Via Being Liberal / FB:

Via Gay Politics Report:

How religion helped win marriage equality

Marriage equality advocates engaged people of faith and religious leaders in successful campaigns to win ballot initiatives this year, a turnaround from four years ago when social conservatives dominated religious discussions over California's Proposition 8. A Washington state coalition distributed thousands of buttons bearing the message, "Another Person of Faith Approves R. 74," sparking conversations in which proponents were trained to speak about the issue in terms of love and commitment rather than "gay rights." Ross Murray, director of religion, faith and values at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, helped train thousands of "conversationalists" to speak about the issue and their own faith, and to listen intently to those who described their difficulties supporting marriage equality. “All of us like to be listened to," Murray said. CNN/Belief blog

JMG Editorial Of The Day:

From Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSblog:

At their Conference today, the Justices will consider petitions raising federal constitutional issues related to same-sex marriage. These are the most significant cases these nine Justices have ever considered, and probably that they will ever decide.
I have never before seen cases that I believed would be discussed two hundred years from now. Bush v. Gore and Obamacare were relative pipsqueaks. The government’s assertion of the power to prohibit a loving couple to marry, or to refuse to recognize such a marriage, is profound. So is the opposite claim that five Justices can read the federal Constitution to strip the people of the power to enact the laws governing such a foundational social institution.
The cases present a profound test of the Justices’ judgment. The plaintiffs’ claims are rooted in the fact that these laws rest on an irrational and invidious hatred, enshrined in law. On the other hand, that describes some moral judgments. The Constitution does not forbid every inequality, and the people must correct some injustices (even some grave ones) themselves, legislatively.
The striking feature of these cases – not present in any others I have ever seen – is that that they would have been decided by the Justices’ predecessors one way and would be decided by the Justices’ successors another way.

Read the full essay.

Labels: LGBT History, LGBT rights, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The one who wanders independent in the world, free from opinions and viewpoints, does not grasp them and enter into disputations and arguments. As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and the water, so the wise one speaks of peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world. - Sutta Nipata More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma November 30, 2012

Great Compassion

The virtues of great compassion are infinite; they could be expounded upon forever without exhausting them, but it boils down to this: Whoever has great compassion can extinguish all obstructions caused by past actions and can fulfill all virtues; no principle cannot be understood, no path cannot be practiced, no knowledge not attained, no virtue not developed.

- Zen Master Torei, "Great Compassion"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through December 2nd, 2012
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