Twins Come Out To Dad

Via Better Off Damned / FB:

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 15/01/2015

“Só existe uma chave que te leva à compreensão do casamento entre a energia vital e o sofrimento; só existe uma porta de acesso a esse núcleo da consciência que te faz compreender o prazer em machucar e ser machucado. Essa chave é a autorresponsabilidade. Somente essa qualidade te liberta da principal distração da jornada evolutiva: o jogo de acusação. Quando você deixa de procurar culpados pelo seu sofrimento e compreende que não é uma vítima, você quebra o ciclo vicioso do sadomasoquismo.”

“There is only one key that leads us to understanding the marriage between our vital energy and suffering. There is only one access door to the nucleus of our conscience that makes us understand the pleasure we feel in hurting others and being hurt. This key is self-responsibility. Only this quality will free us from the main distraction of the evolutionary journey: the blaming game. When we stop looking for others to blame for our own suffering and can understand that we are not a victim, we break the vicious cycle of sadomasochism.”

“Solo existe una llave que te lleva a la comprensión del casamiento entre la energía vital y el sufrimiento; solo existe una puerta de acceso a este núcleo de la conciencia que te hace comprender el placer en lastimar y ser lastimado. Esa llave es la auto-responsabilidad. Solamente esta cualidad te libera de la distracción principal del camino evolutivo: el juego de acusación. Cuando dejas de buscar culpables por tu sufrimiento y comprendes que no eres una víctima, quebrás el círculo vicioso del sadomasoquismo.”

- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Beloved Community | January 15, 2015

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Regardless of our beliefs, we all suffer from ignorance, and we all have projected our losses and fears onto each other in one way or another. This is my dream of the beloved community: that we can at least find a way to talk to each other, to talk past the fear, the separation, and find another way to live.

- Sallie Jiko Tisdale, "Beloved Community"

Via JMG: GOP Rep. Randy Weber Reintroduces Bill To Ban Feds From Recognizing Out-Of-State Same-Sex Marriages

 

With the intent of preventing Texas gays from bringing home their filthy marriage rights, yesterday Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) reintroduced the State Marriage Defense Act, which would ban the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages conducted outside of the state in which the couple resides. Weber first introduced the bill in January 2014, but it died in a House subcommittee after fewer than 25% of Republicans bothered to sign on as cosponsors. On Monday, Weber appeared on the Family Research Council's radio show, where he expressed optimism that the bill will do better this time due to GOP control of both chambers. According to Weber, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee will advocate for the bill. Weber: "Then we'll see what the president does with it. But I'm not hold my breath for the president to sign it."

RELATED: Yesterday Weber earned nationwide ridicule after comparing the president to Adolf Hitler. Weber issued an apology later in the day.

Labels: Congress, crackpots, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Mike Lee, Randy Weber, religion, Ted Cruz, Texas, U.S. House

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: GEORGIA: Pastor Calls For End To Gay "Erotic Liberty" During House Invocation

 

Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The Rev. Bryant Wright, senior pastor at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, delivered the devotional Wednesday in the state House. In that sermon aimed at lawmakers, Wright twice equated gay marriage to “erotic liberty.” Here’s a sampling of his message: “It is just one example of what our culture is going to increasingly see as an issue of erotic liberty versus religious liberty,” Wright said. “We’re liable to see this with our military chaplains in the years ahead if they in good conscience believe they cannot perform same-sex weddings and could be kicked out of the military.” That looming threat, he said, is a reminder of lawmakers’ role in making sure government is “protective of its citizens against evil and is working for the common good.” Religious liberty, Wright said, is a “foundational aspect” of the U.S. Constitution and is for the “common good and welfare of man.” He urged legislators to remember the nation’s heritage “even though a majority of your constituencies have embraced erotic liberty over religious liberty.”

Openly gay Georgia House Rep. Simone Bell responded on her Facebook page:

My direct response to him: Told him he is a disgrace to the clergy, the Word and the state of Georgia. That he squandered his opportunity to bring a message of love to people who have sacrificed to serve the state. That his religious freedom is not being trampled upon, but that he is trampling upon mine and 300,000 + more Georgian's religious freedom to be who God created us to be. He responded that we clearly have a difference of opinion. I told him we have a difference of HUMANITY.

RedState editor Erick Erickson is thrilled.

Labels: Bryant Wright, Christianists, crackpots, douchebaggery, Erick Erickson, Georgia, LGBT rights, marriage equality, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Ellen's Real Agenda

Baha'i Fundamentalism

A fundamentalist Baha'i seems, at first glance, to be almost a contradiction in terms, given that religion's reputation for tolerance and liberal social teachings. However, forms of fundamentalism can be found in almost all of the world's religions and share several features in common, including: resistance to the secularization of society, scriptural literalism, rejection of scientific and scholarly findings which contradict the fundamentalist worldview, apocalypticism and millennialism, a belief that the faithful are under siege by the forces of evil, authoritarian and/or charismatic leadership, and the insistence that fundamentalism is the only true form of the religion.

So, fundamentalism also exists within the Baha'i Faith, including some members of its leadership, and Baha'i fundamentalism shares many attitudes with that found in other religions. The Baha'i Faith presents its liberal face to the public, emphasizing such teachings as the unity of religion and racial harmony, because these teachings are more attractive to potential converts. However, fundamentalists within the Faith emphasize the more authoritarian and legalistic aspects of Baha'i practice and community structure.

The central teaching at stake, the Baha'i equivalent to Biblical inerrancy, is the doctrine of the Covenant. As the term is usually used, it refers to the written transfer of authority to successive leaders of the Baha'i Faith, from its founder, Baha'u'llah, to his son 'Abdu'l-Baha, to his grandson Shoghi Effendi, to today's Universal House of Justice. Because the administrative structure of the Baha'i Faith was outlined in scripture by both Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, it is considered to be divine in origin. Fundamentalists often view the institutions themselves with a deep reverence and consider that they are to be obeyed without question. Moderates and liberals tend to treat them more as a citizen would treat any elected body, and as less central to their religious belief and practice. Fundamentalists believe that Shoghi Effendi, as Guardian, and the Universal House of Justice(UHJ) were and are inerrant in all the decisions that they have made. Liberals tend to point out the scriptural limitations on both of these institutions.

When discussing issues concerning Baha'i community life, or the judicial practices of Baha'i institutions, fundamentalists tend to defend the status quo, since they believe the UHJ especially to be infallible, and the administrative order as a whole to be divinely guided. There seems to be a particular reluctance to change any practice that dates from the time of Shoghi Effendi, who died in 1957 without a successor. Liberals tend to be more reform-minded and flexible in their thinking.
One of the common features of fundamentalisms world-wide is that they protest against the declining role of religion in secular societies. Baha'i fundamentalism shows an absolute contempt of traditional democratic values such as the right to free speech, the necessity of a free press as a check on institutional power, or the right for a person accused of wrongdoing to have knowledge of the evidence against them and face their accusers. Fundamentalists also expect that the world will be brought together under a theocracy ruled by Baha'i institutions. As I pointed out in my article "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", the belief in a future theocracy is not solidly grounded in scripture, and actually runs counter to statements Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha made supporting the separation of church and state.

Christian fundamentalists often see themselves as being besieged by the forces of evil, such as "secular humanism", or New Age beliefs that are seen as infiltrating both the beliefs of unwary Christians and society at large. The Baha'i equivalent is the fear of both "covenant breakers" or schismatic heretics, and the more recent fear of "internal opposition", meaning the expression of more liberal ideas by Baha'is on the Internet. However, the Baha'i Faith goes much farther than fundamentalist Christians in that Baha'is can be investigated by appointed officials given the specific job of "Protection". Ordinary believers, in fact, will sometimes "turn in" their fellows that they feel are suspect either in their behavior or belief, and this can sometimes lead to an investigation and/or sanction.

Christian fundamentalism in this country was, in its origins, a reaction to Biblical criticism and modern scholarship. Baha'i fundamentalism is also deeply mistrustful of secular academics. In its April 7, 1999 letter, the Universal House of Justice, the religion's supreme ruling body, dismissed Western academic thought as "materialist", and described it as "designed to ignore the truths that make religion what it is." Unofficial statements by Baha'i fundamentalists can be even more scathing, saying that it is not acceptable for a scholar to "write as if he were not a Baha'i" and even calling the sort of research and writing common in Western universities "bad scholarship" because it does not attribute certain events to divine intervention.

Another feature Baha'i fundamentalism shares with its Christian counterpart is that it insists on the scientific and historical accuracy of scripture. For example, some Baha'is reject the theory of evolution, based upon some statements made about it by 'Abdu'l-Baha. Such an approach seems to undermine the very principle of harmony between science and religion that 'Abdu'l-Baha' himself promoted.

Baha'i fundamentalism can even discard the tolerance that is the foundation of Baha'u'llah's teachings. As in Christian fundamentalism, there is a rigid demarcation between correct and incorrect belief, cutting itself off both from other Baha'i approaches and other world religions. I personally heard a member of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly say that if a person does not accept the Baha'i revelation, they they would not enter paradise. I found this especially shocking since the teaching that all the world's religions have a common foundation was very important to me. This "triumphalist" view that while previous religions were true in their day, they now have been rendered obsolete by the advent of Baha'u'llah is a fairly common fundamentalist viewpoint. 

Author's Note: This article first appeared in Themestream January 2, 2001. It was published on IAMValley on April 14, 2001, where it was chosen "Editor's Pick".

Found here: http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/bigquestions/fundamentalism.html

Via JMG: Pete Coors Drops Out Of Anti-Gay Summit

 

MillerCoors chairman and 2004 Senate candidate Pete Coors has withdrawn from his speaking gig at the annual convention of Legatus, the anti-gay Catholic group that supports NARTH and "ex-gay" torture. Today's news follows the withdrawal of actor Gary Sinese and Fox News anchor Bret Baier. As always, major props to our own relentless Str8Grandmother for her social media campaign against the event. I'll update this post if MillerCoors issued a more formal statement.

Labels: Catholics, ex-gay, hate groups, Legatus, LGBT rights, MillerCoors, NARTH, Pete Coors, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Fox Anchor Bails On Anti-Gay Convention

Yesterday actor Gary Sinese canceled his speaking gig at the Florida convention of Catholic anti-gay activists. Today AdWeek reports that Fox News anchor Bret Baier has done the same.

Baier had been among the confirmed speakers at the 2015 Legatus Summit later this month in Naples, FL. But he’s canceled the appearance following recent revelations that the group’s publication insisted that LGBT people could be cured. “Bret Baier has withdrawn his participation as a speaker at the upcoming Legatus Summit due to the controversy surrounding some editorial stances in the organization’s magazine,” a Fox News spokesperson tells us. “Bret accepted the invitation to speak about his book, his faith, and his son’s congenital heart disease. He was unaware of these articles or the controversy surrounding them.”

Both of these cancellations are likely due to the work of Jeremy Hooper, who first publicized the list of attendees yesterday at Good As You. Still attending at this writing: Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and MillerCoors Brewing chairman Pete Coors. (Tipped by JMG reader DM)

Labels: Bobby Jindal, Bret Baier, Catholics, ex-gay, Fox News, hate groups, Jeremy Hooper, Legatus, Pete Coors, religion, Timothy Dolan

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: COLORADO: Church Cancels Funeral For Lesbian Minutes After Scheduled Start

Via Denver's NBC affiliate:

A "Dignity in Death" rally will be held Tuesday afternoon for a lesbian woman who was denied a funeral at New Hope Ministries in Lakewood, Colo. last week. Vanessa Collier's friends say the funeral was canceled by the church 15 minutes after the service was supposed to start because the church would not allow a picture to be shown of Collier proposing to her wife. The open casket and flowers were in place and about 170 people were in attendance.
According to Chaplain Greg Rolando, who would later preside over the funeral across the street at Newcomer Funeral Home, the New Hope Ministry is very community oriented. He says pastors there welcome those who are gay but ask that alternative lifestyles be censored in the church. New Hope Ministries is not commenting on the decision.
He says moments prior to the funeral service, a video that was supposed to be played during the funeral was reviewed by church officials. The church asked the video to be edited in order to proceed. Rolando says the family refused to take the picture of Collier's proposal out of the video, and the funeral had to be moved to the mortuary across the street.

Collier reportedly died from an accidental gun shot while cleaning her weapon.

Labels: Christian Love, Colorado, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis  

Via JMG: Ship Your Enemies Glitter

 

Via Salon:

On Tuesday morning, Twitter exploded when a link to a website called Ship Your Enemies Glitter started getting passed around. We first saw a link to the website posted to Reddit's r/InternetIsBeautiful forum and later on startup discovery website Product Hunt. Ship Your Enemies Glitter was described by Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover as “the ultimate troll product.” Quite literally, the expletive-laden Australian website lets you pay $9.99 to send glitter to your enemies. “Hint: the glitter will be mixed in with the note thus increasing maximum spillage,” the website reads. The website has since crashed, presumably due to the traffic it received.

Labels: Australia, internet, silliness

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: HRC Backs Atlanta Mayor Kasis Reed

Labels: Atlanta, employment, Georgia, HRC, Kasim Reed, Kelvin Cochran, LGBT rights, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 14/01/2015

“O desejo se manifesta através do pensamento; e os pensamentos atraem a realização dos desejos. Você constrói a sua realidade através dos seus pensamentos, palavras e ações, mas as ações e palavras passam pelo pensamento. Isso significa que nada que tenha se realizado em sua vida pode ter se manifestado sem ter passado pelo seu pensamento, mesmo que você não tenha percebido.”

“El deseo se manifiesta a través del pensamiento, y los pensamientos atraen la realización de los deseos. Construyes tu realidad a través de tus pensamientos, palabras y acciones, pero las acciones y las palabras pasan por el pensamiento. Esto significa que nada de lo que hayas realizado en tu vida puede haberse manifestado sin haber pasado por tu pensamiento, aunque no lo hayas percibido.”

“Desires manifest through our thoughts, and thoughts attract the circumstances that lead to the fulfillment of our desires. We create our own reality through our thoughts, words and actions, but our actions and words pass through our thoughts first. This means nothing that has happened in our lives could have occurred without having first passed through our thought process, even if we weren’t aware of it.”

- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Changing the Mind | January 14, 2015

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The Buddha taught for many years, but the dharma he explained wasn’t about acquiring knowledge; it was about changing the mind.

- Stephen Schettini, "A Sense of Belonging"

Via Daily Kos: This One Picture Will REALLY Piss Off Florida Winguts

First gay couple in Florida to legally wed.   A Sheriff's deputy (in uniform) to a former Marine.

On this blessed day, allow me to be the first to say:  In your fat FACE Pam Bondi!


Congratulations are in order:

Detective David Currie, 50, and his now-husband Aaron Woodard, 33, tied the knot shortly after midnight on Tuesday, when the state legalized gay marriage. And after requesting permission from his superiors, Currie walked down the registry aisle with full support of the Broward County Sheriff's to wed in uniform.

Does this disgust you, wingnut?  Don't you support our cops/troops??  Why do you hate police officers??

  Kudos to Scott Israel, Broward County Sheriff, for saying it was a "great thing" that the detective was proud enough of his agency to want to marry in his uniform.  

We have finally turned a corner in this state.  We went from rampant homophobia (perfectly encapsulated by former governor Jeb Bush's rant comparing gays to pedophiles and drunk drivers) to now seeing statewide support for marriage equality.

Marco Rubio and other backwards politicians are pushing Florida AG PamBo to continue to fight this already lost battle to the US Supreme Court, even though they recently shredded her last minute plea for an injunction.  PamBo tried to argue that marriage was meant only for couples who planned to breed and provide "enduring family relationships".

This coming from a childless, twice-divorced adulterer who currently has a "living in sin" arrangement with her boyfriend.  
Oh, and the happy couple shown here?  They are foster-parent certified and plan to raise children!  (Gay adoption has been legal in Florida since 2010, when then-AG Bill McCollum's leading "expert" he paid to fight it turned out to have a proclivity for hiring male hookers.)

I wish David and Aaron the best in their new lives together and the love they will bring to their children who deserve it and badly need it.

You see, Pam Bondi, THIS is what a real marriage looks like.  Maybe try it sometime before you bash it?

Make the jump here to read the original on Kos

Via JMG: UNSHOCKING: Study Shows "Ex-Gay" Mormons Have Very High Divorce Rate

 

Via the Salt Lake Tribune:

The LDS couples profiled on TLC’s "My Husband Is Not Gay" may find these statistics sobering: Marriages like theirs — same-sex attracted husbands and straight wives — are two to three times more likely to end in divorce than others. That finding and others come from a newly released in-depth survey of 1,612 self-selected LGBT/same-sex attracted Mormons and former Mormons, thought by researchers to be the largest study ever conducted with this population. Rather than tapping a random sample, John Dehlin, a doctoral student at Utah State University, and Bill Bradshaw, a retired Brigham Young University professor, with help from Renee Galliher, also of USU, solicited responses via various websites, including pro-Mormon outlets such as North Star International and those more critical such as Dehlin’s own "Mormon Stories" podcast. The study found that between 51 percent and 69 percent of mixed-orientation Mormon marriages end in divorce, well above the roughly 25 percent of LDS couples who split up.

Mind-blowing, huh?

Labels: ex-gay, LDS, Mormons, religion

posted by Joe Jervis

Via Huffington: How to Respond When Someone Asks You to Stop Flaunting Your Homosexuality Online

"Why does everything with you have to be so gay?" the chat box bleeped in the lower right corner of my screen. It was someone I once knew from my conservative hometown, a place I've scarcely shown my face in two decades.

Social media has returned people to our lives that ought not be there. With our fancy phones, the past is lurking right there in your pocket. Everyone with whom you've ever crossed paths is somewhere behind a screen liking a picture of your salad or making passive aggressive hashtag judgements on your posts.

Of course these naysayers can blocked, but that often happens after you realize that you assembled the worst online party of all time. Your parents. Your old youth pastor. Drag queens. Porn stars.

Clarence. (He may not be named Clarence in your world, but you know who I'm talking about. That friend.) So, like many of us, I went through a great Facebook purge. A Duck Dynasty meme?

Unfriend. A pro-Sarah Palin reference? Delete. A cross-stiched, Bible verse jpeg about men lying with men? Actually, that's amazing and I want it on a T-shirt.

I then realized these people need my voice in their lives. Homophobic views thrive in the absence of actual homosexuals. And worse yet, I'll end up as the person they are referring to when they say, "I have tons of gay friends, but..."

So, I've been allowing some reconnections with my fundamentalist Christian past.

"I mean, I don't care about your sexuality, but does everything you talk about have to be gay?" this old friend typed. In all fairness, I do let it rip on Twitter and Facebook. I've always been somewhat of a button pusher; on my conservative friends' feeds, I probably seem a sort of "Richard Simmons After Dark," if you will.

This "stop flaunting it" sentiment really gets my big gay goat. Being gay isn't some weird hobby. It's not a penis fetish. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan.) It's who I am. My sexuality runs a thread through every part of my being, just as it does for all people both gay and straight.

Every straight-person-post about date night, engagements and babies is a display of heterosexuality. That weird selfie of the two of them peck kissing at Applebee's? Blatant display of straightness. A "Which Romantic Comedy Are You" quiz? They got The Notebook. I got Showgirls. My point is, we are all expressing our sexuality non-stop in sometimes bold, but more often subtle, ways.

I was taking a stroll with a seemingly progressive friend here in Nashville. There was a lesbian couple nearby holding hands -- a sight that's becoming fairly common in larger southern cities. My friend made an out-of-character comment that they were trying to "make a statement." I suggested they quite possibly might just be holding hands. Many straight people -- even allies -- are used to gays being shamed into discretion. If we behave with the same emotional freedom as they it could initially come off to them as an inappropriate display.

It might seem like flaunting, but it's simply humans acting like humans.

I'm tired of being an ambassador. I'm tired of being the understanding one, but it's the position I'm in. It's the position you are in. So next time it's suggested you tone it down, give our straight brothers and sisters an understanding pardon, then turn it up. They will never relax if we cater to uncomfortable sensibilities. As for me, my social media feed will continue to flame and sparkle, and if you don't like it, there's my backdoor. And I mean that in the gayest way possible.

Follow Kevin Thornton on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheIndianaQueen

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Iranian in Yemen Accused of Promoting Bahá'í Faith

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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/189848

Iranian in Yemen Accused of Promoting Bahá'í Faith - For Israel

Iranian man charged with spreading pacifistic, universalist religion to benefit its world headquarters in Haifa.

An Iranian living in Yemen has been charged with promoting the Bahá'í Faith and trying to convert residents of the Muslim country for Israel's benefit, state news agency Saba reported Monday.

The man, arrested last year in Mukalla, southeast Yemen, had tried between 1991 and 2014 to "lure some Yemenis into abandoning Islam to follow this alleged faith", according to the charge sheet, quoted by Saba.

He was named as Hamid Mirza Kamali Sarustani, 51, and had allegedly used a false identity to conduct private businesses in Yemen.

"He worked with a foreign country, Israel, through its (Baha'i) Universal House of Justice that serves its interests, to proselytize Bahaism in Yemen," the prosecution said. The Universal House of Justice is the faith's supreme governing body, which is based in the Mediterranean city of Haifa, in northern Israel.

The prosecution said Sarustani used money to lure impoverished Yemenis into conversions and distributed Bahá'í material through the Internet and at gatherings.

His case has been referred to a special penal court in Sanaa, Saba said.

The Bahá'í faith, which believes in equality among religions and between men and women, faces persecution in several Middle Eastern countries. Bahá'ís consider Baha'ú'lláh, an Iranian born in 1817, to be the latest prophet sent by God, a major divergence from Islamic orthodoxy. 

Around 250 Baha'is live in Yemen, where they are allowed to practice their faith freely, a Baha'i organization told AFP. 

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Visit the Cyber Temple, an interfaith resource for meditation, contemplation, and relaxation

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