“I am deeply offended that during this Holy Week, which is a most sacred time to millions of New Yorkers, Governor Andrew Cuomo is working hard to mobilize elected officials to legalize homosexual marriage in New York.
“We all know that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget, which was done in haste to beat the clock, will cause tremendous suffering to countless New Yorkers – especially Black and Hispanic communities. His cuts will hurt students, senior citizens, the sick, the poor and the needy.
“Now Governor Cuomo is targeting communities of faith in an effort to redefine marriage. The most basic tenets of New York’s largest faith communities include defining marriage as between one man and one woman. These religions that cherish these values include Catholic, Christian, Jewish and Muslim.
Newsflash: New Yorkers, for the most part, support marriage equality. Moreover, the fact that some of the adherents to one religion practiced by New Yorkers are observing a religious ritual at the moment is of absolutely no consequence to the state business of New York. The fact that he mentions Jewish and Muslim voters undermines his case, since they are actually not observing “Holy Week” right now! So let’s file this under “manufactured outrage to get bigots’ wee-wees in a bunch.” Or we could just call it “whining” and move on.
It’s nice to see that American Catholics are paying less and less attention to what comes out of their church leaders’ mouths. Here are the results of a new study:
Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall. Nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.
When same-sex marriage is defined explicitly as a civil marriage, support is dramatically higher among Catholics. If marriage for gay couples is defined as a civil marriage “like you get at city hall,” Catholic support for allowing gay couples to marry increases by 28 points, from 43% to 71%. A similar pattern exists in the general population, but the Catholic increase is more pronounced.
Beyond the issue of same-sex marriage, Catholic support for rights for gays and lesbian people is strong and slightly higher than the general public. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Catholics favor laws that would protect gay and lesbian people against discrimination in the workplace; 63% of Catholics favor allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the military; and 6-in-10 (60%) Catholics favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.
Here’s Lawrence O’Donnell’s report on the same study:
Sarah Posner reports on the findings of Southern Illinois University sociologist Darren Sherkat, who has compiled the General Social Survey results over the last couple of decades on public support for marriage equality. I’ll let her set it up for you:
Sherkat tells me:
There are no other scientific surveys which have asked questions about same sex marriage over a long period of time. The only other remaining scientific general population surveys are the National Election Surveys, and I don’t think they ever asked a question about that (or if they did it was only in the 2008 version). I can’t stress this enough.
In other words, the GSS is the only survey that shows these trends over time, using face-to-face surveys of respondents (as opposed to telephone polls).
And here’s what support for marriage equality looks like, from 1988 to the present day:
Stunning.
Sarah also addresses the notion that young Conservative Christians are becoming more tolerant. Apparently that is not the case, but it IS true that the younger generations in general are much more tolerant of LGBT equality. That can only mean one thing, and it’s something we already knew: the wingnut churches are driving their young away in droves. Anecdotally, I graduated from a small-ish private Christian school and grew up in a fairly conservative area, and I can think of very few people from that time who still attend church on a regular basis. Surely, there are some who do, but the overwhelming feeling I get is that many stay tangentially involved in church, perhaps when they’re with their extended families, but otherwise, it’s not that big of a deal in their lives. Moreover, I know others who are still very much Christian, but who shun the conservative, evangelical, fundamentalist labels like the plague. I’ve even heard the term “recovering Fundamentalist” thrown around in my age group.
I only point this out because wingnuts are likely to try to scapegoat gays and feminism and the lib’rul culture or whatever else for the fact that their young just don’t buy what they’re selling the way they used to. The fact of the matter is that they did it to themselves, when they made the decision to dig their heels in and refuse to assimilate into modern culture. It’s increasingly difficult to keep young people in churches that teach young earth creationism when the internet is full of actual science. It’s increasingly difficult to keep them hating gay people, and thus worshipping at the altar of Fundamentalism, when their college roommate is gay and they realize that their parents and pastors have been lying to them all these years.
Anyway, we’re winning, is the point. The sharp rise in support shown on the graph is evidence of the tipping point Wayne and I have talked about a lot over the past year. There just comes a certain point where there is too much correct information out there, too much education, for people to keep their fingers in their ears any longer. It will only get better.
Libyan protests? The fall of the Egyptian government? People around the United States taking to the streets in support of teachers in Wisconsin? A massive earthquake in New Zealand? GOP politicians trying to criminalize miscarriage? The release of Ke$ha’s new music video with James Van Der Beek? NO. None of these things are anywhere near as significant as the inroads the Gay Agenda [BOO!] has made since Christmas, says an area wingnut! Let him explain it to you:
The events of the last several weeks have been seismic in nature, yet occurring so fast that even the most seasoned of pundits have struggled to stay abreast of their full meaning.
Uh, no, the “most seasoned of pundits” are actually busy caring about things that matter. Well, sort of. Let’s not give the Village too much credit here.
Consider:
*In August, ABC’s hit comedy Modern Family – prominently featuring a same-sex couple – won the Emmy for outstanding comedy series.
*In late December, the Senate passed a repeal of the 17-year-old ban known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, allowing gays to serve openly in the military.
*The Southern Poverty Law Center classified several Christian organizations that have taken stances against the acceptance of gay marriage, or who have simply gone public with the stance against homosexuality as a morally acceptable lifestyle, as “hate groups.”
*On Thursday, February 11 – after talks with gay rights organizations, including GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) – Facebook added civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships that its users can pick from to best describe their romantic status. And as one media adviser put it, “As Facebook goes, so goes the world.”
*While only Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Washington, D.C. allow same-sex marriages, Hawaii will soon become the seventh state to permit civil unions of similar legal recognition for gay couples.
*In a historic shift on gay rights, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday, February 23, that it believed the Constitution forbids unequal treatment of gays and lesbians in almost all cases, and specifically when it comes to federal benefits for legally married same-sex couples. As a result, the Justice Department will no longer oppose legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress in1996, which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages or extending them the same benefits as heterosexual couples.
*In his new book, Jay Bakker, son of Jim Bakker and the late Tammy Faye Messner, declared that homosexuality is not a sin. Agreeing with Bakker are Tony Jones, “theologian in residence” at Minnesota’s Solomon’s Porch, and Peggy Campolo, wife of evangelist Tony Campolo. Author Brian McLaren condemns the Christian preoccupation with homosexuality as “fundasexuality.”
Whew.
WHEW! So, first of all, the SPLC didn’t list those organizations as hate groups for “simply going public with their stance against homosexuality.” They were listed because all the organizations listed are full of liars who demonize gay people for our very existence. There is a difference. I know fundamentalist Christian “love” can blind people to the harm they and their ideological cohorts inflict, but those of us who live in the real world know better.
But I’ve got to point out here: all of these changes are good for the greater population! The sky is not falling, and will not fall, for anyone except Fundamentalist Christians who erroneously believe that their jacked up worldview should be inflicted on the rest of society, who have either grown out of such philistine notions, or are lucky enough to have never been held down by them in the first place.
Also, Modern Family is one of the funniest shows on television, and most well-written, so I’m going to hazard a guess that that’s why they won the Emmy.
Anyway, so this wingnut [his name is James Emery White, and he is a perfesser at a clown college of some sort] has decided that, rather than give in to the “great gay awakening” that is happening, they should come up with a new approach for hating gay people. Let us see if there is anything new here:
*Homosexuals, repentant or otherwise, must be loved.
This is the same as their old school BS “love the sinner, hate the sin” thing, which is meaningless to all people who understand the nature of sexuality. This is like saying “love the black person, but hate her skin.”
*Those desiring to be faithful to biblical teachings in this area must be met with support and, when they fail, with the same level of grace we would extend to anyone else.
The church has lost the younger generations due to the “same level of grace [they] extend” to other people, so this doesn’t seem new either.
*There should be no impediment to full service and position for those with a homosexual orientation who remain faithful to personal celibacy and biblical orthodoxy.
Well that’s a nice consolation. You can be a church leader, as long as you deny yourself all the joys that intimate, bonding love has to offer!
*Though much that goes under the banner of “anti-discrimination” does, in effect, promote homosexuality and create a specially-protected class (which I do not affirm), Christians should work toward a society that does not persecute practicing homosexuals, and Christians should denounce anyone who uses hate-filled speech.
That sounds nice, but unfortunately the fundamentalist Christian worldview inherently persecutes gay people, and preaching that gay people need to repent or otherwise go to hell is hate speech, especially since it’s an assertion without any corroborating evidence. Try again, wingnut.
*Christians should not work for homosexuality to be criminalized, and should vigorously support the full prosecution of crimes against homosexuals.
Well that’s a nice sentiment. Tell all your Evangelical friends, the ones who have been working behind the scenes with the cynical bigots in Uganda.
*We need a new tone and emphasis that focuses on the homosexual lifestyle as we would any other lifestyle that needs to have its deepest needs intersected by Christ. If one believes that the homosexual lifestyle is broken sexually, it must be affirmed that it is no more broken than the adulterer or the person addicted to pornography.
Uh, that’s exactly what the Church has been doing, and it’s offensive to real people, gay and otherwise, who actually understand what it means to be gay, to have gay family members, and who actually understand the science behind sexuality. The idea that being gay is to be “broken sexually” is completely repudiated by ALL major medical and psychological associations, and to assert otherwise is unmitigated garbage.
*We must put forward a winsome and compelling vision for life in Christ that includes our sexuality; a vision that invites all who are sexually confused and seeking God to come and drink of the living water that Jesus promises to us all (John 4).
Whatever.
So while I pray for an awakening among those who embrace the homosexual lifestyle, I also pray for an awakening among those of us who condemn it.
Namely, that in condemning it, we do not condemn them.
Nope, you still don’t get it, Dr. White. Try again!
Last week, Truth Wins Out caused an international uproar by criticizing a new Catholic iphone confession app that asks users, “Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity?” The real question the app should have asked was, “Have I been guilty of spiritually abusing a homosexual?”
No one should be surprised by this uproar. The “sin” question is significantly more important and emotional than traditional battles over gay rights. This charged discussion cuts to the core of the prejudice and directly challenges the ugly myth that being gay – or acting on it — is inherently sinful.
The fact is, homosexuality has been with us since the beginning of time and is not sinful. It is the natural and beautiful manner in which tens of millions of human beings experience sexual intimacy and express love. To deny or debase these individuals for their sexual orientation or naturally pursuing it is to place them outside the circle of humanity.
In a humane world that truly “loves thy neighbor”, sin would be defined as an activity that causes harm. Any rational person would reasonably conclude that the religious fundamentalists are the true sinners because they are the ones damaging and injuring innocent LGBT people.
Currently, I am on an 11-state tour of the most conservative regions of America. Each stop brings me into contact with new – mostly college age — victims of spiritual abuse. Allowing the religious hierarchies to mindlessly humiliate LGBT people as sinners without pushback is no longer acceptable. Too many lives have been shattered, families destroyed, psyches cracked, and hearts broken to allow the dangerous status quo to continue.
The stale reaction to the iphone controversy by Catholic reactionaries was predictable and predicated on a series of false premises.
First, the faithful defenders were upset because they did not like losing control of the storyline. For centuries they wore the white hats in the Saints vs. Sinner drama. They elevated themselves by perching on a pedestal of privilege where they get to reject and we must respect. The idea of reversing these “set” roles has them apoplectic.
Second, the apologists falsely tried to portray our attempt at accountability as “anti-Catholic”. They conveniently ignored that Truth Wins Out has objected to all forms of fundamentalist abuse at the hands of evangelicals, Muslims, and Orthodox Jews. Our position is not anti-religious, but pro-life. The “sin” label is toxic and sending too many LGBT youth to an early grave. How many people will religious institutions allow to perish as collateral damage in support of a cruel and failed idea?
Third, our detractors operate under the false premise that they represent unchanging religious truths. Indeed, change is the one constant in religion and once “time-tested” absolutes have been altered time and again. It may have taken the Catholic Church 400 years to apologize for persecuting Copernicus, but they did. Can we afford 400 years of harm against LGBT families until the Church’s inevitable admission to the error of its anti-gay ways?
Fourth, there is the absurd notion that religious ideas shouldn’t be challenged. But, this illusion is belied by the major religions themselves that send missionaries worldwide for the sole purpose of seeking converts. If churches are sincere about not questioning the beliefs of others, let them bring home their missionaries. Until they do, they have no right to whine about having to compete in the robust marketplace of ideas.
Fifth, church warriors have falsely portrayed this as a battle of free speech. We did not question the right to preach anti-gay dogma and never asked Apple to nix the Catholic app. We only inquired whether the app was socially responsible, given the indisputable consequences – from hate crimes to suicide that occur as the result of marginalizing LGBT people.
Sixth, a false refrain we heard was that God treated all sex outside marriage as sin – so gay people were not treated differently. Until there is marriage equality such arguments are mere sophistry made by smug individuals who perpetuate an unfair system where they receive pleasure and others get the pain.
The most intelligent opposition I received was from a gay individual who made the point that he had good friends who thought homosexuality was a sin. However, a bad idea in benevolent hands is still a bad idea, just waiting to fall into the wrong hands where it can be exploited and mutate into something dangerous. And, if the friendship can survive with the gay person labeled a sinner, shouldn’t the Christian friend be just as thick skinned when challenged on this idea?
Gay Catholics don’t need to confess, they need to come out of the closet and challenge anti-gay dogma. Rationality-based churches need to stand up and fiercely confront the damaging belief that homosexuality is wrong.
Fundamentalists like to say that the wages of sin is death. In reality, the emotional, spiritual and sometimes physical death is caused by unfairly labeling a group of good people sinners. The iphone brouhaha won’t go away because it forces people of faith to uncomfortably examine an area where their beliefs have unquestionably done more harm than good.
I don’t agree with every one of his constructions here, as he seems to be talking from the standpoint of “what’s a greater sin? Homosexuality or X?”, but his general point is solid and powerful:
When I told a religious friend about being inspired by Rosie [O'Donnell] adopting four children, he said to me, “How sad that these kids are never going to have a father.” Lost on him was the irony that without Rosie they would not have a mother either.
Now, Rosie has a media microphone and can fend for herself. But I think about all the other gay adoptive parents who are under assault as being ill-equipped to adopt. We’ve heard all the arguments. Gay parents who adopt will make their children gay (offensive and stupid). Every child deserves a mother and a father (I addressed this above). Gay is an abomination, to which I would respond that leaving a child to grow up in an orphanage where nobody wants them might be an even greater act of sacrilege.
But to my fellow straight people I offer the following challenge. You have every right to oppose gay marriage. It’s a free country. We don’t suppress opinions. But aren’t you under a moral obligation to adopt the children in their stead? Surely leaving kids to drown without love is deeply immoral. But to stop others from rescuing them is an abomination.
[...]
A few years ago on my radio show I interviewed two gay men who were in court fighting the government of Florida — my home state, where gay adoption is prohibited — to adopt a five-year-old African-American child who was mentally-handicapped. They had been picking the boy up from an orphanage every Sunday for about a year and now wanted to adopt him. One of the men said, “Nobody wants him. But we want him.” I choked up. The show went to dead air. I could not speak or respond. “Nobody wants him. But we want him.” Here was a child whose skin color for some was all wrong and whose intelligence did not always match up. But to these two men the boy was perfect.
[...]
That some would prefer that unwanted children remain in orphanages rather than in warm and welcoming homes is a sad commentary on the self-appointed morality police of our time.
This is a supremely cool video, and it happens to have been made by a friend of mine.
Though we in the LGBT community run the gamut of belief and lack thereof, it’s so important that we have all of our different voices in play, speaking out in the ways we’re best suited for.
A Catholic priest, facing criminal charges and a lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused a teenage boy, is now charged with attempting to hire someone to kill the youth, authorities said Tuesday.
The Rev. John M. Fiala was in the Dallas County, Texas, jail on Tuesday, charged with one count of criminal solicitation to commit capital murder, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the jail’s website. He also is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. His bail totals $700,000.
Fiala, 52, of Dallas, was out on bond on other sexual assault charges involving the youth, now 18, when he allegedly attempted to negotiate the boy’s murder, said Tom Rhodes, the teen’s attorney.
Not only that, but he’s accused of raping the teen at gunpoint! Moreover, the lawsuits state that the archdioceses and religious orders Fiala was under ALL covered up his sexual abuse.
It’s not often that the Catholic Church can shock me these days, since child rape and Catholicism are so inextricably linked in the public mind, but this one…
My favorite thing about when churches change their minds, even slightly, on the subject of church teachings or sin or whatever else, they always move immediately into this “We have always been at war with Eastasia” stance, where the new definition of sin is, of course, timeless and eternal and revealed by the almighty Wizard God, and certainly not subject to the whims of the man behind the curtain, etc. It’s all so arbitrary.
So anyway, apparently the Mormon church now probably feels that their old guidelines on gayness were hurting their bottom line financially, so they’re tinkering a bit with the Revealed Eternal Truths to try to appear a little bit nicer. Don’t be shocked or anything, though — it’s not like they’re recognizing gay peoples’ dignity or anything:
Changes to LDS Church policy on homosexuality will be presented to LDS lay clerical leaders worldwide this Saturday, November 13.
The changes are being introduced through a global leadership training satellite broadcast for the release of the newly revised Church Handbook of Instructions (CHI), a 400-page lay priesthood manual reserved for use by LDS Church members in local and regional lay leadership positions.
Multiple advance copies of the CHI leaked on the internet reveal significant changes to Church policy on homosexuality.
Basically, here’s what’s changed: You’re no longer a hellbound sinner just for thinking gay thoughts, and they’ve decreed that if you are one of those homosexual thought-havers, but you promise to live under the authoritarian thumb of the church and never seek personal fulfillment, they will let you have all the perks of being a Mormon, which, from what I’ve heard, is quite a goodie bag!
Anyway, I don’t see that the fundamental message has changed. If you’re a gay person of integrity and love, you’re still unwelcome in the LDS church.
Two out of three Americans believe gay people commit suicide at least partly because of messages coming out of churches and other places of worship, a survey released Thursday found.
More than four out of 10 Americans say the message coming out of churches about gay people is negative, and about the same number say those messages contribute “a lot” to negative perceptions of gay and lesbian people.
Catholics were the most critical of their own churches’ messages on homosexuality, while white evangelical Christians gave their churches the highest grades, the survey found.
The Public Religion Research Institute asked 1,017 Americans their views on religion and homosexuality between October 14 and 17, in the wake of a highly publicized rash of suicides by gay people.
Gay rights campaigner Dan Savage said the idea that churches send out an anti-gay message “totally jibes with my experience and that of millions of other gay and lesbian people.”
PhillipP: She looks and sounds like she just tumbled out of a meth trailer in a trailer park....
Paterfamilias: Shmuel: Point is, once a gonif always a gonif....
Peter Hargmier: He talks of a youtube clip of Mayor Cory Booker responding to a question about gay marriage.
He nails it!
Enjoy! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Z7tl7Vy8U...
Michael: "But to protest the teaching of these facts is little different from protesting their very existence; it is like opposing...
Gary (NJ): Dr. Coldfinger? as Joy Behar says. >:P...
Last week, Truth Wins Out caused an 
