Via Progressivechristianity.org: Eric Alexander Asks Four Key Questions to Defrocked Pastor Frank Schaefer about LGBTQ’s and the Church

 

I recently had an opportunity to catch up with Frank Schaefer, who is the prolific United Methodist pastor who was very publicly defrocked (fired and stripped of his credentials) for officiating the wedding ceremony of his gay son.   He has since been “refrocked” and is serving at a UMC in Isla Vista, CA – and he is continuing to speak about what he learned through his experience.  I asked Frank four key questions about what the future might have in store for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters in the Church, and his wisdom and vision were palpable.  We won’t go much into Frank’s back-story here, but you can learn more from his book Defrocked or by watching this video which nicely recaps his experience in three minutes or so. 

Make the jump here to read the full article

Via John Allen Hough / FB:

Via Daily Dharma

Why Become Enlightened? | February 25, 2015 Why become enlightened? This is a question I sometimes ask myself. The answer I give is twofold: to make the world a better place and to avoid the pain of clinging to an existence that is unhappy. My belief is that somewhere down the line these two reasons converge: that my own ability to reach peace with myself will benefit the whole world. - Kate Brandt, "When the World is Perfect" Read More →

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 24/02/2015

“O Eu divino que habita o seu coração se move em direção à união, à construção, ao altruísmo - em direção ao amor. Ele é uma manifestação do próprio amor que se move em direção à totalidade de si mesmo - é o rio se movendo em direção ao oceano.”

“El Yo divino que habita tu corazón se mueve en dirección a la unión, a la construcción, al altruismo – en dirección al amor. Él es una manifestación del propio amor que se mueve en dirección a la totalidad de sí mismo – es el río moviéndose en dirección al océano.”

"The divine self that inhabits your heart moves towards union, construction, and altruism; towards love. It’s a manifestation of love itself moving towards its own wholeness. It is the river flowing towards the ocean."

Via Daily Dharma

The Work That Reconnects | February 24, 2015 This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. - Joanna Macy and Sam Mowe, "The Work That Reconnects" Read More →

Alan Turing’s family fights to correct a historical injustice

Via Huffington: Hate the Gays? Imagine the World Without Us

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In our current political discourse, right-wing politicians continue to demonize the LGBT community in sad and desperate attempts to rally their base. While, happily, their efforts have not been as effective as in the past, any attempt to make gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people feel anything less than equal can lead to devastating consequences, as the ongoing string of youth suicides so painfully highlights.

Any preventable loss of dignity and human life must be stopped. The question is, "How?"

While prior efforts have focused on the issue of harassment, it is time for the LGBT community to take the dialogue one step further. When you are a teen, simply waiting for your next birthday can seem like an eternity. Telling our youth that life will indeed get better, some years into the future, is not enough. We must instead create a world in which there is no longer any shame in being gay. We must show that each and every one of us has something of value to contribute to this world, period. 

The first step is creating discussion with the haters around where their anti-gay beliefs come from, and challenging those beliefs with facts. But we then need to take that dialogue even further and examine more closely what they hope that such convictions will ultimately achieve.

Typically, those who hold negativity toward those who are LGBT can be placed into two main camps: those who believe that being gay is unnatural, going against nature, or those who believe it goes against religious teaching. 

With either group, the case can be made to counter such beliefs with facts. For example, those who believe that being gay is unnatural may be surprised to learn that homosexual activity has been observed in close to 1,500 species, and that such scientific certitudes should be spotlighted. For those who believe that homosexuality violates religious principles, pointing to texts such as the Bible as justification, and dialogue around translation issues, intent, and historical context, might be beneficial.

However, in both situations, while factual evidence might change some minds, most will still be unwilling to let go of long-held beliefs. My question to them then becomes, "What do you hope these beliefs will achieve?"

Make the jump here to read the full article

Via JMG: Feds Appoint First LGBT Rights Envoy

The State Department today appointed the first LGBT rights foreign envoy in US history.

Randy W Berry, who is gay, has been appointed to the senior role within the US State Department by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. He has previously served as Consul General in Amsterdam, and has also had postings for the State Department in Bangladesh, Egypt, Uganda, South Africa, and Washington DC. John Kerry said: “Randy’s a leader, he’s a motivator. But most importantly for this effort, he’s got vision. Wherever he’s served — from Nepal to New Zealand, from Uganda to Bangladesh, from Egypt to South Africa, and most recently as consul general in Amsterdam — Randy has excelled."

The HRC applauds:

“At a moment when many LGBT people around the world are facing persecution and daily violence, this unprecedented appointment shows a historic commitment to the principle that LGBT rights are human rights,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “President Obama and Secretary Kerry have shown tremendous leadership in championing the rights of LGBT people abroad. Now, working closely with this new envoy, we’ve got to work harder than ever to create new allies, push back on human rights violators, and support the brave leaders and organizations that fight for LGBT rights around the world."

IGLHRC does the same:

“The appointment of Randy Berry as a special diplomatic envoy brings to a pinnacle the historic trend, first put in motion by the 2011 Presidential Memorandum, of integrating the rights of LGBT people into U.S. foreign policy. Having long advocated for this step forward, we at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission celebrate its arrival and congratulate Mr. Berry on his new role. The U.S. envoy can contribute to a new era in which the conscience of governments everywhere can be focused on the destabilizing impact of prejudice and abuse that inflicts suffering on millions worldwide. Human rights should be a priority for every government in both domestic and foreign policy.

Hate groups have already denounced the creation of the position as yet another example of the Obama administration imposing its homofascist agenda on foreign countries.

Labels: diplomacy, Obama administration, State Department

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via THE BEER PARTY / FB:

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Elected Judges (HBO)

JMG Quote Of The Day - Graham Moore

"I’m not gay, but I’ve never talked publicly about depression before or any of that and that was so much of what the movie was about and it was one of the things that drew me to Alan Turing so much. I think we all feel like weirdos for different reasons. Alan had his share of them and I had my own and that’s what always moved me so much about his story.” - Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore, speaking to Buzzfeed. Moore's "it gets better" acceptance speech led many (including numerous media outlets) to wrongly assume that he is gay. At this writing #StayWeird remains a top-trending hashtag on Twitter.

Labels: Alan Turing, Graham Moore, movies, Oscars

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Common, John Legend - Glory

Via Tricycle: Nothing Need Be Done

Nothing Need Be Done

A 1988 interview with Gary Snyder, from the newly published anthology Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places

 

A 1988 interview with Gary Snyder, from the newly published anthology Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places

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One morning in 1984, a letter posted on the other side of the world clacked through the flap of my door in Cape Town. It was from the poet, environmental activist, and longtime Buddhist Gary Snyder, a warm response to questions about his writing. I was a graduate student at the time and had been reading his work after a friend gave me a copy of his 1967 collection A Range of Poems. That first letter was the beginning of a long long-distance friendship and an ongoing conversation.

It started as an intellectual exchange and became an exploration of practice. As a young person living in a society demarcated by the paranoid logic of apartheid, I found it refreshing to meet the spaciousness of Gary’s way of seeing. His delight in wildness. Poems that opened up the idea of social justice to include nonhuman beings and the living world. The truly radical realization that things are not things but process, nodes in the jeweled net. And in all this a tendency simply to walk out of the narrow prison of dualistic thought.

Over the years, what has kept on bringing me back to Gary’s writing and to our conversation is his steady articulation of this vision in practice: Buddhist practice, the practice of writing, of being a householder, of living in places.

Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places puts together three interviews and a selection of letters from around 30 years. We recorded the first interview, an adaptation from which follows, in 1988 at Kitkitdizze, Gary’s home on the San Juan Ridge in the Sierra Nevada, where he is also a member of the Ring of Bone Zendo. It was a hot day in late August, and Carole Koda, his new partner, sat listening throughout.

Make the jump here to read the full article

 

Via Daily Dharma

From the Ground Up | February 23, 2015 It would be really easy to live in the city and teach at a Zen center and do nothing but Buddhist teaching. I wouldn’t want to do it that way. I’d rather go out and start working in the neighborhoods as much as I could, because I think you have to work the ground for a Buddhist society first. You can’t just leave your society the way it is and say 'We offer this as one of the teachings.' You’ve got to help the society get its feet on the ground before those teachings can begin to flourish. - Gary Snyder, "Nothing Need Be Done" Read More →

Via Progressive America / FB:

Via BNR LGBT / FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 22/02/2015

“O que tira a mente do momento presente é o desejar compulsivo. O desejo está intimamente relacionado com a sua história: com o seu passado e com as marcas do seu corpo emocional, que agem como buracos que você tenta preencher através de coisas. Você deseja uma coisa - consegue essa coisa – e se sente preenchido. Porém, esse preenchimento dura muito pouco, porque você tenta preencher um buraco interno com algo de fora. Isso não é possível. O máximo que você consegue é viver a ilusão, por um curto espaço de tempo, de que o seu buraco foi preenchido. Esse buraco só pode ser preenchido de dentro para fora, ou seja, somente quando você se harmoniza com o seu passado.”

“Lo que saca a la mente del momento presente es el desear compulsivo. El deseo está íntimamente relacionado con tu historia: con tu pasado y con las marcas de tu cuerpo emocional, que actúan como agujeros que intentas llenar a través de cosas. Deseas una cosa - consigues esta cosa - y te sientes satisfecho. Sin embargo, este relleno dura muy poco, porque intentas llenar un agujero interno con algo de afuera. Esto no es posible. Lo máximo que consigues es vivir la ilusión, por un corto espacio de tiempo, que tu agujero se llenó. Este agujero sólo puede ser rellenado desde adentro hacia afuera, es decir, sólo cuando te armonizas con tu pasado.”

"What takes the mind away from the present moment is compulsive desire. Desires are closely related to our history, our past, and the imprints on our emotional bodies, which are like holes that we try to fill up with things. We desire something, we get it, and we feel satisfied. However, this satisfaction doesn’t last very long, because we’re trying to fill an internal hole with something external. This is not possible. The most we can achieve is to live in this illusion for a short time, believing that the hole was filled. This hole can only be filled from the inside-out. In other words, it will only be filled when we can be in harmony with our past."

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 21/02/2015

“Shalom, shanti, piece, paz... Conscientes ou não, todos estamos em busca disso, mesmo quando acreditamos estar em busca de realizações materiais, afetivas, sexuais e espirituais. A paz é a mais elevada das virtudes; é o fruto maduro da árvore da consciência. Mas, para realizar a paz se faz necessário chegar a um acordo com o desejo. O desejo é o gerador do apego e do tumulto interno.”

“Shalom, shanti, peace, paz... Conscientes o no, todos estamos en busca de eso, incluso cuando creemos estar en busca de realizaciones materiales, afectivas, sexuales y espirituales. La paz es la más elevada de las virtudes; es el fruto maduro del árbol de la conciencia. Pero para realizar la paz es necesario llegar a un acuerdo con el deseo. El deseo es el generador del apego y del tumulto interno.”

"Shalom, shanti, paz, peace... Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are all in search of peace – even when we believe we’re in search of material, romantic, sexual or spiritual experiences. Peace is the highest virtue: it is the ripe fruit of the tree of consciousness. In order to achieve peace, we must come to an agreement with desire. Desire generates attachments and inner turmoil."

Via Daily Dharma

The Force of Gratitude | February 22, 2015 Gratitude is a way of undercutting your ego—that is, it is a way of being Buddhist. There is an awareness that we get now and then about what we owe to others, and Shinran [the founder of Shin Buddhism] feels that that should become the moving force of one’s life. That awakening, that awareness, transforms your way of dealing with life, with people, and with all things. - Rev. Dr. Alfred Bloom, "Beyond Religion" Read More →