A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Via Qwerty: Church Sends Terrible Letter To Gay Congregant. He Responds Like A Pro.
The Presbyterian Church in America has a clear stance on homosexuality. Basically, it’s a sin. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
But even their tired beliefs don’t explain the way one church treated a member of its congregation after they discovered he is gay.
The churchgoer — Justin — was outed by a trusted church official, and discovered a lengthy and insulting letter sitting in his mailbox one day.
“Regretfully it has come to our attention that you have been engaging in a homosexual lifestyle,” it begins, only continuing downhill from there.
He’s told he must defend himself at a special hearing. Instead, he replied with the perfect rebuttal.
“What was my crime? I loved. I was loved. I am capable of love. It is abundantly and sadly clear that you do not understand this,” he writes in his response.
Here’s the letter he got from the church, followed by his response:
And here’s Justin’s response:
h/t Gay Star News
http://www.queerty.com/church-sends-terrible-letter-to-gay-congregant-he-responds-like-a-pro-20141028
But even their tired beliefs don’t explain the way one church treated a member of its congregation after they discovered he is gay.
The churchgoer — Justin — was outed by a trusted church official, and discovered a lengthy and insulting letter sitting in his mailbox one day.
“Regretfully it has come to our attention that you have been engaging in a homosexual lifestyle,” it begins, only continuing downhill from there.
He’s told he must defend himself at a special hearing. Instead, he replied with the perfect rebuttal.
“What was my crime? I loved. I was loved. I am capable of love. It is abundantly and sadly clear that you do not understand this,” he writes in his response.
Here’s the letter he got from the church, followed by his response:
And here’s Justin’s response:
h/t Gay Star News
http://www.queerty.com/church-sends-terrible-letter-to-gay-congregant-he-responds-like-a-pro-20141028
Via Canal Brasil / FB:
A partir do dia 13/11, às 23h30, o jornalista e professor Jean Wyllys reforça o time do Canal Brasil!
http://bit.ly/OutrasCores
No 'Cinema Em Outras Cores' ele propõe uma reflexão sobre a diversidade
sexual e a descriminalização das drogas através do cinema, apresentando
e discutindo polêmicos curta-metragens.
http://bit.ly/OutrasCores
Flower of the Day: 10/28/14
“Life
is cyclical. One moment you are on the crest of the wave, the next you
are in the trough. Then you are up on the crest again and soon after you
come back down. That’s how it is. There are warm sunny days and there
are cold rainy days; there are white clouds and dark clouds, but they
always pass by. If you observe the clouds without becoming identified
with them, you will find the way out of the labyrinth of suffering and
you won’t get caught in it anymore.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
A Guide to Sanity | October 28, 2014
Feeling alarm or devastation can guide
us to a deep sanity, reminding us of who we are and what we need. Our
power to act, our power to take part in the healing of our world, our
power to bring things back into balance, comes from the same source as
that devastation. Our pain for the world, and our power to take part in
the healing of our world, both come from the same place.
- Joanna Macy, "Allegiance to Life"
|
Monday, October 27, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
The Brain in Space | October 27, 2014
What’s important is not just what is
inside the brain but what the brain is inside of—the larger space of the
body and culture. That is where we find mind and meaning.
- Evan Thompson, “The Embodied Mind”
|
Flower of the Day: 10/27/14
“Deep
down everyone on this Earth is looking for peace, prosperity and joy.
Even when they are in frantic disputes, fighting for material
achievements, they are in fact in search of joy. However, without love
this is impossible to achieve. This is why we are dedicated to awakening
love. As long as there are still points of hatred and fear inside of
us, we are being robbed of our joy. As long as we desperately want to
receive love, we will be walking in the wrong direction because this
achievement is only possible when we are generously giving the love we
long to receive.”
Sri Prem Baba
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Via JMG: Eric Holder: Federal Government Now Recognizes Married Gays In 32 States
Via White House press release:
In the latest development following the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month to decline to hear any pending cases regarding same-sex marriage, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Saturday that the federal government will now recognize same-sex married couples in six new states: Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming.These updates always cause an uproar over on Free Republic.
Last week, the Attorney General made a similar announcement with respect to seven other states: Colorado, Indiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Saturday’s announcement adds to that list and brings the total number of states where same-sex couples are recognized by the federal government to 32, plus the District of Columbia.
The Attorney General’s announcement means couples married in these states will now qualify for a range of federal benefits, including those administered by the Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs.
“With each new state where same-sex marriages are legally recognized, our nation moves closer to achieving of full equality for all Americans,” the Attorney General said. “We are acting as quickly as possible with agencies throughout the government to ensure that same-sex married couples in these states receive the fullest array of benefits allowable under federal law.”
In addition, the Attorney General also announced that the Department of Justice has determined it can legally recognize marriages performed in Indiana and Wisconsin this past June. These marriages were performed immediately after federal district courts ruled that those states’ bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, but subsequent developments created confusion about the status of those marriages. Based on the Attorney General’s announcement, however, those couples married during that period will now have their unions recognized by the federal government.
Flower of the Day: 10/26/14
“Whenever
you notice that you are trying to control life, turn your attention
within and try to identify your fear, your hatred and desire to take
justice into your own hands. This sometimes appears as a need to
control, to take over the steering wheel. You can’t relax in the
passenger seat. God wants to take you in one direction so that you can
see new landscapes, but your controlling self wants to go the other way,
be it out of fear, revenge or competition.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
Discipline and Joy | October 26, 2014
Without spiritual discipline we are
never going to wake up or advance on our journey through this life. But
our discipline must be wedded to joy, and we must find pleasure in the
myriad wonders that this life offers.
- Joan Gattuso, "The Balancing Buddha"
|
Via Daily Dharma
The Longer View | October 25, 2014
Mindlessness, however petty, is
reckless at its heart. It only postpones; it never takes us anywhere.
Mindfulness, by contrast, is patient, careful. It takes a longer view.
- Joan Duncan Oliver, "Do I Mind?"
|
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Flower of the Day: 10/25/14
“Desire
adds value to the idea of ‘me.’ When one buys a new car and then drives
it, one feels fulfilled and self-satisfied. One identifies with it –
one actually becomes the car. But this satisfaction doesn’t
last very long. Soon we yearn for something else to add value to the
idea of ‘me’ – maybe a house or a partner. So we live our lives seeking
and wishing for things that could fill the inner void. This desire
becomes compulsive and stimulates comparisons, envy, jealousy and many
other negative feelings. But at some point this compulsive desire starts
to weaken because you notice that nothing outside you will bring the
satisfaction you are seeking.”
Sri Prem Baba
Friday, October 24, 2014
Via JMG: Lisa Kudrow - Gay Men Are Superior
"The people I work with are gay. I don't know who I'm going to offend by leaving them out, but I need to say that I think gay men are superior beings in my mind. I do believe that. It's all so tricky. I studied biology and the brains are anatomically different. They just are. There's a stronger connection with the corpus callosum (in gay men). The two sides of the brain communicate better than a straight man's, and I think that has to be really important. They're not women - they're still men - and women also have thicker corpus callosums, so I think it's the combination of those qualities that makes them like a superhuman to me." - Lisa Kudrow, speaking to Pride Source.
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