Via AmericablogGay: WWJD regarding same-sex weddings?

If you are a gay progressive Christian like me, you've probably already contemplated this question. Thought it might be good discussion for a Sunday morning. 

Even if you aren't and have been victimized by those who claim to speak for Jesus and wanted ammunition then this post should help. "What would Jesus do (WWJD)" regarding the question of gay marriages or if he was invited to attend one? A straight Christian attempts to answer this question, some consider thorny, and comes to the very same conclusion I already have, but he does an even better job of his justification than I could:

Wondering what Jesus would do if he were invited to a gay wedding naturally enough led me to the New Testament. And therein I found these quotes:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23:23-24); and 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13); and,

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:15). And last but hardly least:

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” [said Jesus]. “There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)

When I next went looking for anywhere in the Bible where Jesus says anything at all about homosexuality, I learned that Jesus spent about as much time talking about gays and/or lesbians as I do talking about button collecting and/or sea horses: none. Of course, it’s entirely possible that Jesus did say many crucially informative things about homosexuality, but that when he did no one around him happened to have handy an ostrich feather, sappy stick, or whatever it was they used for pens back then. Which would make sense, actually. If you’ve spent any time at all reading the New Testament, you know that Jesus’ disciples weren’t exactly Johnnies-on-the-spot. They were just normal, everyday guys.

Go there and read the rest of it. It is really good, and this straight but not narrow guy most definitely has the heart of Jesus Christ.

Via HimalayaCrafts

The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze. Buddha

Wall Photos

Via NPR: For Gay Christian Musicians, Work Balances Faith, Art, Love

Music News

For Gay Christian Musicians, Work Balances Faith, Art, Love

Wanda Sykes on Ellen (full interview)

Julian Bond speaks at NAACP on Homophobia

Wanda Sykes Speaks OUT at NAACP 102nd Annual Convention

Via JMG: Rick Santorum on Tim Gill, gay marriage, incest, etc.

Via JMG: Brown: SPLC Is The Real Hate Group

"Is the SPLC, by its own criteria, the real hate group? It still carries weight in plenty of circles here in America, and so when it categorizes an organization as a hate group, many people of good conscience are influenced by that designation, one which is quite stigmatizing and destructive, as evidenced by the recent events involving FOTF and AFA mentioned above. Yet it is the leaders of the SPLC who are either irresponsibly attacking other fine organizations, or worse still, knowingly defaming them. Who then deserves the title of 'hate group,' Focus on the Family or the Southern Poverty Law Center? Who has been guilty of demonizing others and spreading hurtful, inaccurate information? Whose actions and words have been hateful? The record speaks for itself." - Anti-gay Christianist author Michael Brown, writing for Human Events.

Labels: bigotry, Christianists, hate groups, Michael Brown, religion

reposted from Joe

Via AmericablogGay: Did Obama just come out for same-sex marriage on Facebook?

Check out the ad the Obama campaign is running on Facebook. If you didn't know any better, you might think the President is for marriage equality (he's not).

What's actually going on is that the Obama campaign, and White House, have been trying to pull the wool over the community's eyes with a little bit of rhetorical trickery. The president is for equal rights for all couples, gay and straight, they keep telling us. And the proof they use is that he's for repealing DOMA (and that Facebook ad lands on a page about DOMA). What they don't say is that the only way to get those equal rights is for us to get married, and the President isn't for that (he was for it, then decided to run for federal office and suddenly his position changed).

So the President says he supports equal rights for all married couples, and refers to gay couples as married in the ad, even though he opposes our marriages, which will stop us from getting the very equal rights he claims to support.

Someone in the White House and the Obama campaign thought they were mighty smart using this "I'm for equal rights" language in order to trick you into thinking he is.  He's not.

Though this ad does beg one further question: Does President Obama consider gay couples married in Massachusetts or Iowa or Washington, DC "married"?  Are they "married," Mr. President? 

make the jump here to read the full article

Quote of the day: Discussion > Is my friend untrustworthy?

"Thank you for posting this, Peyam ! Fundamentalist Christians can prove any point of view they want to, no matter how glaringly at variance with spiritual principles, through their narrow (literal) reading of the Bible. The same is being done by the majority of Baha'is, who condemn as "spiritually sick" and "immoral" a significant portion of the diverse human family based on guidance given in a time and social condition where for the Guardian or his secretaries to have said otherwise would have been unacceptably inflammatory and well outside mainstream thought in psychological and even scientific circles. My work is in the gay community, and I am a proud member of that community. I know in my heart that as long as the Baha'i community continues to exclude, marginalize and actively discriminate against ("oppress" might be a better word) the vibrant and spiritually alive gay community, they are dashing into a thousand pieces the spiritual principles which are the pillars of the Kingdom of God. By their own hands, they rip apart the fabric of World Order."

DW on GayBahai.net  

Ralph Goneau, 79, & Richard Wilhelm, 87, Waited 41 Years To Say "I Do"

Via JMG: On The 4 Year Old Killed For "Acting Gay"

Joe says, "More details have emerged about the horrific killings that I reported on several weeks ago."

Labels: cults, murder, North Carolina, religion

reposted from Joe

 

Via JMG: Gay Weddings In Central Park!

On a gorgeous cloudless day, today dozens of gay couples married in the shade of two "pop-up chapels" in Central Park, with our own Father Tony officiating at two of the ceremonies. Above are newlyweds Jen and Rose, moments after Father Tony made it legal. Below, John and Rob exchange rings. Also on hand were hair and make-up artists who donated their time and materials. The day was emceed by openly gay television personality Dave Holmes. (Lots and lots of photos from today are here.)
RELATED: As informal a day as this was, I was especially struck by how respectful passersby became once they groked what was going down. Throngs of tourists lined the barricades at all times, quieting down when the chapels were active, then erupting in cheers when they could see that each ceremony was complete. It was a beautiful thing to witness.

Labels: celebration, Central Park, Dave Holmes, Father Tony, gay weddings, LGBT History, NYC

reposted from Joe

Via Esteja Aqui e Agora... O Paraíso está Aqui e Agora

...só depende da mente que observa!

Gasshô _/|\_

Enough!

STEVE HAYES: Tired Old Queen at the Movies - #80

Via AmericaBlogGay: Pelosi: Bachmann needs to break silence on youth suicides in her MN district

Andrew Harmon spoke to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi -- and Pelosi had some words for Michele Bachmann about bullying and youth suicide:

Over the past two years, nine teens have committed suicide in Minnesota’s largest school district, resulting in federal investigations, lawsuits from advocacy groups, and the morbid designation of a “suicide contagion area” by state public health officials. At least four suicide victims, as Mother Jones noted in a feature published Monday, had been reported victims of bullying because they were LGBT or perceived to be LGBT. 

But Bachmann has yet to speak out on the suicides within the state's 6th congressional district and appears to have chided anti-bullying legislative efforts in the past. 

Pelosi told The Advocate of Bachmann’s silence on the issue, “I would think that if she wanted to be the President of the United States, she would understand that this is a larger issue than whether someone is gay or not, but as to whether someone is harassed and bullied to the point of seeing no way out.”

“Obviously it’s an issue bigger than Michele Bachmann’s district, so maybe we should all be speaking out about it, and not just leaving it to her,” Pelosi added.

But, it's a very big issue in Michele Bachmann's district. Scarily big.

Via AmericablogGay: Pelosi to Bachmann: Address the teen suicides in your district

The Advocate:

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann’s failure to address a disturbing trend of teen suicides within her own congressional district does not reflect well on her White House ambitions, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told The Advocate Thursday.

Over the past two years, nine teens have committed suicide in Minnesota’s largest school district, resulting in federal investigations, lawsuits from advocacy groups, and the morbid designation of a “suicide contagion area” by state public health officials. At least four suicide victims, as Mother Jones noted in a feature published Monday, had been reported victims of bullying because they were LGBT or perceived to be LGBT.

But Bachmann has yet to speak out on the suicides within the state's 6th congressional district and appears to have chided anti-bullying legislative efforts in the past.

Pelosi told The Advocate of Bachmann’s silence on the issue, “I would think that if she wanted to be the President of the United States, she would understand that this is a larger issue than whether someone is gay or not, but as to whether someone is harassed and bullied to the point of seeing no way out.”

“Obviously it’s an issue bigger than Michele Bachmann’s district, so maybe we should all be speaking out about it, and not just leaving it to her,” Pelosi added.

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