Score one for parody.

March 2, 2011 by Pastor Dan.

He must be dancing a jig tonight, that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that it’s a free-speech country and Phelps can demonstrate his particular brand of hatred at military funerals.

This is two decisions about free speech rights and the First Amendment in two years. the prior one was the idiotic decision that corporations can spend an unlimited amount of cash to sway public opinion and therefore to buy elections.

The Supreme Clout does not mean the highest wisdom, apparently.  But who am I to question free speech?  I am, however, deeply disappointed that only Justice Alito dissented from the majority opinion. Where were our so-called liberal justices on this?  But free speech itself–especially in this day and age of Twitter and Facebook influence over global events—is extremely important even if it can be used by people on the wrong side of virtually every moral issue (as I believe Phelps is).

But I do think that this is still a moral victory for our side, because Phelps and his little tribe of hate-mongering imaginary Christians are pretty exposed out there. Many other Christian preachers and churches have staked out their market share based on their hatred of abortion, homosexuals, you name it. But nobody is joining Phelps on the streets in front of funerals. Nobody else has web sites quite as filled with deranged, Gadhafi-like rambling.  Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps stands pretty much alone.

And I kind of think that when he croaks (or when God’s long-suffering patience is finally exhausted), nobody else is likely to pick up where Phelps leaves off. Maybe because Phelps’ command of irreality has been too sweeping.  It was not enough for him to say God hates fags. He has to say that God hates America for tolerating homosexuals.  God hates Sweden, too.  And God hates Canada.  But that God hates and therefore kills U.S. Marines because America tolerates homosexual expression is a bit more than a “stretch” even for most Christian fundagelicals. At Godhatestheworld.com, Phelps gives you an country-by-country explanation of his godly opinion.

And if Phelps himself is not a living parody on homophobic ministers, other people’s parody is the best revenge. For example, God Hates Figs (It’s in the Bible, read: Mark 11:12–14!—all a matter of interpretation.) And if you have time, check out Hank Moody’s book God Hates Us All. Entertainment, I guess.

 

Enjoy the new irreality in America, thanks to John “W” Roberts, whose sense of justice is certainly a parody all its own.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Go figure!, wingnuts, Homophobia, Bible & Interpretation, Fundamentalism, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Privilege behind the curtain.

February 26, 2011 by Dan Hooper.

   We’ve long known about those folks who think they are spiritual but don’t like “organized religion.” Now add the group of political conservatives who say they want what is best for the people but don’t want organized labor. In fact, many of the same conservatives have relentlessly ridiculed the sitting President for, among other things, having been a community organizer.

Iran and Libya don’t want organized opposition. Scott Walker has now coerced the Wisconsin legislature to deny the right of state workers to collective bargaining. (If unions are outlawed, only outlaws will have unions?) It has become clear that the effort to break the back of organized labor is itself highly organized and well-funded.

What these things have in common is fear and loathing for anything organized. Better, they think, if everything which threatens their status quo remains disorganized.

But curiously, one organization that doesn’t seem to suffer the same criticism, at least from the people on the proverbial right, are corporations. Highly organized, armed with extraordinary international clout, fluid money and shadowy subsidiaries, a very controlled hierarchy and playing for high stakes, corporations are running my life from behind the velvet drapes of the Wizard of Oz. “Pay no attention to the corporation behind the curtain,” says the corporation behind the curtain.

Is there any doubt that Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker intended to keep a curtain drawn over his own prejudices until he was exposed by a prank caller? Is there any doubt that Hosni Mubarek or Moammar Gadhafi want to keep control shielded by a curtain of absolute authority from all public accountability. Is it any wonder that British Petroleum corporately winced at the exposure of its avarice and manipulation that contributed to that catastrophic Gulf oil spill?

It amazes me that the mental coprolites who think there is a conspiracy behind everything don’t want to look behind the curtain of their own privilege, made possible by the simple act of hurting and destroying other people.

This is not naivete here. I am well aware, for example, that the California Prison Guards Union is screwing both the inmates in California prisons and the people of California. In little more than a decade, the cost of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations, which runs 33 state prisons, has jumped from $3.5 billion to $11 billion.

But by and large it is not the union lobbyists who are bankrupting state governments. It is not the corporate lobbyists either—at least on the surface. It is greed which is behind the curtain. Lobbyists make their living on funding politicians behind the curtain. Where is the public accountability if the public thinks it is really more comfortable and privileged as a result of corporations?

On my recent “vacation” to Florida, where the land is flat enough to be completely erased from the map by a high tide, people are in complete denial about global warming, for example. The ground of their denial is not that the science of permanent climate change is still hugely theoretical, but linked to the denial that anything could possible wash out their entitlement to a life of privilege, ease, comfort and high standard of living.

Probably more than anything, it is privilege which is behind the curtain: masculine privilege, white privilege, American (native-born not immigrant legal or otherwise) privilege. For all the conservative ranting about entitlements, our nation, our culture, our wonderful America is turned our national entitlement into a god at whose altar anyone, any minority, any cause, any just thing, many be slaughtered and sacrificed. We have met the enemy, says Pogo, and it is us.

—Dan Hooper

Posted in wingnuts, Bullying, Go figure!, Violence, Public Affairs, Environment, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

In memory of M.A. and A.M.

February 24, 2011 by Pastor Dan.

We easily forget what a terrible cost is paid by individuals who do not hide in fear. Thanks, Michael, for sending me the link on Facebook to this tragic news story. Two Iranian teen boys were hanged for the crime of homosexuality—identified only as M.A. and A.M. but photographed just before their deaths.

This brutal act of course is also meant to shame and intimidate not only all gay people in Iran but also the families of these young guys.

While we are reveling in the news of emerging freedom in Egypt, and the promise of the fall of other despotic regimes, blood is being shed. Lives are being lost in the struggle in Libya. Iraqis are still killing Iraqis because of a millennium-old rivalry. the rest of the Mideast will not see another Velvet Revolution. Definitely not in Iran. And Iran is worse than Libya because it has great strength and more power to hurt greater numbers of people.

I can’t help thinking, of course, that in brutally killing boys, Iran’s obsession with maintaining the purity of Islam as they see it is their way of saying, “WE WILL NOT let anything Western influence our view of reality.”

Ultimately it will not work. Over time, medieval Islam will change or crumble, just like the medieval West has changed—some crumbling, some destroyed through revolution, some adapting and reinterpreting its traditions.

But in the meantime, countless thousands of people will bleed and die. No matter how reasoned my own mental analysis of these moral, cultural and historic issues might be, I cannot wrap my mind around the idea that Allah is pleased with the torture, blood, pain and death of people. Capital punishment is barbaric, no matter where instituted and for what “crime.”

From the Beirut.Indymedia.org article: “According to the website Age of Consent, which monitors such laws around the world, in Iran “Homosexuality is illegal, those charged with love-making are given a choice of four deathstyles: being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch.”

Pray for God’s eternal compassion for these young men and countless others.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

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Are anti-gay prejudices falling like dominoes?

February 23, 2011 by Dan Hooper.

Don’t hold your breath, but at least we’re seeing anti-gay legislation tumbling in our lifetimes.

After the U.S. Supreme Court (which has Supreme Clout) decriminalized consensual sex between same-gender couples in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, and now that the notorious “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law, used against sexual minorities in the armed forces, has been repealed, DOMA is the next big domino.

Jay Carney, White House spkesperson

Although Obama himself is still struggling with the legitimacy of our relationships, it is heartening to hear from NPR today that Attorney General Holder will no longer defend DOMA in court. Holder issued a well-reasoned statement Wednesday that again tilts the legal landscape in favor of sexual minorities, specifically, lesbian/gay couples:

After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President’s determination.

Holder is very aware of the landscape. He has to also be aware that homophobic conservatives will not take this lying down. Speaking of DOMA, Holder says, “this Administration will no longer assert its constitutionality in court” and of course he speaks only for this Administration. If Republicans have their way —which is truly not certain even after last November’s surge for their party—the Obama Administration would be turned out in January 2013. If DOMA is not repealed by Congress (not likely, given the surge) during the coming months, today’s Justice Department decision not to defend DOMA will be yet another way for the conservatives to beat their drum in the 2012 campaign. Remember: the run for the Presidency is already underway, and begins to obsess the media a year before the election itself.

Wait 24 hours and see what the conservatives say about this news. (Speaker of the House John Boehner is already talking.)  But for today, it is great news.

— Dan Hooper

Posted in Homophobia, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Relentless change.

February 20, 2011 by Dan Hooper.

Just finished reading Ken Auletta’s remarkable book Googled. It was the subtitle that prodded me to buy it: “The End of the World as We Know It.” The author provides more detailed analysis of business models and plans, and insider interviews with “old media” execs, etc., than I cared for, but the portrait he presents is of a young, courageous and even recklessly idealistic company that has taken the world by storm.

Google’s commitment to make all human information available to anyone globally is a bit over the top, except that they are succeeding in doing exactly that. Technologically, there are almost no roadblocks. Legally and culturally, there are plenty of them.

You may remember that China has been a particular thorn in the side for Google, having hacked into Chinese dissidents’ G-Mail accounts, and blocked information that could help today’s revolutionaries know what’s going on.

But the technology and profit sides of Google are utterly amazing. There are estimates for example that some 20 million books have been published throughout history. Google has already scanned and indexed between 7 and 10 million of them. Little more than 12 years ago, Google was a crazy idea of two Stanford University buddies. Today it employees 20,000 people and those buddies are each worth more than $12 billion, even after being beat up by the recession.

Auletta’s book will overwhelm you with facts and statistics. Probably the best part is his repeated reference to Google as a huge wave, in his way of analyzing who is riding the wave, who is being sucked under and who is being flattened.

The world we knew as recently as the 90s is gone forever. Get used to it. The world of the 00s is going bye-bye. Brace yourself for continuous, relentless change.

—Dan Hooper

Posted in International, History, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Egypt: Revolution 2.0

February 12, 2011 by Dan Hooper.

The most amazing part of last night’s fascinating story on Anderson Cooper 360 was the connection to Google and Facebook.

Wael Ghonim is the Google employee—executive they said—who was arrested in Egypt and held for twelve days, apparently blindfolded and without knowledge of what was going on or what would become of him.  He credits Facebook with a seminal role in launching the Egyptian revolution. (For a little fun, check Ghonim’s Facebook page.)

According to The Faster Times, “A quote from  Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who launched the Facebook page said to have sparked the original protest, has been making the rounds online: “`If you want to liberate a country, give them the Internet.’”

 

            In a New Yorker article last fall, Malcolm Gladwell seems to counter Ghonim’s view.  I have blogged several times about Gladwell’s insights, but I think this time his reasoning is simply trumped b y reality.

If  Ghonim’s analysis turns out to be true, it does not bode well for the future of dictatorial or totalitarian regimes, or perhaps even merely unpopular governments.  Yes, despots will continue to try to block access to web sites that are unflattering, or to cut off the entire internet, as Mubarik was about to do. 

But the people vastly outnumber even the most evil and corrupt leadership, if they will sand up to oppression and are willing to put themselves on the front line.  But the “front lines” in this 21^st century may very well be electronic.  Eventually, the internet will be so pervasive that it cannot be blocked.  And the will to be free, coupled with the will to know, will put the internet’s worldwide role in the limelight for communicating change.   

So, if Egypt can do this, why not Iran?  If Iran, why not … China?  Indeed, why not these United States of America?  Have we not had our share of unpopular regimes?  Probably the only thing that has saved us from such a course of history, especially at the end of the “W” era is that Mr. Bush relinquished power as his predecessors have always done.  It is this civil exit from power and authority that is the only thing which genuinely confirms the vitality of our democratic institutions.

— Dan Hooper

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A step to rectify the past.

February 12, 2011 by Dan Hooper.

It is wonderful to read that Hawaii may have finally said “welcome” to a community it had shunned a decade ago.

Hawaii’s Supreme Court was the first in the nation to say, in the Baehr v. Miike case, that it was unconstitutional to deny the right to marry to same-sex couples.  But because it was so far ahead of its time, the backlash was severe, and the citizen’s voted it down.

Now the Hawaii Legislature is rectifying the small-minded mistake of a generation ago.  By a vote of 31 to 19, the House passed a Civil Unions bill already passed by the state Senate and set to be signed by the new governor.  (Is it any wonder that an Abercrombie would side with gay people? — probably concidence, I know.)  See the Advocate story here.

This is not likely to trigger a wave of romances going to Hawaii to get married, however.  LEgal marriage is not yet on the horizon.  Too bad, because it would be fun to stuff a piece of wedding cake in former Governor Linda Lingle’s mouth for vetoing the same bill a year ago.

— Dan Hooper

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

Remembering the Closet

February 11, 2011 by Pastor Dan.

We are on a family vacation right now, and this afternoon, going through old family photographs.  Memories led to reflection and even theorizing about life and it’s strange experiences and demands and triumphs.  At several points, the touchy subject came up about distance or even estrangement between relatives, etc.  How much of this has been caused —especially in years past—by homophobia?  Relatives who kept us at arms length because we are a gay couple?  Or treated someone else in the family badly because that person was kind and accepting of us?  We will probably never know for sure.

I began thinking about the coming out process, and how huge this must be for millions of LGBT people.  But homophobia swings both ways, as we suffer both the slights and insults of others, and also suffer the psychic damage to ourselves–deeply buried like a knife. 

Probably thousands of blogs are out there to help people come out.  If you find this or as blog like this, chances are you are out or already testing what the process means.  It either could be or already has been scary.  Disclosing anything deeply truthful about oneself can be frightening because of the risks of rejection and actual mistreatment by family, friends and community.  I remember coming out to friends first, who were pretty much okay with it, and then my own parents, which I handled badly and which made my dad cry.  It was a mess, for several years, before it got better.

I started the coming out process only a few months after the Stonewall Rebellion, at a time when it was extremely to do so.  But with a number of years of life experiences and years for reflection and thinking about my life experiences, I still believe without a doubt that the most important thing anyone can do is to be honest with oneself and about oneself. 

If you are lesbian/gay, bisexual or even transgender, your inner spirit will either be free and honest or it will begin to die.  Know yourself, examine your self, test your feelings and experiences.  Keep a journal if you can’t tell anyone else. 

But denial will keep you locked in misery.  At this point in life, I think it is safe to say that I have no regrets that I have lived my life openly and honestly.  The risks were still there, and I took hits for it, even to the point of losing my job and career over it—not recently, of course.  The world has changed incredibly since I came out.

And the world will continue to change.  The more truthful we are with ourselves and others, and the more we hold firmly to our own sense of integrity, the more I believe the world will become a better place.

 

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Family, Homophobia, History, Public Affairs, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

Religious Views Anonymous.

January 1, 2011 by Pastor Dan.

I’m not exactly “Hooked” on Facebook, but if checking it 3-4 times a day is an indicator, I may need to seek a 12-Step meeting for FB. (A Google search for Facebook users anonymous had 23 million hits. Hmmm.

 It’s a fun way to stay in touch with friends, but it also encourages one to snoop around just a bit clicking on the links to friends of friends. I’m especially drawn to because FB says so-and-so and I have 17 mutual friends and I’ve never heard of this person.

But when I read some almost-friend’s (2 degrees of separation?) profile, I am struck by the inane or missing Info under “Religious Views.” Even among people I know are active in the church just blow it off in their Profile.

So, you’ve got a lot of friends. Assume most of these FB friends know you personally, actually, not just virtually. And so many of these friends know you are active in the church. Why then are you trivializing or hiding your religious views on FB?

Thinking about this, I conclude it is not because many people are embarrassed or ashamed to state a religious thought or conviction in the social network. I think it’s because religious views and convictions are not perceived as interesting, so what’s to say?

Personally, I had this information posted last year: Religious Views: “Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but more interesting than a label!” (It still conceals more than it reveals.)

And the reason they are thought to not be interesting is because of the great disconnect of religious views from the rest of life. We compartmentalize our religious views in a different box from all the other things that influence and express our values.

Brings me back to my perceptions of Jesus. For too many Christians, our “religious views” are supposed to be about our faith in or allegiance to Christ. Nothing interesting there because the religion about Jesus can’t/doesn’t compete against contemporary culture. But Jesus himself—the enigmatic figure revealed in the Gospels—never encouraged anyone to be religious.

The “religion of Jesus” (not “about Jesus”) is an allegiance to compassion, generosity, love, forgiveness and self-sacrifice. Maybe it’s time we start putting our Religious Views up there in the social network: “Trying to shape my life by the religious values of Jesus: compassion, generosity, love, forgiveness and self-sacrifice.” I think I will add this as a good way to start a new year.

—Pastor Dan

Posted in Doctrine, Faith, Public Affairs, Spirituality | Print | No Comments »

Bury their own dead.

December 29, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I read recently with near-horror that the Los Angeles Coroner’s office was about to put the unclaimed ashes of over 1,600 people in a mass grave. The horror comes from the fact that the remains of a homeless woman who basically lived in or around our church for nearly 20 years might be among those ashes.

I quickly called the Coroner’s office and was told that Rosemary’s case had been closed more than a year ago. for nearly two years I’d been trying to prod her homeless boyfriend to do something about her body. She did not want to be cremated, he said. But you can’t just bury a whole body, and nobody had the money to buy a casket, a burial plot and the services required to put the body in it. We had contact her next of kin, in the Midwest, shortly after her death from breast cancer nearly two years ago, and while they were saddened to learn she had died—homeless—in Los Angeles, they had about zero interest in paying for a proper burial.

So that matter languished, until I read the LA Times article about the mass burial. I knew that the County has, at any one time, thousands of unclaimed bodies and/or “cremains.” But somehow it seemed like the ultimate insult to an elderly woman who had lived a harsh, cold and hopeless life for many years to simply see her ashes, in a plastic sack, dropped in a big hole.

The County’s administrative office referred me back to the Morgue. More phone calls, more tracing of a closed case. But finally I was told that Rosemary’s cremains would not be buried that week—only the ashes of people cremated more than 3 years ago.

The next step—if prodding her boyfriend (or as he describes the relationship, common-law husband)—is successful, is to go to the Superior Court with an “Ex Parte Petition for

Court Order to Release the Remains of a Decedent” filled out, pay whatever court fees, probably pay for the cremation, and wait for a court date. Is it any wonder so many bodies go unclaimed?

Of course I am thinking of what our society says about the value of a human life. At least the government was planning to bury these ashes with dignity. Somewhere a computer at least has their names and dates of death on record. And is “society” responsible to show respect for individuals whose own families for whatever reason do not claim what is left? One of the most ancient aspects of civilization anywhere is the great respect and care which the living gave to the remains of the dead. Are we becoming far less civilized now?

Maybe the dignity and respect given to each and every human being is not inherently hard-wired into any society or community, but must be secured on a case-by-case basis. In Rosemary’s case, there is a dignified resting place for her cremains here in the church, in a compartment inside the “high” Altar, where three other containers also reside. Two were former church members, and the third one is a total mystery: no one here knows who she was or how the ashes got to this church.

But I reflect on the millions of people who died prematurely of HIV/AIDS. In America we have a wonderful national Memorial Quilt, but what about the human beings, created in God’s image, who died elsewhere in the world.

And what about the teens who have taken their lives because they were bullied, harassed and shamed repeatedly for being effeminate or gay? Their families, I think, have treated them with respect in the sad reality of their deaths, but what of a society that tolerates, even encourages disrespect to gay teens who are living?

The irony of Jesus’ words (Matthew 8:22) of course, is that the dead cannot bury their own dead. But if we are not alive to the reality of people’s lives being discounted, disrespected, or destroyed by the neglect or hatred of others, then we may as well be dead. Those who are truly living value the lives of others as much as their own.

—Pastor Dan

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Stop excusing cruelty.

December 26, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Sometimes things just come to me – thoughts that won’t let me go until I have thought them through. This hit me hard on Christmas night.

Like a cup or bucket that cannot hold another drop with overflowing, or (more pertinent in Southern California) like a rain-saturated hillside that cannot take one more tenth of an inch of rainfall before it gives way to a mudslide, I have reached my lifetime saturation point on some things.

One of them is cruelty. Whether it be cruelty to animals or children, or women—or cruelty to POWs, children and animals in Iraq (it just goes on and on), or the atrocities of Darfur, or bullying of gay-appearing teenagers, or all the genocides of the 20^th century, some of which I have lived contemporaneously with and others were only lessons I learned as a student (the Jewish Holocaust had ended before I was born)— I am beyond wearying of cruelty.

These days I find myself not wanting to read a news headline if my cruelty meter begins to beep. Individual acts of psychopathic behavior or cruelty, or the utter madness of foreclosures upon the elderly and a marshal escorting someone from their own home because of missed payments, the bottom line is that our society still tolerates, if not legalizes, many forms of cruelty.

Like many other things, cruelty is concealed under different terms. Society accepts the unacceptable because it re-labels things to appear less odious, less inhuman, less cruel. When it comes to the tragic gay bullying of recent months that led to a wave of teen suicides, for example, how many of us heard “boys will be boys” as the standard excuse, a deflection of the evil. Braced as I was for the tragedy of it, I still got weepy watching a live production of The Laramie Project earlier this year in Pasadena, telling the chilling story of mixed reactions to the torture and murder of Matthew Shepard in1998. Cruelty is perpetrated by overpowering the weaker party. Masculinity is constantly measured and defined by the ancient contest to prove who has weakness, as if weakness then is justification for contest, for warfare, for cruelty.

When I was in college, our Drama Department produced “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, a defining work that views the 17^th century Salem witch trials through a moral lense. Although there was no visible violence, what took place in those trials was also cruelty, disguised and re-packed as religious righteousness, and the slowly-grinding wheels of justice to conceal fear and superstition. But like masculinity in another context, justice and righteousness cloak the redefinition of cruelty so that it seems somehow necessary in the service of a higher good.

Nonsense!

One can always explain evil things that happen, but explanations cannot excuse them. For one human being to condemn another to death, or to torture another to death, is cruelty. Cruel is defined as willfully or knowingly causing pain or distress to another. Wikipedia’s article on psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder is long and complex, but disturbing. For example, “Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright.”

I would love to talk this over with a mental health professional in terms of religious convictions. Is there a corporate psychopathology that is easily cloaked with religious rectitude?

Today is St. Stephen’s Day on the Christian calendar. St. Stephen of the Acts of the Apostles (6:8–7:60), the first martyr in fact for the name of Jesus. Stephen was cruelly stoned to death by an angry mob that took offense at his religious views.

It is probably not wise to make any comparisons of that act with the actions of Muslims who defend their faith by taking umbrage whenever the Prophet is demeaned in a cartoon, etc. Christians have perpetrated perhaps as much or more cruelty than others to defend what they suppose is “the Christian faith.” Think the Crusades, the Inquisition. Think of burning gay people alive at the stake. Think of a flawed moral theology, pushed onto the faithful, which expects them to tolerate and accept unbearable burdens.

For example, “God never expects us to bear burdens which we cannot bear,” according to an old saying. You can find various wordings of this cliche on Answer Bag. Such a cliche is just as much heresy as anything else ever said. It is not God who lays unbearable burdens on us, but other Christians who load those burdens, completely lacking a “sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright.” There you have theological psychopathology.

One thinks of that outrageous preacher from Topeka who preaches hatred at the front door of funerals. He thinks he is morally and theologically “right” as if that justifies cruelty and the complete absence of compassion. No wonder that “followers” of Jesus give him a bad name!

But Mr. Phelps is only the most publicly odious of the under-scum of our society which tolerates and excuses cruelty. It is time that decent people stop condoning hatred and cruelty no matter how it is labeled.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

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The mile high club reaches new altitude.

December 20, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

You gotta love it. You know that same-sex marriage is being normalized (no matter what the Family Research Center says) when it gets commercialized. SAS offered the world’s first in-flight gay marriage ceremonies earlier this month as part of its “Love is in the Air” advertising campaign.

Here’s the international twist: On SAS flight SK903 from Stockholm to New York, a lesbian couple and a gay couple exchanged vows (legal in Sweden and wherever Swedish marriages are legally recognized): a German gay couple and a Polish lesbian couple. Germany and Poland do not allow same-sex marriage, but there isn’t a heckuva lot they could do to stop these, short of an anti-gay hijacking of the flight.

The story and the photos are all gushy and cute on 365Gay.com.

And since the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden said OK to gay marriage more than a year ago, the flight must have truly been blessed.

— Pastor Dan Hooper

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We asked, and we got what we asked for.

December 18, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

This was never my fight, but it is emblematic of the struggle for all to be treated equally. According to the Human Rights Campaign this morning, the repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law has passed the U.S. Senate. It had passed the House already.

Breaking news: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal has just cleared its last congressional hurdle.

This discriminatory law will be relegated to the dustbin of history. This stain on our nation will be lifted forever. . . .

Today, America lived up to its highest ideals of freedom and equality. Today, our federal government recognized that ALL men and women have the right to openly serve the country they believe in. That it doesn’t matter who you are, or who you love – you are not a second-class citizen.

Think of the kids out there tonight, watching this on the news – kids who are bullied for being different, who live in fear daily that their parents will hate them if they find out the truth… Think of the relief, the empowerment, the sense of possibility they’ll feel, knowing that the U.S. military has said: if you’re lesbian or gay, you are worthy. We want you to join us, side by side, as equals.

Well HRC is a bit triumphalistic here. and it of course ties the “breaking news” to the same fund-raising appeal you find in every e-mail. But the true still sinks in. After the procedural, majority-only vote later this weekend, President Obama will sign the repeal bill into law.

This is sadly overdue for a nation which believes in due process and equal protection. Yes, there are shrill voices in the Marines, etc., that don’t want “open” homosexuals in their ranks. According to a chum who used to be a military chaplain, it is not true a quarter of the U.S. Marines are really gay. It’s much closer to half, he told me. Is our nation any safer, or is morale any higher, when people are secretive? We have been over this ground many times, of the dangers and inherent climate of catastrophe that develops when people are deeply closeted and then don’t develop the self-respect or good judgment to avoid “slipping.” Men and women who are out to themselves and others, and have learned to feel self-esteem, are better judges of how to behave that the closeted and fearful who have never developed the friendships or done the emotional and mental homework of working through their sexuality.

I don’t know where to track this quote originally, but a couple of months ago it was none other than Lady Gaga who commented that cohesion and morale in the military would improve not by kicking out the gay and lesbian people but by kicking out the homophobes! She’s pretty much on target there.

If you are a letter-writer or e-mail writer, send your representatives in congress a big thank-you for their courageous votes (if they voted courageously). If your senator or congressman voted against repeal, please act accordingly.

— Dan Hooper

Posted in Bullying, Homophobia, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

Jesus is coming. Look busy.

December 13, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Notwithstanding that Christmas is a mere 11 days away, here comes the next cosmic prediction about Jesus’ next coming.

I’m so glad to have it finally settled. We have 171 days left – a little left than half a year to get ready. And all those crazy jokes about Jesus coming back again – to Rome or to Salt Lake. It looks like they are waiting for him first in Nashville, TN. Who knew?

The local paper is keeping its cool about it. You can read their even-handed reporting at: www.tennessean.com/article/20101201/NEWS06/12010350/Nashville-billboards-claim-Jesus-will-return-May-21-2011.

No matter how well intentioned, of course, this is not the first nor the last time someone predicted the arrival of Jesus. But billboards brings it to a whole new low.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in wingnuts, Go figure!, Doctrine, Fundamentalism, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

We have met the enemy.

November 20, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

After watching the emotionally-wrenching “It Gets Better” video from Oral Roberts’ grandson, Randy Roberts Potts, no one could deny that LGBT people have their most formidable “enemy” in the right-wing Christian church. In the video, Randy reads a letter he has written to his gay Uncle Ronnie, who took his own life on June 10, 1982.

(Full disclosure: I am not a member of a right-wing Christian church, but of a church which has struggled with all the issues in the contemporary sexuality wars and come out to a place which welcomes and affirms LGBT people.)

As if anybody would have doubted this, there is a smoking gun that now tries to connect the alarming rate of gay/teen suicides and the homophobia of right-wing Christian churches. The Public Religion Research Institute (based in Washington D.C.) has recently published this: “Two-thirds see connections between messages coming from America’s places of worship and higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth.”

Over a thousand people were asked their opinions about church and homosexuality, but only five questions were asked. The Institute summarized their findings:

“A plurality (43%) of Americans say the messages coming from places of worship are negative, and 4-in-10 Americans believe that these messages contribute “a lot” to negative perceptions of gay and lesbian people. One-third (33%) of the public also believe that messages from religious bodies are contributing “a lot” to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth, and another third (32%) say these message contribute “a little;” only 21% say they do not contribute at all.”The PRRI partnered with Religious News Service to survey American attitudes. As with any other issue, there is a spectrum of opinion. In the survey results, however, the questions asked allowed for a lot of ambiguity in assessing the answers given. For example although 43% believe that negative messages are coming out of “places of worship”— churches— this may include people who firmly believe that negative messages should be coming, in other words, that words of judgment ought to be preached from Christian pulpits.The third question was: “If you had to grade your own place of worship on how it is handling the issue of homosexuality? Would you give it an ‘A’, a ‘B’ a ‘C’, a ‘D’ or an ‘F’?” As worded, of course, this doesn’t tell you if respondents’ churches were preaching judgment or understanding. Twenty-eight percent, the largest group, gave their own churches an “A” in its “handling of homosexuality.” But this may include right-wing fundamentalists who like judgmental preaching about homosexuality and therefore give their church and its preacher high marks for scolding or damning homosexuals.Similarly, 24% percent gave their own church an “F” for its handling of homosexuality. But which “side” are these respondents on? A full 44% of the respondents believe that same-gender sexual relations are sinful.The questions could have been asked to filter the grading of America’s churches more intelligently. But at least there is no doubt from this study that many churches are broadcasting negative messages.It takes only a small link in one’s brain—like a simple circuit being switched on—to realize that if America’s churches are publicly proclaiming negative messages about homosexuality, there are young people in the pews hearing and heeding those messages.If you are a straight young kid, and you hear negativity being preached, you may (a) think it doesn’t apply to you, (b) like what you hear because you already dislike homosexuals, (c) be inspired to express hatred or homophobic violence because you see and hear Christian role models doing the same.

But if you are a young person trying to discern and understand your own sexuality, and coming to the realization that you are indeed homosexual, the choices are entirely different. You may: (a) try to convince yourself you are not really gay; (b) begin to think that God and the church don’t want you around and look for the nearest exit; (c) feel deeply shamed and conflicted; (d) hate yourself enough to think of a “final solution”—taking your own life. Don’t!!!

Clearly, there is no one Christian message about human sexuality these days. The worst thing churches do is to speak forcefully and authoritatively when they haven’t done their homework and haven’t listened to the personal stories and testimony of the people they’re talking about. The personal coming out stories of individuals to their families, friends and fellow-church members is the single most powerful tool for changing public attitudes.

When Rev. Jim Swilley of Church in the Now in Conyers, Georgia came out to his congregation as a gay man last month—at enormous risk to himself and his mega-church to be sure—he nonetheless contributed to changing social attitudes. Some people in the “bishop’s” church got up and walked out, apparently during his sensitive, honest coming out speech (over an hour long). Others, including many from all of the country, applauded his courage and honesty.

But the bottom line is that integrity and honesty demand us to take the risks we take in telling our stories. Those who can handle the truth remain our friends and maintain our family ties. But parents, siblings and friends who can’t handle it are choosing to destroy important relationships that don’t conform to their expectations.

For me, the bottom line is not a scorecard on how American houses of worship are handling homosexuality, but how they handle the truth.

(a) We’re here, we’re queer. Get used to it.

(b) God loves the whole world. No exceptions.

(c) The Bible is a book of God’s gracious promises, not a weapon.

(d) Human beings don’t “choose” our sexual orientation, but discover it.

(e) In spite of everything, many LGBT love God and remain faithful to the Christian faith.

(f) All of the above.

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Homophobia, "The Closet", Bullying, LGBT Christian, Faith, ELCA, Coming Out, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »