Via JMG: Bad News For Southern Baptists

Right Wing Watch reports that a survey just done by the polling arm of the Southern Baptists Convention shows broad support for LGBT rights across multiple issues. LifeWay Research, however, is focusing on the minority of respondents who believe that businesses should be able to turn away gay people.

“Clearly, Americans believe the prerogative exists for individuals such as clergy or photographers to deny services for same-sex marriage,” said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. “However, the level of agreement changes with scenarios that could be interpreted as more basic rights such as housing and employment.”  Consistent in all scenarios of the survey, men are more likely than women to agree these individuals should have the right to refuse services, rental agreements or employment -- as are Americans calling themselves “born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christian.”

Hit the second link for the full survey results.

Labels: LGBT rights, religion, Southern Baptists Convention, surveys

posted by Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 10, 2013

The Simplicity of Renunciation

We don't have to let go, we simply have to not hold on.

- Joseph Goldstein, "Empty Phenomena Rolling On"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 11th, 2013
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 9, 2013

What Emotions Reveal

When we meditate with the idea of getting rid of our emotions, we are actually empowering the very forces that we seek to escape. On the other hand, when we can use the arising of emotion to examine our underlying sense of identification, we tap the transformative potential of sublimation.

- Mark Epstein, "Shattering the Ridgepole"

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Via JMG: How DOMA "Defends" Marriage

Visit the pro-gay March 4 Marriage page on Facebook.

Labels: DOMA, LGBT rights, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma;

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 6, 2013

How We Speak to Ourselves

The Buddha saw that we are always engaged in relationships, starting with that most significant relationship: the one with ourselves. On the cushion we notice how we speak to ourselves—sometimes with compassion, sometimes with judgment or impatience. Our words are a powerful medium with which we can bring happiness or cause suffering.

- Allan Lokos, "Skillful Speech"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 7th, 2013
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Via Beliefnet - Buddhist Wisdom:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The good shine from afar Like the snowy Himalayas. The bad don't appear Even when near, Like arrows shot into the night. - Dhammapada 21, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via JMG: PFLAG China Calls For Marriage

The Chinese chapter of PFLAG has issued a public letter calling for marriage equality. The letter has been sent to members of the National People's Congress. China Daily reports:

"Some of our children have been living with their partners for nearly 10 years. They love each other. But they cannot sign their names legally when their partners need an operation," said the letter, which was written by PFLAG China (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of China) and represented more than 100 gay parents. The organization said it will communicate with deputies from South China's Guangdong province who are able to promote the legalization of gay marriage during the NPC this year.  The letter underlines the problems that gay couples in China face, such as adoption, inheritance and purchasing properties. It calls for early amendment of the Marriage Law to include the right of marriage for gays.

PFLAG China was founded in 2008.

Labels: China, marriage equality, PFLAG

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 5, 2013

Wisdom's Questions

When it’s time to suffer, you should suffer; when it’s time to cry, you should cry. Cry completely. Cry until there are no more tears and then recognize in your exhaustion that you’re alive. The sun still rises and sets. The seasons come and go. Absolutely nothing remains the same and that includes suffering. When the suffering ends wisdom begins to raise the right questions.

- Seido Ray Ronci, "The Examined Life"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 6th, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	When you are completely clear, there is no subjective distortion; when you are completely pure, there is true perception. But even if you are thus through and through, this is still now the transcendental key. When the wind and waves have died out, the ocean of mind is as is; when you get to the bottom of the ocean of mind, for the first time you see the black pearl. - Tzu-te More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Cut down The forest of desire, Not the forest of trees. From the forest of desire Come danger & fear. Having cut down this forest & its underbrush, monks, be deforested. - Dhammapada, 20, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Gay Poltics Report:

• Nobel Peace Prize winner condemns LGBT elected officials
   
• Former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa last week lashed out at openly LGBT elected officials, saying they deserve to be separated from the rest of the national parliament "behind a wall." "They have to know that they are a minority and must adjust to smaller things," Walesa said during a television interview. Parliamentary leaders responded by temporarily moving two openly gay and transgender members to the front row, a position of honor. The Victory Fund’s Chuck Wolfe called the comments, "as sad as they are outrageous," given Walesa’s history as a champion for democracy. The Huffington Post/The Associated Press (3/3), ABC News/The Associated Press (3/4), GayPolitics.com (3/4)     

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 1, 2013

Basic Goodness

When we use this term 'basic goodness' it indicates some fundamental possibility. Life is possible. Situations are possible. And anybody can start to gain some kind of insight and appreciation of their lives. That’s what we call 'sacred.' It doesn’t mean something dramatic, but something very simple. There’s a sacredness to everyone’s life.

- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, "A New Place, A New Time"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 2nd, 2013
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Via JMG: New California Marriage Poll

 

Click over to Zack Ford at Think Progress for the rest of the results.

Labels: California, marriage equality, polls, Proposition 8

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Obama To File Prop 8 Brief

Labels: DOJ, Obama administration, Prop 8, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	What monks, is the world? The eye and shapes, the ear and sounds, the nose and smells, the tongue and tastes, the body and tactile objects, the mind and mental objects--these form the world as we know it. When an eye and a shape are there, then the consciousness of seeing arises. From this consciousness comes sensation; that which is sensed is thought over; that which is thought over is projected outward as the external world. So I declare that in this six-foot-long body with its perceptions and thinking lies the world, the beginning of the world, the ending of the world, and the way to the ending of the world. - Majjhima Nikaya More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 28, 2013

Our Shelter Within

When we can be secure in our inner source for true happiness, we don’t expose ourselves to the devastation that comes when outside hopes for happiness and security are dashed. We have our shelter, our place of security, inside. And we needn’t be afraid that this is an escapist shelter. When the basis of our well-being is firm within, we can act with true courage and compassion for others, for we’re coming from a solid position of calmness and strength.

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “What We’ve Been Practicing For”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 29th, 2013
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Via JMG: 300 Corporations & Cities File DOMA Brief

 

A coalition of almost 300 corporations, cities, and other organizations, some of whom also appear on yesterday's Prop 8 brief, have filed a Supreme Court brief in support of the overturn of DOMA.  The ACLU reports via press release:

Signers include Amazon.com, Apple, Bank of New York, CBS, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Facebook, Google, JetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss & Co, Liberty Mutual, Marriott International, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, NIKE, Pfizer, Starbucks, Twitter, Viacom, Walt Disney Company and Xerox and the cities of Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Santa Monica and Seattle, among others.
Other supporters, including religious leaders, retired military personnel, children’s rights groups and former cabinet secretaries are expected to file their briefs later this week. Some groups will be holding a press conference at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, DC on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. announcing their support for Windsor’s case, as well as the Supreme Court case seeking to repeal California’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples.

Scanning the full brief, I also see Adobe, Alaska Airlines, Diageo, Intuit, M&M Mars, Pfizer, and REI.  Sorry, haters. It's time to also boycott Flash, booze, spreadsheets, candy, boner pills, and camping tents! Enjoy your sober, flaccid, YouTube-free caves! And no Little Mermaid or Lion King for the kiddies, not that you'll be able to buy an anti-gay TV or cable provider.

Labels: business, DOMA, marriage equality, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	If you seek after truth, you should investigate things in such a way that your consciousness as you investigate is not distracted by what you find, or diffused and scattered; neither is it fixed and set. For the one who is not swayed, there will be a transcending of birth, death, and time. Whether you walk or stand or lie down, Stretch your limbs or draw them in again, Let you do all these things attentively, Above, across, and back again. Whatever your place in the world, Let you be the one who views the movement Of all compounded things with attention. - Itivuttaka Sutta More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 27, 2013

Touching Liberation

Insight can’t be found in sutras, commentaries, verbal expression, or —isms. Liberation and awakened understanding can’t be found by devoting ourselves to the study of the Buddhist scriptures. This is like trying to find fresh water in dry bones. Returning to the present moment, using our clear mind which exists right here and now, we can be in touch with liberation and enlightenment, as well as with the Buddha and the patriarchs as living realities right in this moment.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, “Simply Stop”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 28th, 2013
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