Via JMG: United Methodist Bishop: No More Trials For Pro-Gay Marriage Pastors

Via press release:

At a joint press conference today, United Methodist Bishop Martin McLee and Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree announced that the church was dropping the case against Dr. Ogletree for officiating at his son’s wedding. In a huge victory for the Methodist movement that is organizing ministry to all couples on an equal basis in open defiance of church law, the bishop dropped the case without any conditions. Furthermore, Bishop McLee said in his statement “I call for and commit to cessation of trials,” the first time ever a sitting United Methodist bishop has categorically declared he will not prosecute pastors for ministering to LGBTQ people. “I am grateful that Bishop McLee has withdrawn this case and the church is no longer prosecuting me for an act of pastoral faithfulness and fatherly love,” said Dr. Ogletree. “But I am even more grateful that he is vowing not to prosecute others who have been likewise faithful in ministry to LGBTQ people. May our bishop’s commitment to cease such prosecutions be the beginning of the end of the United Methodist Church’s misguided era of discriminating against LGBTQ people.” 

There's gonna be a big ole pile of sadz about this.

Labels: marriage equality, religion, United Methodist Church

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Forbes: 7 Billionaires Are Openly LGBT

Forbes reports that seven of the world's billionaires are openly LGBT.

With a combined net worth of nearly $16 billion, the select group of LGBT ten-figure fortunes includes media mogul David Geffen, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Hyatt hotel beneficiary Jennifer Pritzker, one of the Pritzker family’s 11 billionaires. In August 2013, Jennifer became the first and only transgender billionaire in the world when she announced she would be identifying herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings. A retired army lieutenant colonel, she is CEO of private wealth management firm Tawani Enterprises in Chicago and has a personal net worth of $1.8 billion. “This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly,” a statement in Crain’s Chicago Business explained. Among the openly-gay hyper-wealthy are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the duo behind fashion power house Dolce & Gabbana. The retail-rich pair are joined by Michael Kors, who became a billionaire this year. Some of these businessmen and women have used their fortunes to advocate for gay rights. Jon Stryker, heir to the Stryker Corp. medical equipment family fortune, is one of the world’s most prolific donors to LGBT charities.

The seven listed above represent 0.4% of Forbes' list of 1645 billionaires worldwide.

Labels: David Geffen, Dolce and Gabbana, Forbes, Jennifer Pritzker, Jon Stryker, Michael Kors, Peter Thiel

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Via JMG: Bill Donohue Is Very Upset About Cosmos

Last night Fox debuted its 13-episode series, Cosmos; A Spacetime Odyssey, which is hosted by noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and is produced by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane.  Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue is very upset about the first episode, which shamefully depicted the Spanish Inquisition as a bad thing. 

The propagandists involved in this show, represented most conspicuously by Seth MacFarlane, told viewers last night that “the Roman Catholic Church maintained a system of courts known as the Inquisition and its sole purpose was to investigate and torment anyone who dared voice views that differed from theirs. And it wasn’t long before [Giordano] Bruno fell into the clutches of the thought police.” The ignorance is appalling. “The Catholic Church as an institution had almost nothing to do with [the Inquisition],” writes Dayton historian Thomas Madden. “One of the most enduring myths of the Inquisition,” he says, “is that it was a tool of oppression imposed on unwilling Europeans by a power-hungry Church. Nothing could be more wrong.” Because the Inquisition brought order and justice where there was none, it actually “saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.” (His emphasis.)

All that torture and disemboweling? Good thing! Cardinal Fang, fetch the comfy chair for Bill.

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Labels: Bill Donohue, Catholic Church, Catholic League, Cosmos, crackpots, Fox TV, Neil deGrasse Tyson, religion, Seth McFarlane

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Judy Garland - I Don't Care

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Viaq Daily Dharma

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Intimate Joy | March 11, 2014

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When we are willing to be intimate with what actually is here now, to look directly at all of our experience, we might recognize that this is our life, however different from our thoughts and ideas about it.

 

—Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, “Simple Joy”

 

 

Via HimalayaCrafts / FB:

No one saves us but ourselves. - Buddha

 

Via Daily Dharma

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Two Kinds of Suffering | March 10, 2014

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The Buddha taught that there are two kinds of suffering: that which comes from the outside world, and that which comes from within you. With the latter, only you can do anything about it. Where does that suffering come from? Emptiness. Examining the thoughts and feelings that arise from emptiness is one tenet of Buddhism. Why do we suffer? What is at the root? Where did it begin? When we see the answers to those questions, our suffering, which has arisen from emptiness, returns to emptiness.

 

—Ittetsu Nemoto, “The Counselor”

 

Via Milkshakes Against the Republican Party / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 9, 2014

The World Will Break Your Heart

Grief might be, in some ways, the long aftermath of love, the internal work of knowing, holding, more fully valuing what we have lost.

- Mark Doty, "Don't They Know?"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 10, 2014
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

Via Michael Smith / FB:

THE BEST GAY POSSIBLE - OPPRESSIVE DANCE MIX

Via Freedom to Marry / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 8, 2014

A Matter of Misdirection

Buddhist practice pulls both ways. From one perspective, it is a discreet activity, something we do. From another perspective, one which tends to emerge more clearly with time, it seems less something we do and more something we are; less a piece of life and more all of life. The good news may be precisely that our lives will never 'work out,' no matter how well we arrange the pieces or play the game, whether of career, relationships, or indeed practice. Buddhist practice is especially recalcitrant; it just won’t 'do' what we want, at least not for long, because what we want is the problem.

- Henry Shukman, "A Matter of Misdirection"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 9, 2014
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

Via Hmalyacrafts / FB:

True happiness is based on peace. ― Thích Nhất Hạnh 

 

Via Pema Chodron / FB:

Could our minds and our hearts be big enough just to hang out in that space where we’re not entirely certain about who’s right and who’s wrong? Could we have no agenda when we walk into a room with another person, not know what to say, not make that person wrong or right? Could we see, hear, feel other people as they really are? It is powerful to practice this way, because we’ll find ourselves continually rushing around to try to feel secure again—to make ourselves or them either right or wrong. But true communication can happen only in that open space.

- Pema Chödrön

 

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 7, 2014

The Vulnerability of Truth

Truth has no action. Truth is weak. Truth is not utilitarian, truth cannot be organized. It is like the wind: You cannot catch it, you cannot take hold of it in your fist and say, ‘I have caught it.’ Therefore it is tremendously vulnerable, impotent like the blade of grass on the roadside—you can kill it, you can destroy it. But we want it as a thing to be used for a better structure of society. And I am afraid you cannot use it, you cannot—it is like love, love is never potent. It is there for you, take it or leave it.

- Krishnamurti, “A Question of Heart”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 8, 2014
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Via JMG: IRS Posts Help Video For Married Gays

Via press release from the White House:

The Internal Revenue Service released a new YouTube video designed to provide useful tax tips to married same-sex couples. The new video, less than two minutes long, is available in English, Spanish and American Sign Language and can be accessed via IRS.gov. It joins an array of online products, including answers to frequently-asked questions, designed to help same-sex couples file their federal income tax returns. Following last summer’s Supreme Court decision invalidating a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, the IRS ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, are now treated as married for federal tax purposes. The ruling applies to all federal tax provisions where marriage is a factor, including filing status, claiming personal and dependency exemptions, taking the standard deduction, employee benefits, contributing to an IRA and claiming the earned income tax credit or child tax credit.

 

Labels: IRS, marriage equality, taxes, White House

posted by Joe Jervis

Via Middling America: The Latest Marriage Map

Via JMG: Colbert: "Self-Professed" Gays Should Send Rep. Steve King Proof Of Gayness

 

Mediaite recaps last night's Stephen Colbert show:

This past weekend, King told local TV station WHO-TV that these “self-professed” gays could just as easily be straight people “setting up a case” against a business that tries to discriminate them. Colbert recounted that familiar scenario in which someone pretends to come out to their family, then pretends to fall in love, then pretends to get engaged, just so they can sue their potential florist at the last minute. “As Steve King knows, even if gays do exist, it’s nearly impossible to prove it,” Colbert said. That’s why he’s asking gays from around the country to “send photos and/or videos to Steve King, proving that you are gay.” He went ahead and provided to address on screen to make it that much easier for everyone. “Be sure to label your envelope campaign contributions, so you know that he’ll read it,” Colbert added.

Watch the video at the link.

Labels: Colbert Report, Comedy Central, crackpots, crazy people, GOP, religion, Steve King, Tea Party, teabaggers

Reposted from Joe Jervis