GIVE 'EM HOPE CAMPAIGN - MY NAME IS STEVE AND I'M AN EX MORMON

VIa JMG: Schlafly: Gay Rights Violate Free Speech

"The polls are very defective. If you look at the polls, most of them ask the question: Are you in favor of banning same-sex marriage? Now, we have no law that bans same-sex marriage. Any gay couple can get married— all they have to do is find a preacher or justice of the peace who will perform the ceremony. There's no law against that. What they are demanding is that we respect them as being OK, and that's an interference with our free speech rights. There's no obligation that we have to respect something we think is morally wrong." - Phyllis Schlafly, who goes on to praise her "honorable" gay son for working with her at the Eagle Forum.

Labels: batshittery, crackpots, Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 25, 2013

True Understanding

The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding.

- Bodhidharma, "Teachings from the Wake Up Sermon"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 26, 2013
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Via JMG: Mormon Church Issues Statement Backing New Inclusive Boy Scouts Policy

The Mormon Church has issued a qualified statement in support of the Boy Scouts' decision to allow openly gay members. According to the statement, the LDS has always welcomed abstinent gay boys into Mormon-sponsored troops.

For the past 100 years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has enjoyed a strong relationship with Boy Scouts of America, based on our mutual interest in helping boys and young men understand and live their duty to God and develop upright moral behavior. As the Church moves forward in its association with the Boy Scouts of America, Church leaders will continue to seek the most effective ways to address the diverse needs of young people in the United States and throughout the world.

Sexual orientation has not previously been – and is not now – a disqualifying factor for boys who want to join Latter-day Saint Scout troops. Willingness to abide by standards of behavior continues to be our compelling interest. These standards are outlined in the booklet For the Strength of Youth and include abstinence from sexual relationships. We remain firmly committed to upholding these standards and to protecting and strengthening boys and young men.

Labels: Boy Scouts, LDS, Mormons, religion

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Few cross over the river. Most are stranded on this side. On the riverbank they run up and down. But the wise person, following the way, Crosses over, beyond the reach of death. Free from desire, Free from possessions, Free from attachment and appetite, Following the seven lights of awakening, And rejoicing greatly in his freedom, In this world the wise person Becomes themselves a light, Pure, shining, free. - from the Dhammapada More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 24, 2013

Harnessing Difficult Situations

Your practice should be strengthened by the difficult situations you encounter, just as a bonfire in a strong wind is not blown out, but blazes even brighter.

- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "Teachings on the Nature of Mind and Practice"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 25, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	When other beings, especially those who hold a grudge against you, abuse and harm you out of envy, you should not abandon them, but hold them as objects of your greatest compassion and take care of them. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 23, 2013

Get the Beauty

You can spend a lot of energy being upset, or you can get with the program—it’s that right effort thing—get the beauty of the way it is.

- Jeff Bridges, "The Natural"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 24, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Friends, I know nothing which brings suffering as does an untamed, uncontrolled, unattended and unrestrained heart. Such a heart brings suffering. - Anguttara Nikaya More Buddhism Quotes >>

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 22, 2013

The Greatest Foolishness

There’s no greater foolishness than to spend one’s lifetime acknowledging that one is deluded and yet doing nothing whatsoever about it.

- Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, "Renunciation"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 23, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Body impermanent like spring mist; mind insubstantial like empty sky; thoughts unestablished like breezes in space. Think about these three points over and over. - Adept Godrakpa, "Hermit of Go Cliffs" More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 21, 2013

Holding Anger

It is not easy to refrain from repressing or indulging our anger. Our challenge is to embrace it with mindfulness and genuine caring.

- Shuzen Harris, "Holding Anger"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 22, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	One should not imagine oneself to be one with the eye or independent of it or the owner of it. The same with the ear and all the other senses, including the mind. Nor should one imagine oneself to be identical with the world or contained in it or independent of it or the owner of it. In this way, free from imagining, one no longer clings to the things of the world. When one no longer clings, there is no more agitation, insecurity, and worry. Being no longer worried, one can reach into the depths of oneself and understand that where there has been loss there is now fulfillment. - Samyutta Nikaya More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 20, 2013

Accepting Uncertainty

There is no need for science to be fundamentalist any more than there is a need for religions to be fundamentalist. Fundamentalism springs from a desire for certainty, but many religious people and many scientists know that this cannot be achieved by beings with limited minds and experience such as ourselves.

- Rupert Sheldrake, "A Question of Faith"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 21, 2013
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Via JMG: Worse Than Watergate: Growing Scandal Brings Nation To The Brink Of Ruin

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein points us to the ever-growing scandal that will echo through the ages:

When future generations look back on the scandals of our age, it’ll be the unchecked rise in global temperatures, not the Benghazi talking points, that infuriate them.

Yes, unchecked warming is likely to prove the greatest scandal in U.S. history.
Certainly it’s the one that will ruin the lives of the most people, far more than Watergate did if our government doesn’t act to expose what’s going on and work to put an end to it — before it puts an end to our stable climate:

Scandalous: Projected warming this century (in red, via recent literature) if humanity allows current carbon pollution trends to continue compared to the temperature change over past 11,300 years (in blue, via Science, 2013).

I know it’s not one of the scandals the major media are now obsessed with 24/7, but that is business as usual for the MSM, as Klein notes:

Things go wrong in government. Sometimes it’s just bad luck. Sometimes it’s rank incompetence. Sometimes it’s criminal wrongdoing. Most of the time you never hear about it. Or, if you do hear about it, the media eventually gets bored talking about it (see warming, global).

It was Watergate and the fame it brought Woodward and Bernstein that inspired so many journalists to enter the field. But now that post-modern cynicism reigns supreme –which is to say, much of the media acts as if their really is no objective truth or over-arching public interest — fame alone seems to drives the media.
And so this scandal goes largely unreported (see “Silence Of The Lambs 3: Media Coverage Of Climate Mixed In 2012, But Still Down Sharply From 2009“) or misreported (see “False Balance Lives“).
Fortunately for the media, having largely missed the chance to report the scandal when it might have had some positive impact on the outcome, they’ll have plenty of time to become famous reporting on its consequences (see Climate change “largely irreversible for 1000 years,” with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe).

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 18, 2013

A Glimpse at Liberation

Nirvana manifests as ease, as love, as connectedness, as generosity, as clarity, as unshakable freedom. This isn’t watering down nirvana. This is the reality of liberation that we can experience, sometimes in a moment and sometimes in transformative ways that change our entire life.

- Jack Kornfield, "The Wise Heart"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 19, 2013
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Via JMG: Portugal Approves Gay Adoption

 UPDATE: Not So Fast

 

UPDATE: The below-linked source has edited their opening sentence to read: "Portuguese parliament has approved Friday a bill that will allow same-sex married couples to adopt their partner’s biological or adopted children."
So it's not full adoption rights. Below is my original post.
Today the Portuguese Parliament narrowly approved adoption rights for same-sex couples. The vote was 99-94 with nine abstentions.

The bills were supported by the ruling center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the progressive Socialist Party (PS). The Portuguese parliament had approved the right to same-sex marriages in 2010, but without adoption rights. The law allowed gay couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples, including taxes, inheritance and housing, but didn’t offer the right to adopt children.  Portugal is among the first 10 counties in the world to allow same-sex marriage. As recently as 1982, homosexuality was a crime in Portugal. Today, Portugal has wide-ranging anti-discrimination laws and is one of the few countries in the world to contain a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation in its Constitution.

(Tipped by JMG reader Pedro)

Labels: gay adoption, LGBT rights, Portugal

Reposted from Joe

What religion has contributed to the world this month - Episode 6 (April/May 2013)

Via JMG: MEXICO: President Enrique Pena Neito Issues Message Against Homophobia

 

Yesterday Mexican President Enrique Pena Neito issued the above tweets in recognition of the International Day Against Homophobia. "This May 17, International Day of the Fight Against Homophobia, I endorse my committment to a #InclusiveMexico, free of discrimination. Making Mexico a society of rights implies equality in dignity and eliminating all types of discrimination."

Labels: Enrique Nieto, homophobia, Mexico

Reposted from Joe