Some thoughts about generalizing and particularizing.

August 31, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

People tend to generalize. (That’s a generalization, of course, so forgive me in advance.) The human mind cannot contain and process every nuance on the thousands of bits of information that come at us, and the brain’s natural wiring is to look for and create patterns. Over time, patterns of thought are reinforced, not eroded, by additional evidence.

On the good side, we are able to get through the day without becoming paralyzed by every stimulus and input. On the bad side, we stereotype, we form prejudices, we cling to bigotry (which can highly individualized or as broad as a social and community or cultural prejudice that resists re-examination at all costs!). And we generalize about things somewhat indiscriminately. We take a particular bit of evidence—a news report, a bad experience, a friend passing on hearsay, and we turn it into a generality. For example:

• One Bernie Madoff allows a new generation to blame and despise Jewish people for their greedy and crooked ways.
• One Willie Horton allows a generation of people to fear and despise African-Americans as criminal and violent (and the electorate to assume that Michael Dukakis wasn’t fit to be President).
• There are voices out there still saying, and influencing thousands of others to believe, that all homosexuals have AIDS. Even the CDC has published generalizations which are particularly damaging.
• Sensational gossip about NAMBLA—a fringe group—allows a broad swath of people to think that all homosexuals are child molesters.
• A few Republican lawmakers who are corrupt allows Democrats to say that all Republicans are evil. Depending on which party you belong to, if any, you may be highly susceptible to believing that.
• A few Democratic lawmakers who are corrupt allows Republicans to say that all Democrats are evil. Depending on which party you belong to, if any, you may be highly susceptible to believing that.
• A handful of high-profile Christian evangelists, or the Pope, doing something hypocritical leads a generation of people to reject the Christian faith because they generalize that ” Christians are hypocrites.”

It is really difficult to reverse this pattern because of another generality: that people are drawn toward bad news, selfish motivations, etc..

St. Paul certainly was given to generalities, and because of his enormous influence, his particular comments have had power over human thinking for centuries. For example, in his letter to the Romans, 3:23, he generalizes about the human race: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In Paul’s thinking, all human beings are deficient in God’s eyes. In other words, Paul’s God is given to generalities. What part of “all” don’t we understand?

Here’s what bothers me. I am most troubled that the faith I live by, and teach, is tainted, through the process of corporate generalization, with the stains that other Christian faith groups have left behind. Recently novelist Anne Rice left the Catholic Church. “Today I quit being a Christian,” she said, for the sake of Jesus. Yes, Rice was generalizing from her particular experiences and her perceptions of the church’s dark side. But other Catholics I know —who see and hear the same problems and issues such as the present Pope’s medieval clericalism and sexist, homophobic views, or priestly sexual abuse, etc., see those problems as specific problems and not as evidence that God does not exist or that all Christians are hypocrites or the Church has nothing to offer.

Also recently, the documentary film “8: The Mormon Proposition” detailed the role of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in covertly promoting and raising funds to ensure the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Along with other right-wing fundamentalist groups— and the Catholic Church— the Mormons generalized about what opening civil marriage to gay or lesbian couples might do to destroy marriage as an institution. “Save Marriage!” became the highly generalized battle cry. And on the side of tolerance, thousands more people who have seen the film will go away with another generalization fixed in their brains: Organized religion sucks!

We have joked in our local congregation that we’re okay because we’re not that organized. But the truth is, Christ’s message is damaged by Christians who are hypocritical, unethical, abusive, manipulative, and prejudiced. It is harder to put the positive message out there that we, and thousands of other local churches, are doing good things in the name of God, when those good things usually are that new or news-worthy, when a few things which grab the news headlines show that some bad things are also being done in the name of God.

This is where particularizing comes in. Most human beings can’t do much about bad generalizations (although Benedict XVI could go a long way by moving his own thinking into the 21^st century). But we can particularize the grace of God, one life at a time. We can clean up our own acts. We can show kindness and compassion to one other individual. And we can even save the institution of marriage by attending to the quality of our own marriage rather than blaming it on generalizations about society.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Homophobia, Catholic matters, HIV and AIDS, Bible & Interpretation, LGBT Christian, Fundamentalism, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Personal ethical failures.

August 23, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

Dr. L. Schlessinger was at it again a few weeks back, and we could hope it is the last. To have gotten into a tit-for-tat argument with a caller to a radio show is typical, but to use the “n” word 11 times in five minutes is pretty exceptional. Dr. L. However seemed to want to bait the caller and to rant about whether it’s okay to use the “n” word because she hears it on HBO.

The Los Angeles Times editorial on August 20 re: Dr. L. Was right on. She had complained after the “n” episode that she had to quit in order to get her First Amendment rights back. “The First Amendment is just fine. Schlessinger exercised her right to use a racial slur when criticizing a caller, and offended listeners exercised their right to criticize her for it. That’s America.”

Schlessinger is just another nag who is trying to stoke indignation in our society. It would have been pathetic and nasty enough if she had simply used the racially-charged “n” word, but to argue with the caller about whether she should have the right to use it reveals a deep well of racist antipathy which lay below her surface. It makes me wonder, if she now quits broadcasting in order to get her free speech back, if she wants to use the “n” word a whole lot more in private.

I am not using her first name here, BTW—only the “L” abbreviation—because her name is just as offensive to me as the “n” word is to African-Americans. Dr. L. also has a deep well of homophobic sentiments which caused a backlash, thanks largely to John Aravosis and others who beat the drum over her bigotry. The “Stop Dr. L…” campaign 10 years ago didn’t let loose of Dr. L.’s calling homosexuals “biological errors.” Dr. L. has also repeatedly slammed women as a class. It seems the broader the audience that one of these social commentators gets, the more likely they are to sweep more and more people into their vitriolic dustbins. Think Rush Limbaugh.

According to the Times on August 20, Laura was defended by Sarah Palin, another sassy individual with a firearm mouth who is fighting her political failures by trying to stoke more indignation. Palin, according to the Times, tweeted to Dr. L.: “Don’t retreat … reload.”

Makes me wonder if people like Rus, Sarah and Dr. L. should be labeled as “personal ethical failures.”

— Dan Hooper

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Let the game continue!

August 12, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

If you’ve been following the “ping-pong” match in the courts between lawyers for and against same-sex marriage in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case, here is the latest shot: Judge Vaughn Walker has lifted the stay as of the close of business on Wednesday, August 18. We of course will have to watch the news to see if an appeal by the losing Defendant-Intervenors for a stay is sustained by the 9^th Circuit Court, which is the next level up for this ping-pong match. – Dan Hooper

At 1:15 pm Marriage Equality USA posted the following information and appeal:

¶

Marriage Equality USA has just received word that Judge Walker has denied the stay and marriages can begin on August 18th at 5pm, but that decision is subject to an appeal.

“None of the factors the court weights in considering a motion to stay favors granting a stay. Accordingly, proponents’ motion to stay is DENIED. The clerk is directed to enter judgement forthwith. That judgement shall be STAYED until August 18th at 5pm…at which time all persons under their control or supervision shall cease to apply or enforce Proposition 8.”

We can’t say it enough. It is crucial that as we continue to move through the courts, we build support with the court of public opinion.

Lifting the stay and allowing marriage equality has the support of both conservatives and liberals. The California Governor and the Attorney General both asked for the stay to be lifted, saying they have no reason to continue discriminating against gays and lesbians and denying them the fundamental right to marry.

Remind fellow Californians that 18,000 same-sex couples married and no one was harmed when the gay family down the block was able to receive the happiness, dignity and protections that come with marriage.

If you hear 7 million Californians voted for Prop 8 and one judge overturned that vote, remind them that 14 times the US Supreme Court has ruled marriage is a fundamental right for all Americans. We shouldn’t vote on who can and cannot marry, just like we shouldn’t vote on whether Fox News should have the right to free speech or women should have the right to vote.

Most importantly, share your personal story. If you wanted to marry and couldn’t, share why you want to get married and the emotional roller coaster you are riding. If you were one of the 18,000 couples to marry, talk about how that experience made you feel. And share how we as a community will be stronger when we live in a world where a child who is born gay can dream about falling in love and getting married…and have that dream come true.

Stay engaged with Marriage Equality USA. Join our facebook page, get involved with your local chapter, and volunteer. It’s a marathon, we know… But we need your help and together we will win…

Founded in 1998, Marriage Equality USA is a national grassroots organization whose mission is to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, at the federal and state level, without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation. For more information go to www.marriageequality.org.

¶

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Change looks like this!

August 4, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Reaction has been swift to Judge Vaughn Walker’s sweeping decision that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional because it violates both the equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution’s 14^th Amendment.

But it is “all the usual suspects” who have weighed in during the last few hours — the Roman Catholic Bishops, the Mormons, the “Family Research Council” and the attorneys who “defended” Prop 8 in Walker’s federal court.

It is interesting that–in Judge Walker’s view and in the eyes of most independent observers—because the defenders of Proposition 8 made such a weak defense of the proposition, their official statements this afternoon do not take issue with Walker’s legal reasoning or conclusions, but instead try to throw the whole case back into the court of public opinion even while they vow to send the appeal to the 9^th Circuit Court.

The public opinion, of course, to which Alliance Defense Fund’s attorney Austin Nimrocks and attorney Andrew Pugno refer, is that the people voted for Prop 8 just as they had voted for Proposition 22 a decade ago. This is from the L.A. Now site of the Los Angeles Times:

Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund who fought to uphold Proposition 8 in Walker’s court, said they would appeal. “We’re obviously disappointed that the judge did not uphold the will of over 7 million Californians who made a decision in a free and fair democratic process.”Nimocks added that “tens of millions of Americans across this country” as well as Congress have expressed the belief that marriage should be limited to heterosexual couples. “To say that there is no reason whatsoever to define marriage as one man and one woman is not something that we expect to be upheld on appeal,” he said of Walker’s reasoning.Andrew P. Pugno, one of the lawyers who defended the Proposition 8 campaign in the trial in Walker’s San Francisco courtroom, referred comment on the judge’s decision to a spokeswoman for ProtectMarriage.com, who said the group opposed to gay marriage would later post a statement on its website. More than an hour after the ruling was issued, the group had yet to comment on it.

Walker’s “Conclusions of Law” [beginning on page 109] in contrast, quickly dispense with the popular vote and cite legal precedent that fundamental rights are not subject to the vote of the people.  Here are more stories and commentary:

The State Column “Prop 8 Ruling: Ban is Unconstitutional” www.thestatecolumn.com/blog/2010/08/prop-8-ruling-ban-is-unconstitutional/

The Wall Street Journal http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/08/04/breaking-news-sf-judge-shoots-down-proposition-8/Now 

Now Public www.nowpublic.com/world/prop-8-ruled-unconstitutional-protests-celebration-2647312.html  “US District Judge Vaughn Walker Rules Proposition 8 Unconstitutional”

USA Today : Faith & Reason http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/08/prop-8-proposition-8-california-gay-marriage-vaugh-walker/1 ”Prop 8 ruling drives strong religious reactions: Outrage to joy”

The Washington Post On Faith : Religion Roundup http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2010/08/proposition_8_ruling_in_california_religion_roundup.html ”Proposition 8 ruling in California: religion roundup”

Los Angeles Times “L.A. Now / Southern California —This Just In http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/08/gay-marriage-foes-vow-to-appeal-prop-8-ruling.html ”Gay marriage foes vow to appeal Prop. 8 ruling [Updated 3:00 pm]”

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Another tipping point today?

August 4, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I don’t know quite what to think or hope for this afternoon’s decision. Whether Judge Walker’s opinion is for us an with us, or against us (which is highly unlikely given the low level of intelligence during the trial coming from the Prop 8 defenders), it is not the last word, since the decision is more than likely to be appealed by either side.

The last word, since this is a federal case, is likely to be several years off before the U.S. Supreme Court. But given the current court, all we could hope for there is several more retirements and an Obama administration still in place to push through some nominations that will fairly judge our issues. The present nominee, Kagan, certainly trumps people like Scalia, Thomas, etc., but time after time we’ve seen a majority of the court who did not consider the entire scope of justice issues or found a way to elevate some values over others. I am still smarting from the Supremes’ decision last winter that corporations can legally spend as much money as they please to influence elections—and they called that a first amendment free speech right! (Treating the legal fiction that a corporation is a “person” in the eyes of the law of course.)

Bottom line: I don’t trust the Supremes to rule in our favor even though they certainly did in Lawrence v. Texas.

According to my e-mail, California Faith for Equality joins Community Prayer for Social Justice at 8pm tonight, August 4, at Father Serra Park on Olivera Street across from Union Station, with Latino Equality Alliance, Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles, Moral Compass to Justice, and other faith leaders from across the city.

More interesting to me, California Faith for Equality will be holding a Statewide Faith Leaders conference call with Lambda Legal’s Senior Counsel, Jenny Pizer about the decision. Alas I have no details yet.

According to Marriage Equality USA, Judge Walker will issue his decision in the Federal Prop 8 case on Wednesday, August 3, 2010 between 1-3pm. The decision will be posted at www.cand.uscourts.gov and at www.marriageequality.org.

A huge amount of preparation has gone into responding/reacting to the decision. How we respond/react will depend on whether we feel vindicated or screwed by Judge Walker. I’m not sure that a huge amount of street demonstration power is a useful thing, but of course it will happen. It’s nice to see a show of strength in the streets, but our opponents don’t both with that and they keep right on raising enormous sums of money to fight us every way they can.

Here are a few more links:

Rex Wockner’s column

American Foundation for Equal Rights

GetEqual.org – site is current

Robin McGehee’s blog

California Faith for Equality - for some reason Google was identifying this as an unsafe site with “malware” this morning, so use your own judgment. But there’s nothing posted there about today’s decision. Hmmm.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

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Boycott Target and Best Buy!

July 30, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

Date: Fri 7/30/2010 3:06 PMFrom: “Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign” hrc@hrc.org
Subject:  Target and Best Buy!  Make it right!

$250,000 in donations to a rabidly anti-LGBT candidate? Tell Target and Best Buy: You need to make this right. Add your name!                         Dear Daniel, One candidate for Governor of Minnesota has promised to veto marriage equality legislation and has ties to a Christian rock band that advocates death to gays. Target and Best Buy, both based in Minneapolis, have donated $250,000 to a political committee supporting his campaign. But they still have a chance to make it right. We’ve drafted an open letter calling on the companies to donate an equal amount to support fair-minded candidates. We’ll publish it in a full-page ad in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Will you help us ratchet up the pressure by adding your name? Tell Target and Best Buy to make it right. Add your name now. By signing on, you’ll help make it clear that Target and Best Buy are risking the business of millions of pro-equality customers – and show the rest of corporate America, which is watching this situation very closely, that support for hateful and intolerant candidates won’t go unnoticed. But don’t stop there. Print out our letter, take it to the manager of your local Target and Best Buy, and let them know how disappointed you are. Here’s the backstory: Earlier this week, reports surfaced that Target had donated $150,000 to the political committee MN Forward. Best Buy pitched in another $100,000. MN Forward’s mission? Elect as governor an anti-LGBT state representative with a long history of attacks on LGBT Americans. This representative’s campaign even donated to a controversial “punk-rock Christian ministry” whose leader has advocated executing gays and lesbians! After all these two companies have done to build a fair and equitable workplace, it’s a slap in the face. In years past, Target and Best Buy consistently received 100 percent ratings on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index. They need to make this right – by donating an equal amount to support candidates who will fight for equality. But they won’t do it just because we ask. They need to see that hundreds of thousands of customers across the country are upset and disappointed. Add your name now. I hope Target and Best Buy will do the right thing. But it’s up to us to show that fair-minded consumers are paying close attention to what they do next. Let’s make this happen, Joe Solmonese President  Share on Facebook  Share on Twitter This link is specific to you, so please take action on this campaign before you forward to your friends. Having trouble clicking on the links above? Simply copy and paste this URL into your browser’s address bar: https://secure3.convio.net/hrc/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=911

© 2010 The Human Rights Campaign. All rights reserved. Human Rights Campaign | http://www.hrc.org/ 1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-3278 Phone: 202/628-4160 TTY: 202/216-1572 Fax: 202/347-5323

Do not reply to this email. This inbox is not monitored on a regular basis. Replies to this email will not be read or responded to. If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific Human Rights Campaign list, or update your account settings, you can visit your Subscription Management Page.

Well, I was pretty outraged by this, and I have to assume it is accurate, even if Human Rights Campaign did not entrust us with the actul facts.  I frequently shop in both of these chains, especially the Target store in, of all places, West Hollywood, California. 

When I reflect back just a few years ago when people were fired or had a criminal record just for associating with a known homosexual, such guilt by association was assumed to be justifiable.  Politicians continue to use this practice to discredit and shame the other candidate and the other party.  Why then, if the public mind accepts the reasonable conclusion that association with bad is bad, should businesses be able to duck every blemish on their carefully-groomed public relations skin?

Fox News (!) reports that Republian candidate Tom Emmer doesn’t like the flap over the campaign contributions because “I thought we were supposed to be able to exercise our rights of free speech.”   Well, it is about free speech, so everybody is free, thanks to the Supreme Court decision earlier this year, to buy all the speech that their corporations want to pay for.  But that’s not the issue, Tom.  We are just as free to tell Target and Best Buy not that they don’t have a right to speak with their campaign dollars, but that we think what they’re saying is disgusting.

Am I being cynical about the Supreme Court?  Hardly.  The same Fox News story explains it in detail:

Target and other Minnesota-based companies, including electronics retailer Best Buy Co., Red Wing Shoes and snowmobile maker Polaris Industries Inc., donated to MN Forward after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed companies to spend money on elections. The decision overturned prohibitions on corporate campaign spending in about half the states, including Minnesota.

If you can’t stand Fox News, catch the story on ABC News.

 

Posted in Violence, wingnuts, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Is DOMA doomed?

July 19, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Another thing I’m slow to assess is the decision of the U.S. District Court judge in Boston to declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. According to Boston.com On July 8, Judge Joseph Tauro “struck down” the law which passed the Republican-controlled Congress in 1996—and to which Bill Clinton put his signature.

The Boston court is clearly the right venue to talk back to Congress on one of the two major issues which Tauro’s decision apparently addresses: that DOMA violates the rights of the individual states to control their own marriage laws. Massachusetts, afer all, legalized same-gender marriage in 2004.

One of the murkiest swamps in our national legal history are these periodic fights between the federal government and the states over who has jurisdiction on something. The present fight between Arizona and the Obama administration over immigration law is the current issue. The states and the feds have been doing this almost since the founding of the nation, and perhaps it will never all get settled, partly because every few years the control of Congress and the state houses flips back and forth between two political parties that seem to despise each other passionately.

Tauro drew on history in his ruling, writing that the states have set their own marriage since before the American Revolution and that marriage laws were considered “such an essential element of state power” that the subject was even broached at the time of the framing of the Constitution. Tauro noted that laws barring interracial marriage were once at least as contentious as the current battle over gay marriage.But in Loving vs. Virginia (1967), the federal Supreme Court that said its opinion trumps the states’ rights to regulate marriage, and so opened the doors to interracial marriages in a single stroke.John Corvino has an interesting reflection on the Tauro decision, in contrast to some poor assumptions on the part of Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, who chairs the U.S. Bishop’s “Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage“. (I stand by my remarks about “protecting marriage.” I told a reporter in June 2008 that “if you want to protect marriage protect your marriage. Buy your wife flowers, and listen to her when she talks to you.”)Marriage can no more be “defended” by keeping gay and lesbian couples away from it than a house can be defended from termites with a concrete block wall around it.Anyway, Corvino’s comments include three reasons why Archbishop Kurtz is wrong: ” . . . Third, and perhaps most interesting, there is an emerging social institution of marriage that includes gays. It’s time for the law to catch up to that.Last month I participated in a same-sex wedding for some dear friends. The Presbyterian church hosting the ceremony called it a ‘holy union,’ but just about everyone else called it a wedding—including the grooms’ families. There were tuxedos and champagne and cake and presents and all the other usual markers, including teary-eyed families witnessing solemn vows.The state where this event occurred (Michigan) forbids legal marriage for gays and lesbians. But each groom’s parents have begun referring to their son’s partner as their ‘son-in-law, and everyone around them understands why they do so.It’s not a legal reality. But it is a personal and social one.”Given the rejection of same-sex marriage by the Presbyterian assembly on July 9, I found Corvino’s personal observation of the Presbyterian “holy union” to be very compelling. Neither church delegates nor a partisan, sharply-divided Congress, can hold back the tides of change.But of course, Tauro’s decision could itself wind up before The Supremes, who have been pretty good at slowing the tides.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Catholic matters, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, History, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Interesting times.

July 13, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

365 Gay: News

California trial opens on military gay policy

Associated Press • 07.13.2010 2:34pm EDT

(Riverside, Calif.) An attorney for the nation’s largest Republican gay rights group has told a judge he will use a statement by President Obama as part of a federal court lawsuit challenging the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

In his opening statement Tuesday at the trial in Southern California, attorney Dan Woods said he would enter as evidence Obama’s comments that the policy has weakened national security.

Woods is representing the Log Cabin Republicans. The group wants the judge to halt the policy that prohibits military members from acknowledging they are gay and requires them to be discharged if they are discovered to be gay.

The case puts the government in the position of defending the policy while Obama is pushing Congress to repeal it.

Soooo . . . .  while we’re still hanging on the decision in the federal trial over Proposition 8 (Judge Walker, where are you?), now comes a new trial over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  As with the Prop 8 case, this seems to be coming out of left field, if not stranger quarters.  My suspicion is that the Log Cabin Republicans —still using a closeted name from a bygone era when it was important to have an identity that didn’t say “GAY” in big letters—needed an issue to keep their own group alive.

I didn’t know LCR had the kind of resources to make a federal case out of DADT. But Woods’ take on this case could be fascinating.  But again I’m left wondering if the Log Cabin (fiscal conservative) Republicans are banking on the case becoming moot if the Pentagon self-study of the policy which excludes gays and lesbians from the armed forces–which is due to be completed in December—allows the Congress to move forward on repealing the law anyway.  Federal trials move equally as slowly as Congress.

And as I caught in the Los Angeles Times coverage of the efforts to repeal DADT, our wonderful Senator John (”Arizona Mindset”) McCain has threatened a filibuster to keep the Senate from considering the House-passed repeal bill.

Old Chinese curse:  “May you live in interesting times.”  Now it’s the Republicans who are keeping our times so interesting.

– Dan Hooper

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Oh my God, when?

July 10, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Blythe, California

“I was in prison, and you visited me.” – Matthew 25:36

I used to think that we could paraphrase Jesus from this parable, “I was gay/lesbian, and you did not reject me.” Wouldn’t that suffice for my social conscience purposes? To identify with the oppressed because I too was one of the oppressed.

And after all, the “I was hungry/thirsty” thing we have covered okay with church pot-lucks—nobody goes hungry or thirsty. (Well, I personally never did really do much of the cooking, but, … you know what I mean.)

And then there is “I was naked…” But, c’mon, Jesus, when did we see you or anybody else really naked because they didn’t have any clothes? . . .   I remember one mentally ill man with incredibly thick and dirty blond hair, who used to wander the streets of Silverlake barefoot, winter and summer.  I actually saw him, repeatedly (”When did we see you?”) so I am guilty of not having done a damn thing abut it.  I wonder what ever became of him.

But, Lord, he was mentally ill, after all. What do I know about any of that?

Last winter, the conservative folks over at Silverlake Presbyterian found the frozen body of a homeless man on their front lawn one extremely cold January Sunday morning. He was naked. They guess that he gave up, and took his clothes off to make an unmistakable statement.  And it did.

Oh my God, where was I? We’ve tried to take care of homeless people for years–living in our church parking lot, under the front porch, even in the Narthex, the Tower landing, the Library and an unused choir room. But Silverlake Presbyterian Church is within sight of my own home. I mighty have seen him. “Lord, when did we see you?” I didn’t see him, and knew nothing about this until I read it in the newspaper.  Was it the man with the bare feet?

Of course, we visit the sick. We bring flowers and communion, and get well cards. We try to do all the right things, well—some of the right things— as often as we can, with our consciences reminding us how important these merciful acts are to a Christian. But there is one thing that almost all of us overlook—the part that says “I was in prison, and you visited me.” No, I can’t say I ever pictured Jesus or anybody else in prison. Prison just wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t know any prisoners.

Jeffrey’s court date was February 12 several years ago.  I sat with his parents and the public defender attorney when, because of a parole violation, he was sent up for another 3½ years in state prison. This was a man who was homeless when I met him at the gay A.A. meeting in our church basement. We tried to help him and his partner over the course of many months. So I was there when the bailiff took him away in handcuffs.

“I saw you, Lord.” I saw him. I saw the injustice. I prayed and counseled with his family outside the courthouse that day. But what else could I do? I am just one person, and one without a lot of “street smarts” at that.

Last night, four of us from the church came to Blythe, on the edge of the state line with Arizona. After weeks of paperwork, letters and delays to get our security clearances, and then a 240-mile drive into this God-forsaken piece of arid real estate, we waited in three different lines for nearly two hours just to get into the Visiting Room. It was 115 degrees under a relentless July sun.

You can see the guard tower and 16′ foot high razor-wire encrusted fences more clearly here.

I started to get weepy when I saw him coming in.  Thank God Jeffrey was in a good mood or I would have been a basket case. “Only 267 days left,” he said, “but who’s counting?”

The food is terrible, he admitted. Medical care is poor, and delayed as long as they can do it.  He has to defend himself from slurs and innuendos for being gay in an overwhelmingly heterosexual cell block. It’s a pressure cooker environment (he’s lucky to be over 6′–1″) with 360 men stacked in triple-high bunks in a “cube.” The whole prison has 3,600 men – it was designed for a capacity about half that number — and the courts and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are still arguing about the overcrowding. Chuckawalla Valley State Prison is only one of 33 prisons up and down this great Golden State that are nowhere near anybody’s “back yard.” Remember NIMBY? It’s another way of saying “Lord, when did we see you? We sent you as far away as we possibly could!”

What little money we’ve sent to him in prison Jeffrey uses for cosmetics from the prison store.  The state doesn’t provide deodorant.

It also doesn’t provide any hope for a better life. The rehabilitation part is extremely limited. California spends an average $42,000 per inmate per year and over 95% of it is used just to lock them up and guard them.  The California prison guards union is a potent political force.

Jeffrey said he hadn’t had a visitor since January when his grandmother came to visit. I don’t even remember January anymore. It flew by like every other month when you’re busy. I felt shame that it had taken me over two years to get over my fears or blindness and come out here to see him. “Lord, when did we see you?”

And did I mention it was 115 outside? Doesn’t that constitute “cruel and unusual punishment? Lord, when did we notice how hard NIMBY makes it for families to see their loved ones? When did we see the inhumanity in our justice system? When did we see the real people? When did we go blind?

—Pastor Dan Hooper

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Party of No reveals true prejudice.

July 8, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

The veto of House Bill 444 by Hawaii’s Republican governor Linda Lingle does not surprise me. The bill would have allowed civil unions in lieu of civil marriage for same-gender couples.

Remember that the state of Hawaii started all this marriage mess in America when in 1993 its supreme court found no reason under the current constitution to forbid same-gender marriage. The people of Hawaii then took it upon themselves to amend the constitution to make sure it couldn’t happen. The actual procedure differs from other states’ bans, but it has the identical affect. Take your gay/lesbian family elsewhere.

California has its own special issues, but I can’t help seeing a pattern in states where there are large concentrations of retirees as well as Relephantitis (the affliction of the Party of No): Arizona, Florida and Hawaii come to mind.

On the Party of No, the Governor’s own web site, http://hawaii.gov/gov brags on July that she has vetoed 32 bills. Her veto statement is here.

According to Associated Press, Lingle explained her veto: “There has not been a bill I have contemplated more or an issue I have thought more deeply about during my eight years as governor,” she said. ” have been open and consistent in my opposition to same-sex marriage, and find that House Bill 444 is essentially same-sex marriage by another name.”

Lingle’s prejudicial view may actually strengthen our case in the long run. Opponents have frequently said it is the name “marriage” that they want to protect but that they’re not against lesbian and gay couples from having legal protections which are similar or the same, as long as “tradition” marriage of “sacred” marriage are not involved. But Lingle has called the spade by its real name: prejudice. She doesn’t think our relationships and families should have any legal protections by any name.

There is no way that a minority (LGBT people) can affect the thinking of the majority without exposing prejudice every time it is involved.

It is also obvious to me that the battle will probably stay in the courts for some time, because all it takes is a prejudiced governor with Relephantitis to veto the work of many legislators who have already worked through an issue such as this as a political issue. Lingle is a lame duck but has an eye for her party’s chances in the midterm election only four months away. As Governor—think Schwarzeneggar—she doesn’t have to engage individual voters and their views or concerns, but she has to engage the media. So whatever she thinks will play well in the media is what she will do.

Lingle also commented in her press conference that voters, not politicians, should decide the fate of civil unions. Ahh, the eternal triangle between electorate, legislators and courts. But voters–as long as they are allowed to decide things by majority vote—will typically not vote for anything that benefits the minority. A bill or an initiative constitutional amendment is never framed to advise the voters to think and vote on behalf of persons other than themselves, i.e., for the good of the larger community, or for the good of a minority. Clearly, only a court or a representative) legislative group is charged to think and act on behalf of all citizens and not just a majority of citizens.

In the meantime, Lingle’s prejudice lingers in Hawaii.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

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If we don’t tell we don’t exist.

June 22, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

This is a couple of weeks old but it’s worth reading, and participating in the survey (Link is below) — P.D.

Friends,

When I heard the news yesterday, I couldn’t believe my ears.

Rep. Ike Skelton, a Democrat from my home state of Missouri and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because he is worried it would force parents to explain homosexuality to their children and would open up a national discussion. “What do mommies and daddies say to their 7-year-old child?” Mr. Skelton asked reporters at a news media breakfast. [1]

It would be bad enough if Ike Skelton were just pretending that DADT still makes sense. But based on his comments yesterday, Skelton wants to pretend that LGBT people don’t even exist!

From anyone, these comments are uneducated and unfortunate; from a U.S. Congressmen, those kind of statements are simply unacceptable. That’s why we’re calling on Skelton to offer a full public apology to the LGBT people in his district, and across the country. Join us in demanding a public apology!

http://www.getequal.org/missouri.php

Sadly, Ike Skelton has a history of actively working against our civil rights. He was one of the original authors of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” legislation 17 years ago. [2] And it’s long been clear that the law needs to end. In fact, a 2010 poll found that 60% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans believe that being gay or lesbian “has no bearing on a service member’s ability to perform their duties” and 73% say it is “personally acceptable to them if gay and lesbian people were allowed to serve openly in the military.” [3]

That’s why I’m asking you to sign this petition to call on Rep. Skelton to apologize for his remarks. Democrats and Republicans alike need to understand that our community is everywhere, and it is not okay to continue with this type of political homophobia.

I hope you’ll join me in signing this petition. Help us hold Rep. Skelton (D-MO) accountable by demanding that he represent the full diversity of his community and of communities across the country.

Sign the petition here! http://www.getequal.org/missouri.php

Get out, get active, GetEQUAL!

Thanks for your support,

Ed Reggi

Co-founder, Show Me No Hate

St. Louis, Missouri

[1] “He’d Rather Not Talk About ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/us/09brfs-HEDRATHERNOT_BRF.html

[2] “Skelton opposes repeal of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’” http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76427-skelton-opposes-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell

[3] “Bi-Partisan Poll of Iraq & Afghanistan Vets” http://www.vetvoicefoundation.com/new?id=0002

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Transgander passports.

June 10, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

[This news comes to us from the National Center for Transgender Equality, by way of Lutherans Concerned/North America. — P.D.
Last night [July 9, 2010] the US Department of State announced new guidelines for issuing passports to transgender people. Beginning today, applicants for a gender marker change on their passports will need to submit certification from a physician that they have received “appropriate clinical treatment” for gender transition. Most importantly, gender reassignment surgery is not required under the new policy.

The new rules will also apply to changing a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) for US citizens who were born outside of the United States. CRBA’s are the equivalent of a birth certificate.

For years, NCTE has been advocating with the State Department to change their rules about gender markers on passports and CRBA’s. Previously they had required proof of irreversible sex reassignment surgery before the gender marker could be changed, although there were exceptions for temporary, provisional passports to allow someone to travel for surgery.

NCTE and other advocates have stressed with the State Department that this policy unnecessarily called attention to transgender travelers whose appearance and gender marker were at odds. In some destinations, this had the potential to create an extremely dangerous situation when a traveler is outed as transgender in an unwelcoming environment or in the presence of prejudiced security personnel.

Fortunately, the new rules represent a significant advance in providing safe, humane and dignified treatment of transgender people. There are details in the guidelines about what information a physician must provide and we will communicate those to you as soon as possible. However, the State Department notes that applicants will not need to supply any additional medical documentation and that there is no SRS requirement.

“We want to extend our thanks to the Obama Administration, and particularly to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, for understanding the need for this change and then responding to make travel safer for transgender people,” commented Mara Keisling, Executive Director of NCTE. “This shows how changes in government policy directly impact people’s lives, in this case, for the better.”

In the next few days, NCTE will be issuing a definitive resource that fully explains the new guidelines and outlines the ways in which transgender people can make changes to their passports and CRBAs.

Many people-from elected officials to LGBT advocates-have worked for years to change these policies and deserve credit and thanks. Particularly important work was done by Rep. Barney Frank as well as Rep. Steve Israel in the House of Representatives; Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA), which represents LGBT employees and their families working in foreign affairs offices for the US government; all of our allied LGBT organizations who have been committed to this work, including the Center for Global Equality, The Task Force, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign; and those working on medical policies, including the American Medical Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

Phil Soucy
Director Communications LC/NA
communications@lcna.org

Further information is found at www.ncte.org.

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We are not criminals.

May 29, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I know “criminals.” They are people who have been convicted of crimes. All of us break laws, but criminals are those who are caught.

I recently learned (where have I been?) what a RAP sheet is.  It is an acronym for Record of Arrests and Prosecutions. It is part of my continuing education about crime and justice, especially in light of our congregation’s emerging Mariposa Ministry, its outreach to prisoners and parolees. We have developed relationships with more than a dozen current and former inmates in California prisons. And this year we expect to help –spiritually and tangibly– at least three men who will be paroled in Los Angeles County.

So I know criminals. But what I also know is that many ordinary people, who break laws, are never arrested or prosecuted largely because of privilege or good luck. It is sad to admit that the world is not divided between “good” people and “bad” people, but between privileged and lucky people and under-privileged and un-lucky people.

Decades ago, when I was dating, it was still a crime for two persons of the same gender to have sexual relations. This was long before Lawrence v. Texas, and the sodomy laws in almost every state had the authority to put decent, upstanding people behind bars. I was one of the privileged and lucky ones. Knowing my gay brothers who are in prison, I realize I could have been in prison myself in the 1970s and 1980s, simply for being who I am.

But our entire world is still struggling to enlarge its understanding of human diversity and to stop using laws as a moral bludgeon to punish or destroy what it does not understand or does not want to see.

This spring, as we have watched the blunt force of African nations, specifically Uganda, trying to blame perceived social ills as a Western degradation, with a proposed death penalty for homosexual acts, I have been encouraged that sane voices have spoken up world-wide.  Thank God for the likes of Anglican Bishop and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu for leading this fight in Africa (see: Desmond Tutu leads fight to halt anti-gay terror sweeping Africa.”

The battle is not over. But at least two gay men in Malawi have now been spared a near-certain death sentence (14 years of hard labor) for pledging their love to one another.  Their pardon came about, apparently, because of world moral pressure in the form of a meeting of the Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The CNN story released today quotes the White House as saying that gay people are “not criminals and their struggle is not unique.”

We are still mid-struggle in America for LGBTQI rights, and one of the battles we fight is with other oppressed peoples (including but not limited to African-American people) who don’t want to bestow the honored label of “civil rights struggle” on our movement. All it would take, I know, for our Black brothers and sisters to stop being protective of their struggle is for more Black gay men and lesbians to come out to their families and their communities. African-American sexual minorities, who have very little to fear by way of criminal conviction in this country for their sexual orientation or gender identity, could put their faces on the world-wide struggle for dignity, purpose and freedom. I hope the example two brave gay men in Malawi, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, will encourage them.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

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Milk on the Capitol steps.

May 24, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

I am passing this on from my colleague Kerry Chaplin. I’m sorry I couldn’t be in Sacramento for this. – Dan Hooper

You honor Harvey Milk’s memory on what would have been his 80th birthday. Harvey Milk would be proud of your courage. And yes, I believe God is proud of you too.

— Pastor Wilk Miller, First Lutheran Church of San Diego

Sacramento faith leaders, Rev. Brian Baker, Rev. Jason Bense, Rev. Doretha Flournoy, and Rev. Lindi Ramsden, mark the legacy of California’s first Harvey Milk Day on the Capitol steps.

What a meaningful weekend!

Over 30 congregations, from Riverside and San Diego to Vallejo and Stockton, honored the legacy of Harvey Milk in their worship services to mark California’s first ever Harvey Milk Day.

In San Diego, East and Downtown Los Angeles, Fresno, San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento, clergy inspired canvassers and activists to take Harvey’s message of hope to the streets.

In Los Angeles, Rev. Neil Thomas met with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, emphasizing the unique role that people of faith play in our LGBT Movement.

I believe Harvey would be proud of our work. And as Rev. Miller has said, our Divine Power(s) is proud of us too.

Help us to continue to make sure LGBT seekers know that they are supported by people of faith, and to make sure Californians know that Divine Power(s) and equality for ALL people are symbiotic.

To Harvey’s Legacy,

Kerry Chaplin, Interfaith Organizing Director

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First Harvey Milk Day

May 22, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Today is the first official observance of Harvey Milk Day in California.  Below is the press release from the Mayor’s Office.—Pastor Dan Hooper

MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA HONORS HARVEY MILK WITH FIRST ANNUAL DAY OF SERVICE IN HIS HONOR: Commemorates the Late Activist for Work Building Coalitions, Breaking Down Barriers; Asks Angelenos to Serve Their Own Communities

LOS ANGELES – On the eve of the first annual Harvey Milk Day of Service, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa honored the late activist for his public service, unwavering championship of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues (LGBT), and dedication to social change across a wide-range of issues including education, low-income housing, and public transportation. In anticipation of tomorrow’s day of service in Milk’s honor, Mayor Villaraigosa today met with a coalition of LGBT community leaders and activists, including Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk), Equality California Marriage Director Marc Solomon, and Rev. Dr. Neil Thomas Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles and President of the Board, California Faith for Equality.

“Harvey Milk had the courage to stand up, live his life openly, and challenge people to judge him first on his ability to get the job done,” said Mayor Villaraigosa. “What he accomplished in his few years in public office remains nothing short of extraordinary, and tomorrow I encourage all Angelenos to celebrate his life and legacy by giving back to their own communities.”

“All of the Abrahamic faiths teach us that it is our responsibility to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God,” Rev. Dr. Neil Thomas said. “Let us commit ourselves to follow Milk’s example and do all in our power to make hope a reality for all our oppressed brothers and sisters in this world.”

“Harvey Milk believed in the power of personal stories to change hearts and minds,” said Equality California Marriage Director Marc Solomon. “That’s why we call on all those who stand for equality to join us on Saturday—the first-ever Harvey Milk Day of Recognition—as we take to the streets and engage Californians in personal conversations about why LGBT people deserve the freedom to marry.”

To commemorate the first annual Harvey Milk Day in California, community and LGBT organizations from across Los Angeles will join together tomorrow, May 22, for a day of service and action to honor Milk and his legacy. Projects include a community garden clean-up,

neighborhood canvasses, and a “Coming Out” rally.

Throughout his life, Milk worked to find common ground with others and demonstrate the positive effect that this had on the greater community. He initiated programs that benefited underserved and minority communities, workers and the elderly. He was also the driving force

behind the passage of a gay rights law that prohibited discrimination and/or unequal treatment on the basis of sexual orientation in housing and employment.

“At a time when the forces of hatred and bigotry caused many to live their personal lives in secret, and far too many Americans feared for their safety and even their lives if they let the world see their true selves, Harvey Milk inspired people to work for social change,” Villaraigosa said. “He was a true pioneer whose message of love and acceptance should never be forgotten.”

Mayor Villaraigosa, in partnership with Councilwoman Jan Perry, Gay for Good, LA Neighborhood Land Trust and the LA Garden Council, will be holding a day of service by helping to clean-up and rebuild the Vermont Square Community Garden with other community stakeholders.

To ensure Harvey Milk’s legacy of community engagement and service lives on, Mayor Villaraigosa pledged to hold a day of service every year to commemorate Harvey Milk and urged the LGBT leaders and organizations present, as well as his fellow Angelenos, to join him in giving back each year on this day. In 2008, the California State Legislature and Governor designated May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in the State of California. In 2009, President Obama posthumously awarded Milk a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

There are lots of Google hits on Harvey Milk Day.  Thanks especially to GSAAragon a.k.a. Jason for posting his lively youtube coming out clip — the “big surprise” in it is not his coming out, though. You will get a kick out of it.

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