July 21, 2008
I haven’t finished the first part of project mentioned here, but it’s getting there. In the meantime, while I continue to dig into the ugly depths of the anti-gay movement, here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening in our world:
Freaks on the Family Grand Poobah James Dobson is flip-flopping — again — on whether or not he’s going to vote for John McCain… because, of course, in Dobson’s diseased mind, Barack Obama is a baby killer.
Speaking of The Presumptuous Nominee, Queerty notes that Florida’s gay Democrats are disappointed with the Obama campaign, and quotes a report from Florida Capital News: “The leader of the Florida Democratic Party’s gay caucus, declaring that ‘I’m sick and tired of getting table scraps,’ complained Saturday that Sen. Barack Obama offended a large and faithful voting bloc by not sending his wife or another top campaign surrogate to the group’s annual meeting.”
Now, before anybody resorts to the tired old argument that ignoring gay groups is consistent with Obama’s refusal to pander to any single “interest,” we say: If Saint Barry can find the time to pander to hard-right Christian fundies — like he’ll be doing (again, and this time along with John McCain) at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church — then he can at least send his compulsive gum-flapper of a wife to talk to the Florida Democratic Party’s gay caucus. This isn’t like ignoring local gay press; this is an official caucus of the Democratic Party.
(You do still belong to the Democratic Party, don’t you, Barry? It’s so hard to tell these days. Or maybe the confusion stems from the fact that the Democratic Party — which now resembles the anti-gay right wing — belongs to you.
Speaking of McLame (and we were), hear tell Americans are tired of the blogosphere. This, from the guy who just last week admitted he’s “an [Internet] illiterate who has to rely on his wife for any assistance he can get,” and is only now “learning to get online.”
Back in the reality-based world, we’re happy to hear that activists in San Diego aren’t taking Doug Manchester’s campaign of anti-equality lying down — especially in one of Manchester’s beds. (Backstory here and here.) Just before San Diego Pride Saturday, between 150 and 200 people rallied in protest outside the Manchester Grand Hyatt (and were countered by about 75 bigots).
It’s probably true, as noted by the LAT’s Jessica Garrison, that last year’s sudden epiphany of bad-guy-turned-good-guy Mayor Jerry Sanders had something to do with mobilizing the anti-gay brigades. But then, it galvanized the good-guy Christians, too, into coming out against mindless bigotry. So there.
As for the San Diego pridefest itself, while Wendy Fry was bemoaning the fact that straight men just can’t wear boas and sequins the way gay men can, the “internationally renown anti-Scientology activism group Anonymous” was marching in its own contingent in the parade. If I were Anonymous, I’d remain anonymous, too. Those zany Xenuists scare the bejeebers out of my quivering little body thetans.
Further afield, Buffy’s got an update on the “South Carolina is So Gay” dust-up: South Carolina Will be So Gay–Whether They Like It Or Not.
Tourism experts are “puzzled” since five grand is such a measly price to pay “for such a lucrative niche market.” We’re not puzzled at all; hysterical homophobia always trumps common sense. Look at Jamaica, where they’d rather murder us than prop up their own barely-on-life-support economy with our Big Gay Dollars. We say: Screw ‘em — both Jamaica and the Jamaica of the United States, South Carolina. Let them eat dirt.
(Backstory: Amro Worldwide and Out Now Have an Advertising Lesson for Heinz: So Gay? So What. and You Can Cross South Carolina Off Your Vacation Destinations — They Don’t Want Us Nasty Homos (Or Our Money) There)
Also, my dear Gaytheist shines the light on yet another example of masking bigotry behind “deeply held religious beliefs,” in the case of a gay-hatin’ British cop: What’s the Matter With the UK Lately?
(Speaking of dumb cops, one of the San Diego Harbor Police shot to death a go-go boy who fell off a pride-cruise boat, and got physical with his rescuers. I don’t care what the guy did — when you’ve got one suspect surrounded by a bunch of armed police officers, there can’t be any excuse for failing to subdue him without killing him.)
Elsewhere on the international front: We’re glad that Iris Robinson, wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, and Ignorant, Sour-Lemon-Faced, Mad Old Cow whose sunken, empty eyes are only accentuated by a criminal sense of makeup application (see the picture at the link), lives half a world away from us, so we don’t have to listen to her vile nonsense about how much worse homosexuality is than child sexual abuse.
And here are the rest of the headlines that caught my eye today — I’ll leave you to them while I get back to the dirty work of digging into the incestuous circle of money and hate behind the Proposition 8 campaign:
Young, Gay and Murdered
Kids are coming out younger, but are schools ready to handle the complex issues of identity and sexuality? For Larry King, the question had tragic implications.
Man flees Turkey after “honour killing” of his gay activist boyfriend
Catholics for Choice take on the Catholic League
Eric Waugh: Pope boxes clever in Anglican’s gay-row
Online Adoption Agency Denies Service to Gays
75% of Americans want to allow gays in the military
Gay-only retirement village to be built for £12.7 million in Australia
Showtime orders new series with gay content
Bachelorette Party Planning Tips for Summer
Trends for 2008 Include ‘Green Girl’ and Same-Sex Marriage Pre-Wedding Parties
Must-read of the day:
Gay marriage to be legal in America within 200 years
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Age & Ageing,
Anglicans / Episcopalians,
Barack Obama,
California,
Catholic League,
Catholicism,
Christianity,
Democrats,
Education/Schools,
Election 2008,
Europe,
Events,
Focus on the Family/James Dobson,
Hate Crimes,
Homophobia,
John McCain,
Law Enforcement,
Marriage Equality,
Military/DADT,
Parenting,
Radical Religious Right,
South Carolina,
Travel,
United Kingdom & N.I.,
Youth
July 6, 2008
We’re always interested in the off-again, on-again split in the American Episcopal church — not because we’re Episcopalians (we’re not), but because we’re fascinated and horrified by the revelation that a Christian denomination we considered relatively moderate could house so many members who are so rabidly anti-gay, they’d rather follow a Nigerian despot like Peter Akinola than work out their differences over the consecration of Eugene Robinson.
For some backstory, see:
If Only They’d Move to Uganda, Too
September 3, 2007
Just Give It Up and Split Already!
September 10, 2007
Anglican Church in Five Words: “Dying By A Thousand Cuts”
September 24, 2007
African Anglicans May Not Want Us Dead, But…
September 27, 2007
Anglicans Split! Finally! Hallelujah!
September 29, 2007
Desmond Tutu is the one person who doesn’t have to apologize to us. But he does anyway.
April 11, 2008
Also, if you haven’t checked it out already, do visit the blog Akinola, Repent (”Akinola, Repudiate Anti-Gay Violence”), which we’ve had in our blogroll for some time.
With that, we direct your attention to an excellent piece at Talk to Action, “A Problem Pastor Worse than Hagee: Peter Akinola,” which deserves to be read in full. An excerpt:
Peter Akinola is not exactly a household name, but he could well be the problem pastor of neo-conservatism. He is certainly less well known in the U.S. than John (”McCain threw me under the bus“) Hagee, but he is every bit as consequential.
He is the spiritual leader of thousands of Americans, including many Washington insiders who attend schismatic Episcopal churches that have placed themselves under his authority in recent years. He is Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, a cruel and ostentatiously anti-gay cleric and a driving force in the widening schism in the worldwide Anglican communion, who makes James Dobson seem liberal and Hagee a relative man of peace.
He is the embodiment of many people’s worst fears about the theocratic, authoritarian nature of the Religious Right. (See also here, for a recent example.)
That Americans of any political or religious orientation would choose this man as their spiritual leader is disturbing enough. But there is a still darker side of Akinola, one linked to an infamous massacre.
But before we get to that — a few words about some of the Akinola Anglicans.
Akinola Anglicans are represented in the United states in part by, and are closely aligned with the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a neoconservative strategy and action center that has waged a war of attrition against mainline Protestantism for a generation, primarily under the leadership of conservative Catholics and evangelicals; and is bankrolled by the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife and Howard Ahmanson, whose neoconservative and theocratic agendas are respectively opposed by the historic communions of mainline Protestantism. …
Further reading:
“Anglican Conservatives, Rebelling on Gays, Will Form New Power Bloc“
Dina Kraft and Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, June 30, 2008
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Africa,
Anglicans / Episcopalians,
Homophobia,
Radical Religious Right,
United States
April 11, 2008
Media release from The Task Force:
Article of Faith: Archbishop Desmond Tutu thanks lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and asks for forgiveness
“Even more moving, Archbishop Tutu also asked for our forgiveness on behalf of the church, which has so often made us, he said, a ‘lesser part’ of God’s creation. He compared this sin to the long tradition of excluding women from ordained ministry. We now see, he said, how such exclusion ‘impoverished’ the church and its work for far too long.”
— Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson, Ph.D, National Religious Leadership Roundtable
WASHINGTON, April 10 — Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu called for inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the church, while receiving the Outspoken Award from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) on April 8 in San Francisco, Calif. What follows is an Article of Faith addressing the inspiring advocacy of a globally renowned faith leader in favor of LGBT people.
Article of Faith by the Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson, Ph.D.
National Religious Leadership Roundtable
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once again set a stellar example for religious leaders and faith communities with his outspoken and unrelenting stand for justice and human dignity.
Hundreds of enthusiastic admirers gathered in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral as the archbishop received the 2008 Outspoken Award from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. He received the award with the same humor, humility and grace that have marked his long and remarkable career as Archbishop of South Africa in the midst of apartheid, the 1984 recipient of the Nobel Peace Price and chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
His remarks, though brief, were poignant, perhaps especially for those in attendance who so rarely hear such a prominent religious leader speak clearly and passionately on behalf of LGBT people. He began by thanking us, and by extension LGBT people everywhere, for our courageous witness to human dignity in the face of both religious and civic oppression. This witness, he said, makes a profound difference to so many, and he cited just two of examples in the lives of openly gay clergy with whom he has closely worked over the years in Cape Town.
Even more moving, Archbishop Tutu also asked for our forgiveness on behalf of the church, which has so often made us, he said, a “lesser part” of God’s creation. He compared this sin to the long tradition of excluding women from ordained ministry. We now see, he said, how such exclusion “impoverished” the church and its work for far too long.
This pairing of gratitude and repentance set the tone for the evening’s celebration as Tutu deflected the attention away from himself and toward the ongoing struggles for human rights and dignity throughout the world. He likened himself to the biblical prophet Jeremiah, who could no more stop speaking truth to power than he could stop breathing. Like Jeremiah, he said, God’s word of justice has always “burned within my breast,” from the scourge of racism to the exclusion of women and the persecution of LGBT people.
The archbishop concluded his remarks by referring to his own Anglican Communion and noting how “sad” and how “tragic” it is to see his church distracted by human sexuality at a time when a world marked by poverty and war demands our full attention. Reminding us that the Olympic torch would arrive in San Francisco the very next day, he deftly connected our struggle for justice and dignity to the work of freedom in Tibet.
As an Episcopal priest, I took great pride in this moment of honoring one of my own faith leaders. Even more, the Archbishop’s humble courage made me long for that day when such courage and leadership no longer seems rare or worthy of an elaborate award ceremony. The work of justice and witnessing to the full dignity of every human being belongs to all of us. As Archbishop Tutu’s life and ministry so clearly shows, that work is what religion and faith are all about.
About the author: The Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson, Ph.D., a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Religious Leadership Roundtable, is an Episcopal priest and the programming and development director for the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif.
For more information about Archbishop Tutu’s appearance at IGLHRC’s Celebration of Courage, click here.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Africa,
Anglicans / Episcopalians,
Christianity,
Press Releases,
Religion & Spirituality
September 29, 2007
Anglican rift sparks move for new church
PITTSBURGH–Conservative Anglicans in Canada and the U.S. plan to break away from their increasingly liberal national churches within 15 months, setting up a parallel continental church along orthodox theological lines.
. . .
If successful, it would be the first time the worldwide Anglican Communion has seen a church, known in Anglicanism as a province, established solely on the basis of shared theology. Currently, provinces are only set up along geographic lines.
. . .
A founding convention for the new North American church will be held within 15 months, once participating parishes and dioceses have formally broken ties with their national churches. The new group would then seek recognition from the communion as an orthodox province for North America.
. . .
The new North American church would have its own college of bishops, meeting every six months, and a shared method of worship and sacraments.
. . .
The Anglican Communion has been in crisis since 2003 when the Episcopal Church, as Anglicanism is known in the United States, named the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Increasing support for same-sex marriage blessings in the U.S. and Canada has widened the rift between theological liberals and conservatives, pushing the church toward schism.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Anglicans / Episcopalians
September 27, 2007
The Beeb reports:
Gay bishop move rejected by Kenya
They have said they will halt the ordination of gay bishops and public blessings of same-sex relationships to prevent a split in the Anglican Church.
“That word ‘halt’ is not enough,” said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.
. . .
“What we expected to come from them is to repent - that this is a sin in the eyes of the Lord and repentance is what me, in particular, and others expected to hear coming from this church,” he said.
. . .
The Episcopal bishops did reaffirm their commitment to the civil rights of gay people and said they opposed any violence towards them or violation of their dignity.
The meeting in New Orleans follows a summit of Anglican leaders in Tanzania earlier in the year which gave the US Episcopal Church a deadline of 30 September to define its position on the issue.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Africa,
Anglicans / Episcopalians,
Radical Religious Right
September 24, 2007
Anglican church dying by a thousand cuts
Theological conflict over the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, is draining the Anglican Communion of its global influence.
. . .
Anglican leaders, called primates, have set a Sept. 30 deadline for the Americans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for same-gender couples. Episcopal bishops have dedicated their meeting here to crafting a response.
. . .
Breakaway Episcopal parishes are joining a patchwork of separate U.S.-based networks with leadership from all over the Anglican world, including Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya, where theological conservatives are the majority.
About 60 of the more than 7,000 Episcopal parishes have either split off or suffered serious membership losses, according to the national church.
At least three dioceses — Pittsburgh, Quincy, Ill. and San Joaquin in California — have taken the first steps toward breaking from the national church. …
. . .
If Anglicanism continues on the path of slow but steady splintering, it will effectively do as much harm as a formal schism. Anglicans in Africa, who derive much of their stature from their global ties, will become just another church. The 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church, which has played such a central role in U.S. history, will also be marginalized. …
That’s the perfect phrase for the situation: “dying by a thousand cuts.”
And yet the denial is mindboggling; e.g.:
“‘The movement is in danger of fragmenting into so many pieces,’ said Canon Kendall Harmon, a leading conservative thinker from the Diocese of South Carolina.”
“In danger”? It’s done, over, kaput, fini.
The patient is beyond hope, but none of the doctors wants the responsibility of calling the time of death.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Africa,
Anglicans / Episcopalians,
Radical Religious Right
September 10, 2007
Archbishop to fly to US to try and avert church split
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will fly to the United States later this month, where the row over gay bishops is once again threatening to split the worldwide Anglican Church.
According to a story written by Robin Turner of the UK Western Mail, the global Anglican movement has moved towards the brink of schism when the Episcopal Church – its American arm – consecrated its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire in 2003.
“Most of the church’s members are based in the developing world, where homosexuality is often strongly discouraged and sometimes illegal,” Turner wrote. “And to fan the flames of the controversy, this week it emerged an openly lesbian Episcopalian priest could become the Bishop of Chicago. The Rev Tracy Lind is among the five nominees for bishop of the Chicago diocese.
“Also this week, protests from Africa about gay priests reached a head when two American bishops were appointed to serve conservative US Anglicans – but under the jurisdiction of Kenya.”
. . .
Rowan Williams said the American church was in danger of tearing itself apart over the issue of gay priests and was dividing itself from the rest of the world church.
Now, that’s a laugh: “the developing world.” Nigeria and Uganda, to name just two, are in a state of stasis, not development.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Africa,
Anglicans / Episcopalians
September 3, 2007
Pink News reports:
Uganda’s Anglican Church consecrated an American priest as bishop yesterday, in order for him to lead his own congregation in Virginia against homosexuality. It is the latest move in the struggle for gay recognition in the Anglican community, following the consecration of two American bishops to the Church of the Province of Kenya.Reverend John Guernsey will now look after the 33 parishes in the US which have agreed to come under the rule of the Province of the Church of Uganda.
His church voted last December “to leave the Episcopal Church over disagreements on biblical authority and the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual.”
. . .
Conservative bishops in Africa and the States have threatened to break away from the church, and Ugandan bishops may not even attend next year’s Lambeth Conference on the question of ordaining gay priests as bishops. …
See also:
Kenya: Split in Anglican Faith Now Inevitable
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Africa,
Anglicans / Episcopalians,
Radical Religious Right
