Friday, January 27, 2017
Via Daily Dharma / Learning to Live Together
To me the really defining question of our humanity and of our civil society right now is not can we agree.
That’s kind of idealistic, and it’s not helping us. It’s more about how
can we live together while we disagree about these things that are so
personal. This requires much more of us spiritually and practically than
the illusion that we’ll force agreement.
—Krista Tippett, "Talking with the Other Side"
—Krista Tippett, "Talking with the Other Side"
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Via Patheos: Leading Candidate For Supreme Court Would Criminalize Gay Sex
Trump’s shortlist for the Supreme Court includes Judge William Pryor, a vehemently anti-gay Christian extremist.
According to multiple reports President Donald Trump has narrowed his choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia to three potential nominees: Judge William Pryor of Alabama, Judge Neil Gorsuch of Colorado, and Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania. All of them are federal appeals court judges.
On that short list is William Pryor, who is considered to be “the most demonstrably anti-gay judicial nominee in recent memory” by the legal advocacy group Lambda Legal.
In the past, Pryor, who now sits on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, has made the deplorable argument that consensual sexual activity between same-sex partners should be criminalized.
Raw Story reports that in a 2003 legal brief Pryor argued in favor of a Texas law criminalizing consensual LGBT sex. Comparing consensual sexual activity between same-sex partners to “polygamy, incest, pedophilia, prostitution, and adultery,” Pryor argued that states should prosecute gay people as criminals, arguing that the rights of LGBT people as a group are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Pryor wrote:
Citing an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed, PFAW highlights Pryor’s anti-gay religious extremism:
In addition to openly advocating for the criminalization of gay sex, and his refusal to recognize a woman’s right to abortion, Pryor is also an advocate for prayer in school, and rejects the separation of church and state.
Trump is expected to announce his pick for the U.S. Supreme Court next week.
(Large portions of this post were previously published here: Trump Supreme Court Pick Would Criminalize Gay Sex)
According to multiple reports President Donald Trump has narrowed his choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia to three potential nominees: Judge William Pryor of Alabama, Judge Neil Gorsuch of Colorado, and Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania. All of them are federal appeals court judges.
On that short list is William Pryor, who is considered to be “the most demonstrably anti-gay judicial nominee in recent memory” by the legal advocacy group Lambda Legal.
In the past, Pryor, who now sits on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, has made the deplorable argument that consensual sexual activity between same-sex partners should be criminalized.
Raw Story reports that in a 2003 legal brief Pryor argued in favor of a Texas law criminalizing consensual LGBT sex. Comparing consensual sexual activity between same-sex partners to “polygamy, incest, pedophilia, prostitution, and adultery,” Pryor argued that states should prosecute gay people as criminals, arguing that the rights of LGBT people as a group are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Pryor wrote:
This Court [the Supreme Court] has never recognized a fundamental right to engage in sexual activity outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage, let alone to engage in homosexual sodomy. Such a right would be antithetical to the ‘traditional relation of the family’ that is ‘as old and as fundamental as our entire civilization.Pryor also argued that being lesbian or gay is harmful and that Texans needed protection from “homosexual sodomy”:
Texas is hardly alone in concluding that homosexual sodomy may have severe physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual consequences, which do not necessarily attend heterosexual sodomy, and from which Texas’s citizens need to be protected.Pryor concluded:
(there is) no fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy just because it is done behind closed doors… Because homosexual sodomy has not historically been recognized in this country as a right — to the contrary, it has historically been recognized as a wrong — it is not a fundamental right.People for the American Way (PFAW) has condemned Judge Pryor’s record, noting that Pryor has used the power of his office in an effort to push the law in an extreme far right direction harmful to the rights and interests of ordinary Americans.
Citing an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed, PFAW highlights Pryor’s anti-gay religious extremism:
Pryor would deny gay men and lesbians the equal protection of the laws. He believes that it is constitutional to imprison gay men and lesbians for expressing their sexuality in the privacy of their own homes and has voluntarily filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court urging the Court to uphold a Texas law that criminalizes such private consensual activity.PFAW also notes Pryor is a staunch opponent of a woman’s right to choose. He has called Roe v. Wade “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history” and has supported efforts to erect unconstitutional barriers to the exercise of reproductive freedom.
In addition to openly advocating for the criminalization of gay sex, and his refusal to recognize a woman’s right to abortion, Pryor is also an advocate for prayer in school, and rejects the separation of church and state.
Trump is expected to announce his pick for the U.S. Supreme Court next week.
(Large portions of this post were previously published here: Trump Supreme Court Pick Would Criminalize Gay Sex)
Via Daily Dharma: Concise Advice
Live a simple life with an affluent spirit.
—Ayako Isayama, "A Yen For Cleaning"
—Ayako Isayama, "A Yen For Cleaning"
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Via Ram Dass
At a
certain point, you realize that you see only the projections of your
own mind. The play of phenomena is a projection of the spirit. The
projections are your karma, your curriculum for this incarnation.
Everything that’s happening to you is a teaching designed to burn out
your stuff, your attachments. Your humanity and all your desires are not
some kind of error. They’re integral parts of the journey.
- Ram Dass
Via LGBTq Nation: Donald Trump pledges to sign anti-LGBTQ ‘First Amendment Defense Act’
Donald Trump AP Photo/Cheryl Senter
Donald Trump has been courting the LGBTQ vote throughout this presidential election, claiming he would be the better choice for the community than opponent Hillary Clinton and promising to protect us from terrorism in his Republican National Convention speech.
That argument gets harder to believe by the week, as he gives speeches at anti-LGBTQ events, sticks up for homophobic and transphobic legislation and surrounds himself with bigoted politicians and advisers. Now we have a new offense to add to the list.
Trump has pledged to sign the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), if passed by congress. It was first introduced in the House on June 17, 2015 and would effectively legalize anti-LGBTQ discrimination across the board, including among employers, businesses, landlords and healthcare providers, as long as they claim to be motivated by a firmly held religious beliefs.
It would act to overturn the executive order signed in 2014 by President Obama prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination among federal contractors.
The statement, added to Trump’s website on Thursday under the title “Issues Of Importance To Catholics” and the subtitle “Religious Liberty,” reads:
Religious liberty is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution. It is our first liberty and provides the most important protection in that it protects our right of conscience. Activist judges and executive orders issued by Presidents who have no regard for the Constitution have put these protections in jeopardy. If I am elected president and Congress passes the First Amendment Defense Act, I will sign it to protect the deeply held religious beliefs of Catholics and the beliefs of Americans of all faiths. The Little Sisters of the Poor, or any religious order for that matter, will always have their religious liberty protected on my watch and will not have to face bullying from the government because of their religious beliefs.
FADA’s text reads:
Prohibits the federal government from taking discriminatory action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.
Defines “discriminatory action” as any federal government action to discriminate against a person with such beliefs or convictions, including a federal government action to:
Requires the federal government to consider to be accredited, licensed, or certified for purposes of federal law any person who would be accredited, licensed, or certified for such purposes but for a determination that the person believes or acts in accordance with such a religious belief or moral conviction.
- alter the federal tax treatment of, cause any tax, penalty, or payment to be assessed against, or deny, delay, or revoke certain tax exemptions of any such person;
- disallow a deduction of any charitable contribution made to or by such person;
- withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or otherwise deny any federal grant, contract, subcontract, cooperative agreement, loan, license, certification, accreditation, employment, or similar position or status from or to such person; or
- withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or otherwise deny any benefit under a federal benefit program.
Permits a person to assert an actual or threatened violation of this Act as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding and to obtain compensatory damages or other appropriate relief against the federal government.
Authorizes the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce this Act against the Government Accountability Office or an establishment in the executive branch, other than the U.S. Postal Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission, that is not an executive department, military department, or government corporation.
Defines “person” as any person regardless of religious affiliation, including corporations and other entities regardless of for-profit or nonprofit status.
Via Daily Dharma / On Personal Space:
Space
isn’t really divided into “me space” and “not-me space.” It’s all one
space, and it flows through us. Space is just borrowed. We can’t own it.
—Bodhipaksa, "What You’re Made Of"
—Bodhipaksa, "What You’re Made Of"
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Via Daily Dharma / Love Your Enemies
We
may fear that if we’re too good-hearted, we will be ignored or taken
advantage of, and the political crisis will continue unchallenged. But
there is a big difference between loving our enemies and letting them
get away with their wrongdoing.
—Diana Winston, "Seven Reasons Why It’s Better Not to Hate Them"
—Diana Winston, "Seven Reasons Why It’s Better Not to Hate Them"
Monday, January 23, 2017
Via Daily Dharma / Anger and Fear
It’s
important to note that anger is a form of fear. Someone does something,
and suddenly the mind feels ungrounded and reacts with anger, trying to
reestablish a firm ground by reaffirming one’s narrow sense of self.
Anger’s aim is to establish safety in that deluded way.
—John Makransky, "Aren’t We Right to Be Angry?"
—John Makransky, "Aren’t We Right to Be Angry?"
Sunday, January 22, 2017
And
here is where we come to suffering, because what suffering tells you is
where the mind is clinging. Now, I am talking about your suffering. I
am not talking about somebody else’s suffering. Let’s just deal with us.
For me, suffering is telling me where my mind is clinging. If I
experience suffering because I am getting old, it’s because I have a
model of myself that’s other than what this is. This is what this is,
including dying, pain, loss, all of it.
The models in our heads about it, and the way we cling to it, is where the root of suffering is. So when you wanna get free badly enough, you begin to experience your own suffering as grace. You don’t ask for it. You don’t say, “Give me suffering,” but when it comes you see it as something that’s showing you a place where you are holding. The place to release.
The models in our heads about it, and the way we cling to it, is where the root of suffering is. So when you wanna get free badly enough, you begin to experience your own suffering as grace. You don’t ask for it. You don’t say, “Give me suffering,” but when it comes you see it as something that’s showing you a place where you are holding. The place to release.
Via Daily Dharma / Reckoning with Inequality
Inequality
cannot stand in the real and true knowledge of human love. Fear
evaporates in the face of recognition and connection.
—Hanuman Goleman, "Checking My Inner World"
—Hanuman Goleman, "Checking My Inner World"
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