gender folk define them; one way or another, an LGBT person will always challenge conventional notions about masculinity and femininity. We can't help but do it; it's our nature!

Gender neutrality trumps (s)expectations; it has its own unalterable norms. Cultural pressure can't change them. Punitive laws can't change them. Religious belief can't change them. Psychotherapy can't change them. Surgery and hormone treatments can only create the illusion of changing them. Blended gender is a gift that can't be returned, no matter how much we may want to.

But why should we want to? The thing to never forget is that Transgender status is completely normal. It's God's balance of nature. The sexual union of men with women is meant to approximate the gender neutrality that we received as a birthright; that's why the Savior excluded our kind from heterosexual marriage(Matthew 19). To me, it's perfectly logical: If people can be born with blended racial background, why can't they be born with blended gender, too? I see LGBT humanity as just another aspect of the tremendous natural diversity that God loves. Millennia have passed since life began on Earth, but every so often, we still hear about a previously unknown species of plant or animal; the Lord's imagination and creative ability knows no bounds! It makes a skilled artisan like George Quaintance look like a caveman carving stones; and we who possess his "male and female power" number among his finest creations.

Let me say this one last time: Nothing that God creates is queer!

I call for an end to the lies heterosexual folk tell about us! Enough of these insane accusations of "recruitment"! No more vilification. No more pretending that we prey on Straight people like Dracula preys on virgins. No more pretending that Bible scripture justifies excluding us from church sacraments. No more claims that we contaminate any environment we become part of, like the United States military. No more equating us with pedophiles and polygamists and bestialists. No more falsehoods about our relationships "threatening" the traditional family. No more papal pronouncements that our existence throws nature out of balance. No more demagoguery to the effect that God is punishing humankind because of our presence.

I also call for an end to the many delusions LGBT folk entertain. No more facetious claims of having "chosen" our sexual orientation. No more accepting stereotypes as truth. No more calling sex in public restrooms an expression of "gay culture". No more pretending that unprotected sexual activity won't result in serious consequences. No more thinking of ourselves as men trapped inside women's bodies, and vice-versa. No more pretending that surgery can remove a person's Transgender status. No more insisting that Transsexual status is an illness.

No more pretending that we're exactly the same as heterosexual folk except for who we sleep with. No more arguments that we don't "need" certain rights that heterosexual folk enjoy. No more lying to LGBT kids about bullying getting "better" when all that happens most of the time is a change in the type of bullying and who's doing it. No more believing that Scripture condemns our love(it doesn't). No more accepting religious bigots as doctrinal authorities. And please! No more pretending that heterosexist and transphobic slurs can be "reclaimed" and made empowering.

The word "queer" must go! It connotes defectiveness and perversion. It stigmatizes the blessing of LGBT identity. It belongs to an ignorant past that we must break free of. If you're in the habit of dropping this dehumanizing label into casual conversation, wash out your mouth and mind; gargle twice and spit! Starting today, I'm on a crusade to replace "queer" with the term "gender-neutral". If an umbrella term is needed, as many of us seem to believe, then this is a far more accurate one. It defines more precisely who we are and what we have in common as Lesbians, Gay men, Bisexual and Transsexual persons. Most important, it's refreshingly free of denigrating connotations.

We need to stop wearing the oppressor's hand-me-down hate speech! Dignity looks so much better on us. We must force ourselves and others to speak of blended gender with respect, and get used to hearing it spoken of in that way.

Respecting yourself is about more than just the language you use. It also has to do with the way you treat yourself, and how you let others treat you. There are a bunch of Gay activists around; just turn over a rock, and one will crawl out from under it! Yet I find that relatively few of them want to change conditions for LesBiGay people in any substantive way.

Too many of us have made our peace with the demeaning jokes, the ugly slurs, the outrageous stereotypes. We've resigned ourselves to the persecution, the stigmatization, the lack of security in our persons. Most of us just haven't got the stomach for taking the fight against bigotry to the oppressor's door, so in a pinch, phony political posturing suffices. At the end of the day, we're content to stay walled off in a little corner of the world set aside for misfits, a place devoid of dignity that doesn't even provide us with safe harbor.

We crave distractions from the injustices we suffer. We escape into pageants, parties and cliques, campy humor, mindless celebrity worship and reckless sexual excess. Numbing our pain with drink, drugs and booty, we can barely feel that boot on the back of our necks . . . why, our necks could snap and we wouldn't even notice! We'd never admit it, but we've adapted ourselves to a discriminatory status quo. Within our myriad social classes and cultural traditions, we've learned how to accommodate heterosexism, and God forbid we should trouble the waters too much.

I want to f*cking trouble those waters!

I want to trouble them so bad sometimes, I can hardly stand it! I want a Category Five hurricane, global warming crisis and tsunami all rolled into one! I want to see all the complacency and compromise and corruption swept away. I want to see the cleansing rain come down, and then I want to see the sunshine after the rain. I'm so ready!

I want this social upheaval so passionately because of the way I grew up: An effeminate boy all but crippled by shame, repeatedly beaten down by ignorance, terrified of the world outside his door. It was an intolerable way to grow up, and I can't stand to think about anyone else suffering that way. How can we settle for business as usual when we know a new LGBT generation is falling victim to hate crimes every day(those they commit against themselves as well as those perpetrated by others)? Oh, we're making a big militant noise right now, but it's still business as usual: Begging politicians for favors; nibbling around the edges of mass protest; letting the religious Right Wing wipe its filthy feet on our backs; talking up revolution whenever we get the chance, but never walking the talk. It's nothing but a lot of pussyfooting around, and I'm sick to death of it!

When we finally get serious about Gay Rights, we'll be waging the fight against discrimination in six key arenas: In religious institutions; in educational institutions; in the courts; in the streets; in the media; and in our own hearts! (Take note that I didn't mention the political arena. That was deliberate! Let's chill out with the Washington lobbying until we have some real power to wield there.)

We'll be turning up the temperature in our churches, mosques and synagogues until they become boiling pools of unrest. We'll be condemning "faith-based" opposition to Gay Rights, and correcting religious doctrine that calls Transgender expression sinful. We'll be banishing "Queer Studies" from the classroom, mandating comprehensive sex education and anti-bullying measures, and promoting genuine scholarship on Transgender identity. We'll be ripping the blindfold off of Lady Justice so that her eyes can perceive the abusive excesses of unchecked religious freedom.

We'll be making mass protest a reality, filling the public square to demand tax relief as compensation for institutional heterosexism and transphobia. We'll be demanding accurate, consistent and respectful media representation(especially in sales and entertainment media), and blowing the damn roof off if we don't see it! We'll finally have realized that a distorted portrayal can be as bad or worse than invisibility; and when it comes to rooting out the entrenched shame that comes between us and our dignity, we'll be as relentless as the Red Chinese rooting out counter-revolutionary influences. That's what serious Gay activism will look like.

I believe what the old Negro spiritual says: God's gonna trouble the waters! And just like the runaway slaves who originally sang that song, we LGBT folk must wade in troubled waters before we can set foot on the dry land of liberation.

This essay is dedicated to the memory of Haitian-American poet, editor and performance artist Assotto Saint, who showed me the path when I was not yet ready to walk it.

Share |

A BRIEF VIDEO OF REV. TROY PERRY

Rev. Troy Perry can be credited with significantly racheting up the LGBT civil rights movement in 1968, a year before Stonewall. He took Christianity and the Bible, the teachings and life of Jesus, and put them into action for all people, including LGBT people.

He founded the Metropolitan Community Church, later to become a world-wide denomination, and was its Moderator for 37 years. He now travels extensively, proclaiming the Good News to ALL of God's children, and hammers home the fact that God doesn't have any step-children, God doesn't make any mistakes, and Jesus came to take away our sins and not our sexuality.

He's my friend and, unbeknownst to him, a major motivator for my own ministry. Unfortunately, there has, in my opinion, been a retrogression in the LGBT Civil Rights movement since he founded MCC; a retrogression into pageants, pride parades, hateful epithets used as self-identifiers, etc.

Many of these symptoms and causes of retardation of this civil rights movement began as positive phenomena when it was necessary for LGBT people to have a consciousness of kind, a sense of belonging, and even an in-your-face vocabulary to insulate themselves from the tremendous hurt visited upon them by the oppressor.

However, those days are long past, those tactics are long unnecessary and, in fact, are counterproductive.

Hear Rev. Perry give some of his many words of wisdom in the following brief video.

Also, I strongly urge you to read, and buy, his books: "The Lord is my Shepherd and He Knows I'm Gay"; "Don't Be Afraid Anymore." Also, read the book about him and the MCC entitled, "Troy Perry: Pastor and Prophet.

Here is the brief video:



Just one more brief video. I couldn't help myself. Hear Rev. Troy Perry's words and call to fighting the good fight for equality for LGBT people, in honor of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich:

Share |

ON THE NEED TO GROW UP

A couple of years ago, I wrote the article, On The Need To Grow Up that met with largely negative comments. I feel very strongly that the use of such words as "queer," "dyke," "fag," etc. by LGBT people is not only counterproductive to the struggle for equality for LGBT people, but shows a degree of shame and self-loathing that is inimical to one's being a viable participant in that struggle.

The following is a reprint of that article:

As I've written before, I would have my class think of the first word that occurred to them when I said the word "Gay." All of them said that the first thing that occurred to them was the word "sex."

As I told them, let's assume that the average couple has sex three times a week, each session lasting about 15 minutes. That means that only about 45 minutes a week is devoted to sexual activity.

Clearly all of us, Gay or Straight, are awake for far more than 45 minutes a week. All of our lives encompass far more than the engaging in sexual activity!

Being Gay, just like being Straight, is about one's whole being: his/her perceptions, sensibilities, and emotional/affectional/sexual preferences. We are all multifaceted, and to restrict oneself or others to being a mere one-dimensional sexual animal does a grave injustice to both logic as well as to Gay people themselves.

The unfortunate fact is that many Gay people, too, have bought into the false notion, inculcated by religious and secular homophobes, their very oppressors, that they are merely sexual beings who are mere "selfish hedonists", and who then, therefore, portray themselves, and view themselves, as just that: one-dimensional people who focus on sexual activity, and who define themselves by their sexuality and by little or nothing else.

Moreover, the appropriation and use of pejorative and hateful self-identifiers, as well as the engagement in frivolous activities that also mark one as an "outsider," as a "deviant," as "the other," and even as "the enemy" to what is considered to be "normal" and "moral," tells us far more about the given person than it tells us about anything else.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being into BDSM or being a member of the Leather community, for example, but the blatant hostility of the latest Folsom Street Fair, for example, was consciously and/or unconsciously designed to keep LGBT people in their place of being viewed by most of society as justifiable victims to persecute; reinforce LGBT people in taking pride in being in an "outsider" status, as "sexual outlaws," who have no desire to be part of mainstream society.

This activity and its consequences was done by unconscious and/or unconscious design! It seemed to me to be far less a celebration of the Leather community than it was a statement telling others, particularly religious people, "F***k You."

One can blame centuries of discrimination for the unconscious and/or conscious self-loathing that prompts the appropriation of the hateful epithets of the oppressors by which many LGBT people identify themselves, and the sexualization of the self as the major component of one's very being that is held by many LGBT people, but that explanation only goes so far, and gives such LGBT people too much slack when any of us put the onus of self-hate solely on those who discriminate against the oppressed.

There is a point when one has to own his/her dignity, demand the respect due to any human being, demand full and equal civil and sacramental rights regardless of the negative messages and hostility that have been visited on that person in the past, or even in the present.

And those goals will not be realized as long as the minority group accepts its inferior status, and revels in it by referring to its members by the very same terms used by the most virulent homophobes throughout history and in our midst.

No self respecting person, Gay or Straight, stands for being treated as less than fully human; no self respecting person, Gay or Straight, uses negative self-identifiers that have been historically (and contemporarily) used by their oppressors. The slave mentality is blamed on others, but the fact is that it ultimately resides within each human being whether or not to accept that mentality.

On one progressive, LGBT-friendly site, Don Charles and I tried to convince others of that fact. It was remarkable how the venom against our contentions (and sometimes against us) started pouring out from most of those who chose to comment. Deep down I'm convinced that they knew we were right, but they didn't have the guts to overcome and transcend the big lie that they deserve to be treated as second-class citizens.

They really believe that they are "sinners," regardless of whether or not they are religious and, in the case of those who had that message constantly reinforced by "ex-gay therapists," it may well have insinuated itself in their unconscious that drives them to continuous, life-long self hate. With psyches like these, there can be no meaningful activism.

When we throw into the mix political expediency, as seen, for example, with Barney Frank and the ENDA debacle; being grateful for the crumbs of incrementalism in the name of "progress"; "liberals" who go whichever way the wind is blowing; inertia where people are self-satisfied if they perceive their immediate needs are being met, regardless of the cost to their dignity and humanity, meaningful activism falls on deaf ears.

Moreover, such psyches and political anemia only serve to further embolden the homophobes, as they see these factors as signs of weakness, and the tragic conclusion is that they are right about that perception.

So, I say to those who revel in using pejorative and hateful self-identifiers, who are content with being treated as second-class citizens, who are delighted with crumbs of incrementalism, who are self-satisfied as long as their immediate perceived self-interests are being met, who tolerate the indignities attendant upon being treated as "the other," and "the deviant," who allow homophobic clergy and others to demean them with impunity: Grow Up!

When we were children we usually, and for some of us all too frequently, allowed adults to define our realities for us. Now that we're grown, we have an obligation to act our ages and demand to be treated with the same dignity and have the same civil and sacramental rights as anyone else! And not settle for anything less!

Listen to the Apostle Paul: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1Corinthians 13:11)

To the degree we act like children, either by centering our lives on frivolous and self-destructive activities, or by allowing others to define our realities for us, or by not demanding full and equal civil and sacramental rights, or by using negative and hostile self-identifiers that serve to perpetuate "outsider," "deviant," "abnormal," and "inferior" status, it is to that degree that homophobes are further emboldened; what rights that are currently enjoyed are threatened or may even be rescinded; increasing numbers of decent people will find "justification" for considering LGBT people as "not one of us," and the fight for full and equal civil and sacramental rights will be greatly harmed.

Moreover, such harmful behaviors and self-concepts are inimical to the fire in the belly that is needed to acquire the dignity and civil and sacramental rights that are enjoyed by all other citizens in the U.S.

In this vein, please read the important article, Putting Out Fire With Gasoline by my good friend Don Charles.

Share |

EVERY CHURCH MUST BE OPEN AND AFFIRMING

The following article is an edited version of one I wrote several years ago entitled, Why Every Church Must Be Open And Affirming, that was a sermon I preached in a Methodist Church that was contemplating becoming a "Reconciling Congregation."

Here is the new version:

The legalists and the self-righteous, smug fundamentalist professing Christians, who seem to monopolize the media, don't speak for Christianity—at least not the Christianity that I know! These purveyors of a false Gospel impose their prejudices on the Bible, selectively picking certain verses that they feel affirm those prejudices, and preach a message of legalism and perfectionism that is diametrically opposed to the Gospel of grace, faith, love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness.

The Apostle Paul, who adamantly fought legalism (Acts 15; Ephesians 2:8-9), saved his harshest words for those who preach a false Gospel. He said in Galatians 1:8 concerning those who preach a false Gospel, "...let him be accursed."

He felt so strongly about those who preach legalism rather than the Gospel of grace that he repeated himself in the very next verse.

To be "accursed" is to be damned by God! In other words, he wrote, "God damn them." (Galatians 1:8-9) Once can't use any stronger language than that!

These preachers of a false Gospel have wittingly or unwittingly attempted to hijack the true Gospel and redefine Christianity in their own twisted image of God, the Bible, the world, and of themselves. They make Christians look like a pack of hate-mongering, harsh, judgmental freaks and I terribly resent it!

Every single church and denomination is obligated to embrace and welcome into its fellowship everyone who worships Christ as his or her savior, and afford each such person full rights of inclusion, including the partaking of every sacrament of the Church, as befit members of the Body of Christ! Yet, many denominations are struggling with issues surrounding the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (hereafter to be called GLBT) people.

The struggle is said to largely center on biblical interpretation regarding gay people and their relationships, as well as Christian tradition, despite the fact that Jesus says we make void the Word of God by our traditions. (Matthew 15:3)

Many people who seek to deny GLBT people rights of ordination, marriage, and other rights and privileges that accrue to others, may be well-intentioned, but they are misinformed. The root of this misinformation is largely the religious leadership that seeks to impose their world-views that bespeak ignorance and insensitivity upon not only other people, but upon the Bible and upon God Himself.

In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, why would we allow a bunch of celibate men, men who seemingly choose to deny a core part of the self, a deep primal urge and vehicle for the expression of deepest intimacy between two people, be allowed to define romantic and sexual reality for us?

In this vein, we must ask, "Why are so many 'religious' people, clergy and non-clergy alike, so obsessed with others' love and sexual lives that they read into Scripture, taking a few passages out of context and without regard to the original languages, justification for discriminating, stigmatizing, demonizing, and oppressing GLBT people, which judgment and discrimination is clearly un-Scriptural?" Their prejudices have clearly blinded them to the biblical mandate to love others and not judge or oppress them!

It is important to realize that homosexuality is never mentioned in the Ten Commandments, never written about by the prophets, and never discussed by Jesus. If it were that important, it would have likely been dealt with in at least one of these contexts!

Those who spend a great deal of their time condemning other people "in the name of God," by picking and choosing selected verses of Scripture without seeming regard to context and original languages, may well be materially and psychologically gaining a great deal from these endeavors, all the while claiming that they are being faithful to the Bible.

Just one example as to how these people don't seem to be as 'Bible believing' as they would have us believe: Jesus specifically condemned divorce and remarriage, saying that those who did so, absent fornication, were themselves committing adultery. (Matthew 19:9) I don't hear many homophobic clergy condemning these people and telling them that they should leave their current spouse and either reunite with their previous spouse or remain single. Nor should
they!

My point is that many of their constituents are made up of these people who give them tithes, offerings, and contributions and they don't want to bite the hands that feed them. They have, however, helped drive many GLBT people away from the church, so these people become viewed as "safe" targets to persecute.

The Gospel of love negates any attempt to misrepresent, stigmatize, demonize, or oppress other people. Those who seek to exclude GLBT people from partaking fully in the life of the Church and society have missed the message of the Gospel!

For far too long we have listened to people who just uncritically assume that what they heard from the pulpit or Sunday school, as ignorant and hateful as it may be, regarding GLBT people is true. Being gay is not a lifestyle! It's a life! It's not a choice, any more than being straight is a choice!

Moreover, although each minority group has its own particular history, each has suffered from misinformation, discrimination, stigma, and oppression. Unfortunately, the Church has been the last institution in society to accept the disenfranchised and "least among us." As has been noted for many years, the Church has been, and continues to be, the most racially segregated institution that exists on Sunday mornings in our society.

In addition, the major justification for oppressing minority groups has been appeal to the Bible. Witness the subjugation of women, slavery, and segregation.

Even the most "Bible believing" Christian would not condone such biblical practices as stoning to death adulterers, stoning to death those who work on the Sabbath, requiring all women to wear long hair, women not talking in church, women not teaching men, not wearing mixed fibers in our clothes, etc. Yet these are all taught in the Bible!

The Bible is part of God's revelation to us. It gives us a glimpse into a small part of God's heart and a few of His many dimensions. God didn't stop talking to His children 2,000 years ago! He still speaks to us regarding His will for our lives, and to proclaim in each generation, in and for His name, the cause of justice, and to manifest Jesus' love toward others.
The seemingly oracular pronouncements regarding GLBT people and their relationships by those who parade their ignorance as "Godliness" have helped lead to the suicides, bashings, and murders of countless GLBT people. Indeed, in this connection, it is estimated that gay youth have at least three times the suicide rate of non-gay youth.

Make no mistake, every drop of blood shed by GLBT people either through suicide, bashing, or murder, are on the 
hands of all those religious leaders, their followers, and their allies who spew forth their ignorance, prejudice, and hate against GLBT people and their relationships! These wolves in sheep's clothing take the Bible, God's love letter to His children, and selectively and perversely use it as a club to condemn others, and deny GLBT people full inclusion in the Church and in society.

The tradition-bound parts of the Church have so indoctrinated people, many of whom have never even set foot in a 
house of worship, that many people even disown their own children when they "come out" and divulge their sexual 
orientation to those whom they thought unconditionally loved and cherished them. There are many children living on the streets because their own parents trusted ignorant clergy and their followers over their God-given duty and privilege to nurture and embrace their own children!

Throughout our lives, we have been bombarded with ignorant, homophobic messages from much of the Church world that don't resonate with, and do contradict, the revelation of God in the Person and words of Jesus! Let's not let the ignorant, the haters and hate-mongers, many of whom gain psychological, social, and financial advantages by their condemnation and exclusion of GLBT people, define Christianity for us.

We must rise above their ignorant and hateful pronouncements, cynically made "in the name of God," "tradition,"
"church law," and "family values," and finally practice Christianity. Hear Jesus' call for inclusion of all of His people, and
let's fulfill His mandate for us to love our neighbor by embracing in every facet of our lives His GLBT children, whom He gave as a gift to the church and society to be cherished every bit as much as He cherishes us.

Share |

ANOTHER TRAITOR IN THE QUEST FOR EQUALITY

A woman allegedly went wild in Colorado over a painting depicting Jesus receiving oral sex from another man.

If anyone wants to spit in the face of potential Straight allies, this is one way to do it; this act adds to the other ways that seemingly frivolous hedonists take the stage and feed into the stereotype that Gay=Hedonistic Sex! 

And it is this false stereotype that is a major basis whereby strident homophobes are able to bring potential Straight allies into their fold and win them over. 

Many people, even many seemingly self-identified Gay people, don't seem to see being Gay as having as its necessary component that of love, a love that is just as viable and as dignified as the love held by heterosexuals.  And it's up to those of us who truly care about LGBT equality to communicate this message as loudly as possible, in any and every venue possible.

As the small article concludes regarding this work of "art": It can, however, guarantee instant infamy
for an artist, so perhaps there's a silver lining...  

That's what it may be all about: one's 15 minutes of fame at the expense of the struggle for LGBT equality in which this artist, and so many others, play no constructive part; who act in counterproductive ways whereby they might as well be on the payroll of the most strident religious homophobes out there!

And where's the "silver lining?"  Is it the communication that Gay people are mere shameless hedonists?  Is it the communication that Gay people are irreverent sexual outlaws?  Is it in communicating the notion that one's career aspirations trump the need for dignity and decency?  Is it in communicating the belief that Gay people are not normal? 

Maybe to ask these questions of the traitors is to answer them!

As one person commented in an article I wrote: It is a hopeless cause, fighting for rights for people who don’t want them nor appreciate them.

Unless such frivolous and indecent displays, in art and in other aspects of life, are roundly condemned, and LGBT people and allies see the need to take the equality struggle seriously, full and equal rights won't come to LGBT people any time soon, and the fight for those rights will be a hopeless cause for the foreseeable future.

Share |