Flower of the Day: 10/07/14

"It would be tremendously positive for the evolution of human consciousness if parents were aware of the significance of bringing a child into the world. I have inspired people to see children as Atma, the divine spirit in development. Although the child is in a body, they have the spark of Parmatma, the supreme ineffable Absolute, and they have much to teach us. The child arrives on this plane with a well-defined purpose. They already arrive with their talents, and with a vision to share with the world. What they need is support so that this vision may be revealed."

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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What Haiku Requires | October 7, 2014

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[Basho] practiced Zen without insignia or ordination. Every decade he experienced a catastrophic reordering of his life. 'Let my name be "Traveler,"' he implored, following the narrow road of poetry to the far north. He shattered clever wordplay haiku to create a new mosaic of language, solitary and raw. 'The old verse can be about willows,' he observed, 'but haiku requires crows picking snails in a rice paddy.' 

 

- Wendy Johnson, "Seventeen Syllable Medicine"

 

Via Freedom to Marry / FB:

Via Vestiário / FB: Luciana Genro

Luciana Genro, você sempre agradece a sua repercussão. Hoje, você teve pouco mais de 1,5 milhão de votos.

Na verdade, somos nós que temos que te agradecer, e muito, por ter olhado com carinho e defendido com amor a gente. Num país tão homofóbico como o Brasil, você foi a nossa esperança.

Valeu!

Via ACLU Nationwide / FB:

Via Daily Dharma

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On Transience | October 6, 2014

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The photograph reflects a moment that is happening out in the world, and also one that is happening in the minds of the photographer and the viewer. The fact that the moment is fleeting and will never get repeated adds to its appeal. A photograph acknowledges this transience. The best ones attach meaning to it. 

 

- David Butow, "Seeing Buddha: A Photographic Journey" 

 

Flower of the Day: 10/06/14

"You are not the body, nor are you the mind. But as long as you are identified with the body and the mind, you become a victim of compulsive desires. Desire is a bottomless pit. The point is not to fulfill one desire or another, but to stop desiring altogether. Satisfying a desire is simple. The question is: how long does the contentment that comes from fulfilling this desire last? Behind that desire is a devouring fire, an unceasing desire. There is a disconnect with the source."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via JMG: BREAKING: SCOTUS Denies Review In All Seven Marriage Equality Cases, Marriage Comes To Five More States

Via JMG: TAIWAN: Thousands Of Gay Marriage Supporters Demonstrate In Taipei

 

Via AsiaOne News:

An alliance of more than one hundred non-governmental organisations yesterday staged a rally outside the Legislative Yuan urging the government to complete the necessary amendments that will pave the way for the legalization of gay marriage. Dubbed the "rainbow siege," reports indicate that more than 4,000 members of the public participated in yesterday's demonstration at the Legislative Yuan. Demonstrators attached 112 padlocks symbolizing the strangleholds of homophobic opinions labelled with the names of lawmakers on the gates of the Legislative Yuan facing Qingdao East Road. In response to the appeals of activists, 21 lawmakers accepted the invitation to unlock and remove the padlocks with "keys of equality." Demonstration organizers stated that among the 21 lawmakers openly expressing their support for equal marriage rights yesterday, four are aligned to the ruling party while 14 are from the opposition party, with two being independent lawmakers.

The leader of Taiwan's opposition party has announced a public hearing on marriage equality later this month. Same-sex marriage is not presently legal anywhere in Asia, unless you count New Zealand. (Tipped by JMG reader Lulu)

RELATED: In December 2013 a massive crowd in the tens of thousands marched against same-sex marriage in Taipei. American anti-gay sites, including NOM, claimed that the crowd numbered as many as 300,000. Homocon Robert Oscar Lopez is praised the protest on his blog, English Manif.

Labels: activism, marriage equality, Taiwan

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Via JMG: BREAKING: SCOTUS Denies Review In All Seven Marriage Equality Cases

Via USA Today:

The Supreme Court refused to get involved in the national debate over same-sex marriage Monday, leaving intact lower court rulings that will legalize the practice in 11 additional states. The unexpected decision by the justices, announced without further explanation, immediately affects five states in which federal appeals courts had struck down bans against gay marriage: Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Utah.
It also will bring along six other states located in the judicial circuits overseen by those appellate courts: North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming. The action will bring to 30 the number of states where gays and lesbians can marry. Appeals courts in Cincinnati and San Francisco are considering cases that could expand that number further, presuming the Supreme Court remains outside the legal fray.

Story developing...

Labels: Indiana, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Oklahoma, SCOTUS, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin

Via FB: Healthcare / Ebola

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Frank Bruni

"Repeatedly over the last year and a half, I’ve written about teachers in Catholic schools and leaders in Catholic parishes who were dismissed from their posts because they were in same-sex relationships and — in many cases — had decided to marry. Every time, more than a few readers weighed in to tell me that these people had it coming. If you join a club, they argued, you play by its rules or you suffer the consequences. Oh really? The rules of this particular club prohibit divorce, yet the pews of many of the Catholic churches I’ve visited are populous with worshipers on their second and even third marriages. They walk merrily to the altar to receive communion, not a peep of protest from a soul around them. They participate fully in the rituals of the church, their membership in the club uncontested. The rules prohibit artificial birth control, and yet most of the Catholic families I know have no more than three children, which is either a miracle of naturally capped fecundity or a sign that someone’s been at the pharmacy." - Frank Bruni, writing for the New York Times.

Labels: Catholic Church, employment, Frank Bruni, religion

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Engage!

 

Via Reddit: "I proposed to my boyfriend yesterday on the bridge of the Enterprise, he said yes and I couldn't be happier." (Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

Labels: bears, gay geeks, gay proposals, Star Trek

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Via Daily Kos / FB:

Flower of the Day: 10/05/14

"Devotion is love in its most refined form. Devotion is when we become lovers of the Supreme, lovers of life itself. Devotion happens when the love within us can manifest in this way, establishing communion with the Holy Spirit. This communion feeds us, forming a benign circle. Therefore, it is true to say that love is sufficient unto love."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Call It By Its Right Name | October 5, 2014

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If you know a view as a view, you can be free of that view. If you know a thought as a thought, you can be free of that thought. 

 

- Zoketsu Norman Fischer, “Beyond Language” 

 

The Castro San Francisco

JMG Quote Of The Day - Yvette Schneider

"I think the ex-gay movement will be dead within the next 10 years. As churches become more gay-affirming, parents and church leaders won’t seek parachurch ministries to 'fix' in gay Christians what isn’t broken. The fact that the ex-gay movement has been a monumental failure with no real, lasting change in those who have sought to negate same-sex attractions and become heterosexual will become more and more apparent to the average lay Christian. This is especially true in the age of social media, when information spreads like wildfire and can’t easily be suppressed. I’m sure there will be pockets of people here and there who will still try to change someone’s orientation. But the movement as a relevant entity in the push for LGBT rights will be defunct." - Former "ex-gay" activist Yvette Schneider, speaking to the SPLC.

Meanwhile in Washington DC...

Labels: brainwashing, Christopher Doyle, crackpots, ex-gay, LGBT youth, religion, self-loathing, still totally gay, torture

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Via JMG: SCOTUSblog On What Could Happen Next

Lyle Denniston writes at SCOTUSblog:

It would be hard to find a close, or perhaps even a casual, observer of the Court who would predict with any confidence that the Court will deny review of all seven pending filings on same-sex marriage, from five states. The Court actually has been quite active on the issue this year: on three occasions, it has temporarily blocked lower court rulings that would have cleared the way immediately for same-sex marriages to begin or to be recognized, in Utah and Virginia.
Those orders suggest, if they don’t actually prove, that the Court is preserving either a chance for the issue to be explored further in lower courts without thousands of new same-sex marriages occurring, or a chance for the Justices themselves to weigh in on the issue before that happens.
Moreover, it would only take the votes of four Justices to grant review of any one of the seven new petitions, and there are four Justices who strenuously objected in dissent last year when the Court struck down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act — a ruling that actually set off nearly three-dozen rulings by lower federal courts, striking down (with only one exception) state bans on such marriages.
When the Court privately discusses the new cases, as it almost surely did at last Friday’s closed-door Conference, it would not be hard to predict that those four Justices would be arguing energetically to take on the issue, provided that they had some reason to hope that, after such a review, they might gather a fifth, majority-making deciding vote from another Justice.
Those four Justices also surely know that, if the Court does opt to deny review of all of the cases at this point, such a denial would trigger the full implementation of appeals court decisions that would spread in a short period of time to eleven more states beyond the nineteen (along with Washington, D.C.) that currently allow same-sex marriage. That would almost certainly add an inevitability to the campaign to win same-sex marriage rights across the nation.
So, after the silence on Thursday, the focus now turns to Monday. The new list of orders, mostly denials, will emerge first and, before the end of the day, the Court will indicate whether it is rescheduling the same-sex marriage cases for another look, at a private Conference set for next Friday morning.

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, SCOTUS

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Flower of the Day: 10/04/14

"The human entity feels that suffering is bad, but is unable to give it up. This happens because at some point a marriage took place between the vital current, which is our sexual energy, and suffering. This is the reason why suffering remains in the world. This is why destructiveness continues even though we are aware that it is senseless."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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About the Present Moment | October 4, 2014

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Some important questions to ask are why people want to believe that mindfulness is good in every circumstance, that there are no negative side effects, and that it’s derived in a pure way from a 2500­-year-old practice. Why do contemplative practices, especially Asian contemplative practices, seem to elicit this type of positive response? Those are the really interesting cultural questions about the present moment. 

 

- Catherine Kerr, "Don’t Believe the Hype" 

 

Via Paulo Coelho / FB:

Flower of the Day: 10/03/14

"The vast majority of people are taught to deny the shadow. Most religions and even culture itself evoke the original goodness, but they do not teach us about what to do with evil. In order to reach the experience of oneness, we need to integrate all parts within us. We can only bring the kingdom of God to earth through unity, and unity includes everything."

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

Too Busy Talking to Ourselves | October 3, 2014 Most of us are too busy talking to ourselves to even contemplate what might be vivid and apparent should we ever learn to shut up.   - Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei, "The Sword Disappears in the Water"

Until We Could - Richard Blanco

Flower of the Day: 10/02/14

"The first glimpse of God is a deep darkness. This darkness is the unknown that inhabits you, and this encounter with God is a portal to this same unknown part of you. What is unknown makes you fragile and vulnerable. A profound meeting between a more superficial center and a much deeper center of consciousness acts as a mirror that reflects the reality of who you are on all levels. So if you are not mature enough for this encounter with yourself, then you tend to run away from it."

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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A Fathomless Foundation | October 2, 2014

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Buddhism is fundamentally a path of inquiry, a practice of looking at the mind’s tendency to cling, to adhere to opinions, beliefs, memories, emotions, moods. This is a remarkable foundation, because it’s fathomless. For as every moment gives way to the next, we come face to face with an infinite freshness of experience—a freshness that, if we have truly surrendered to the practice, cannot be solidified into a doctrine. 

 

- Noelle Oxenhandler, "Glass of Water, Bare Feet" 

 

Via Daily Dharma

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Body as Illusion | October 1, 2014

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There is no 'body' in the limbs,
But from illusion does the idea spring,
To be affixed to a specific shape—
Just as when a scarecrow is mistaken for a man. 

- Shantideva, "What Body?" 

Flower of the Day: 10/01/14

“For a while now I have been speaking about the cycle of time we are currently in. There are many people wanting to commit suicide, many unknown diseases appearing, and our whole system is entering collapse, from economics and politics to the environment. What is actually happening is that the ego is entering collapse. This crisis is most visible and intense within larger urban centers, where one’s patience is constantly tested. This is why it is important that you dedicate at least a few minutes of the day to sadhana, spiritual practice, because this is what makes it possible to keep the flame of connection ignited.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via JMG: New Report On LGBT Poverty

Via the Movement Advancement Project:

A landmark report released today paints a stark picture of the added financial burdens faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans because of anti-LGBT laws at the national, state and local levels. According to the report, these laws contribute to significantly higher rates of poverty among LGBT Americans and create unfair financial penalties in the form of higher taxes, reduced wages and Social Security income, increased healthcare costs, and more. The momentum of recent court rulings overturning marriage bans across the country has created the impression that LGBT Americans are on the cusp of achieving full equality from coast-to-coast. But the new report, Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for Being LGBT in America, documents how inequitable laws harm the economic well-being of LGBT people in three key ways: by enabling legal discrimination in jobs, housing, credit and other areas; by failing to recognize LGBT families, both in general and across a range of programs and laws designed to help American families; and by creating barriers to safe and affordable education for LGBT students and the children of LGBT parents.

The report documents the often-devastating consequences when the law fails LGBT families. For example, children raised by same-sex parents are almost twice as likely to be poor as children raised by married opposite-sex parents. Additionally, 15 percent of transgender workers have incomes of less than $10,000 per year; among the population as a whole, the comparable figure is just four percent. To demonstrate the connection between anti-LGBT laws and the finances of LGBT Americans and their families, the report outlines how LGBT people living in states with low levels of equality are more likely to be poor, both compared to their non-LGBT neighbors, and compared to their LGBT counterparts in state with high levels of equality. For example, the denial of marriage costs gay and lesbian families money; same-sex couples with children had just $689 less in household income than married opposite-sex couples in states with marriage and relationship recognition for same-sex couples, but had an astounding $8,912 less in household income in states lacking such protections.

Read the full report (PDF).

UPDATE: NBC News reports on the study.

Shortly after her wife died in March, Arlene Goldberg had to give up the beloved South Florida home that the couple shared. Because Goldberg’s 2011 marriage to her partner of 47 years wasn’t recognized as legal in Florida, she was denied her wife’s social security benefits. Without that income, Goldberg, 67, couldn’t pay her mortgage. “I’m trying to figure out how I am going to get through this time,” she said from Fort Myers, Florida. “I really can’t even pay my bills.”

Goldberg is among an untold number of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people nationwide who suffer economic distress and in some cases, poverty, as a result of anti-gay laws such as same-sex marriage bans, or from a lack of legal protections, like non-discrimination ordinances, according to a new report by two think tanks, the progressive Center for American Progress and the pro-LGBT Movement Advancement Project.

Census data and other research over the last decade have shown higher rates of financial hardship and poverty among gays. But the report’s authors make the connection between those difficulties and specific laws and policies by analyzing current incomes and poverty rates for LGBT people and their heterosexual counterparts in states that have protections and those that don’t.

Labels: gay families, gay parenting, LGBT rights, poverty

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Flower of the Day: 09/30/14

“Some people are focused on educating their children, and others are focused on redefining education. Some people are working to minimize conflict between the world's religions, while others are working to create technology to make life more comfortable and sustainable. Regardless of what your role may be in the divine game, on the deepest level, your work is to anchor loving awareness on the planet.”

Sri Prem Baba

 

Read the complete text>

Via Daily Dharma

Nothing Else to Do | September 30, 2014

The practice is to make the non-arising of grasping and clinging absolute, final, and eternally void, so that no grasping and clinging can ever return. Just that is enough. There is nothing else to do.

- Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "A Single Handful"

Via JMG: British Survey: 16% Have Had Gay Sex

 

A dwindling number of Brits believe that homosexuality should be made illegal again.

Attitudes to homosexuality are clearly becoming more liberal but there are still pockets of resistance. In total, 16% of Britons continue to believe that homosexuality should be outlawed. Men (19%) are more likely than women (13%) to advocate the banning of gay sex, and rejection of homosexuality peaks in London and the south-east, where more than one in five (21%) feel it should be illegal. However, at a total level, the proportion of Britons who believe gay sex should be illegal has reduced by eight percentage points, from 24%, since 2008.

According to the same survey, same-sex marriage support stands at 63%.

 

Labels: Britain, LGBT rights, sexuality, surveys

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Flower of the Day: 09/29/14

“Sometimes it’s good to be alone in order to redirect the focus of our willpower, especially when we are very addicted to codependency. Being alone helps us to get an objective perception of reality, and this perception will help us become free from the game of lust. At some point, we will be truly ready to surrender ourselves to a spiritual life, not as an escape from relationships, but because we have learnt what we had to learn through them.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Lifting the Veil | September 29, 2014

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With study and practice, we can move beyond our reductive thinking, lifting the veil to reveal the true nature of reality. 

- Wendy Hasenkamp, "Brain Karma" 

Via Daily Dharma

Internal Revolution | September 28, 2014

There are so many levels to this anti-greed, anti-hatred, anti-delusion teaching that says, in this world that’s filled with confusion, let’s be unconfused. In a world filled with hatred and greed, let’s be generous and loving and forgiving. The teachings are revolutionary on a societal level, but there’s also an internal revolution, because craving that creates addiction comes from inside, from the human survival instinct that craves pleasure and hates pain, and that left to its own devices will turn us into addicts.

- Noah Levine, "The Suffering of Addiction"

Flower of the Day: 09/28/14

“Relationships are crucial for growth, and doing group work helps tremendously. Beyond that, the sangha, or spiritual community, is a sacred jewel, because each person gives strength to the other. Still, the crossing takes place individually, and it’s natural at some point for you to start withdrawing yourself. There comes a moment when some people need this solitude, precisely because the journey is internal. This universe is sustained by lust and attachment, and we spend much of our time on relationships; but even so, at some point it will become necessary to turn within.”

- Sri Prem Baba

"BAD ASS GAYS" film trailer. Premieres on Logo TV/Fall 2014

Flower of the Day: 09/27/14

“This is my prayer: ‘Oh Lord! Come and inhabit my body, inhabit my mind and intellect, inhabit my heart, so that no one may tell us apart. May I be one with you. May every word that comes out of my mouth be an expression of your holy word. May every act that I practice be an expression of your holy will.’ Our prayers should be made towards this direction, because we know there is no other request to be made. Intellectually, we have already understood that we are here to move from a state of separation and isolation to a state of oneness. We are moving from selfishness to altruism, from fear to trust, and from hatred to love.” - Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

It's About Being Connected | September 27, 2014 My path to enlightenment will only come from being connected to the world around me. It’s not just about being centered inside; it’s about being connected to your world. - Njeri Matheu, "People’s Climate March"

Via JMG: IOC: All Future Olympics Host Cities Must Agree To LGBT Discrimination Protections

The International Olympic Committee today announced that future Olympics host cities must sign a contract with an added clause vowing to protect LGBT participants and attendees from discrimination. Via press release from All Out:

“This is a significant step in ensuring the protection of both citizens and athletes around the world and sends a clear message to future host cities that human rights violations, including those against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, will not be tolerated,” said Andre Banks, co-founder and executive director of All Out, the global movement for love and equality. “This is a particularly important moment for the world’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens who face discrimination and persecution not only in Russia but in countries all over the world. We will continue working to make sure this change is powerfully enforced - these new rules must prevent a replay of Sochi.”

According to IOC Sports Director, Christopher Dubi, the new clause will include “the prohibition of any form of discrimination, using the wording of Fundamental Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter." This clause will ensure that future host cities must abide by international human rights standards in order to host the games, including the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens and athletes. “By adopting a non-discrimination clause into its host city contracts, the IOC is showcasing its own realization that we must protect the rights of every athlete to live free and openly,” said Hudson Taylor, Executive Director of Athlete Ally. “The Principle 6 campaign sought to shed light on the responsibility of host countries to uphold the olympic values, and this action validates all of the hard work by organizations and individuals across the world who’ve engaged in the fight for LGBT equality.”

RELATED: The 2016 Summer Games will be held in Rio De Janeiro, where robust LGBT protections already exist. The 2018 Winter Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where homosexuality is legal, but anti-discrimination laws do not exist.

Labels: IOC, Olympics, Sochi Olympics, sports

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: HRC Head Chad Griffin: Obama Should Consider LGBT Successor To Eric Holder

"Some Attorneys General wait for history, others make history happen. Attorney General Holder made history for the LGBT community. He was our Robert F. Kennedy, lightening the burden of every American who faces legal discrimination and social oppression. We owe him a profound debt of gratitude for his legacy of advocacy and service. President Obama faces a historic opportunity in light of Attorney General Holder's departure. The President has expressed a commitment to appointing a cabinet that reflects the full diversity of the American people, and there are many richly-qualified candidates available to serve as the first openly-LGBT cabinet secretary. It would be a natural extension of this administration's enduring commitment to equality to send a message of visibility and inclusion by nominating such a candidate to serve in this historic role." - Human Rights Campaign Chad Griffin, via email.

Labels: Barack Obama, Chad Griffin, DOJ, Eric Holder, HRC, LGBT rights, Obama administration, Obama cabinet

Reposted from Joe Jervis

JMG Headline Of The Day

The Daily Beast today published a lengthy accounting of the The Gathering, a secretive meeting of anti-gay right wing activists that starts in Orlando today. An excerpt:

The Gathering is an annual event at which many of the wealthiest conservative to hard-right evangelical philanthropists in America—representatives of the families DeVos, Coors, Prince, Green, Maclellan, Ahmanson, Friess, plus top leaders of the National Christian Foundation—meet with evangelical innovators with fresh ideas on how to evangelize the globe. The Gathering promotes “family values” agenda: opposition to gay rights and reproductive rights, for example, and also a global vision that involves the eventual eradication of all competing belief systems that might compete with The Gathering’s hard-right version of Christianity. Last year, for example, The Gathering 2013 brought together key funders, litigants, and plaintiffs of the Hobby Lobby case, including three generations of the Green family. The evangelical right financial dynasties and foundations that meet each year at The Gathering dispense upwards of $1 billion a year in grants. But even that is overshadowed by the bigger sums that The Family and The Gathering have managed to route from the federal and state government to fund their movement via the Faith-Based Initiative program, USAID, PEPFAR and other multibillion-dollar programs.

Many of the anti-gay hate groups involved will be familiar to you. Definitely hit that link.

Labels: Alliance Defending Freedom, Christianists, Daily Beast, Family Research Council, Focus On The Family, hate groups, religion, The Gathering, Tony Perkins, Truth Wins Out

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Christian Group: Homosexuals And Gossips Both Deserve The Death Penalty

 

"We aren't just defending marriage - whether we call it natural marriage or traditional marriage or Biblical marriage - because it's the way we've always done things. We have a much more firm foundation than tradition. We affirm marriage in the way that God himself intended it. The church is not a Christian congress or Supreme Court. The laws of God cannot be overruled or deemed unconstitutional. Of course, we ALL break those laws and being a homosexual doesn't make a man a sinner any more or less than being a gossip. Both crimes deserve the death penalty, and only the one who relies on the righteousness of Christ can escape it." - Chris Johnson, writing for the American Decency Association, which notes on its Facebook page that it is the former Michigan chapter for the American Family Association.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: The American Decency Association declares that while they totally hate that homosexual Michael Sam, they are not the group by the same name that called for protesting Dallas Cowboys games. The American Decency Association calls for a boycott of Target and for Christians to mail their destroyed charge cards to company headquarters. The American Decency Association says the DOMA ruling was as bad as the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Labels: American Decency Association, Christian Love, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Hate Groups Launch Joint Campaign: Don't Vote For Pro-Gay GOP Candidates

Posted yesterday on NOM's blog:

Three of the nation's top pro-family groups have announced an unprecedented campaign against three top Republican candidates for federal office because the candidates are supporters of same-sex 'marriage' and abortion. The National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council Action and CitizenLink announced they will urge voters not to support Republican House candidates Carl DeMaio (CA-52) and Richard Tisei (MA-6), and will urge Oregon voters not to support US Senate candidate Monica Wehby. "The Republican Party platform is a 'statement of who we are and what we believe.' Thus, the platform supports the truth of marriage as the union of husband and wife, and recognizes the sanctity and dignity of human life. This is what Republicans believe," said Brian S. Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). "It is extremely disappointing to see Republican leaders in Washington help push the election of candidates who reject the party's principled positions on these and other core issues. We cannot sit by when people calling themselves Republicans seek high office while espousing positions that are antithetical to the overwhelming majority of Republicans."

CitizenLink is an arm of Focus On The Family.

Labels: 2014 elections, Brian Brown, Carl DeMaio, Focus On The Family, FRC, GOP, hate groups, marriage equality, Monica Wehby, NOM, religion, Richard Tisei

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: It's Time for the Freedom to Marry

Flower of the Day: 09/26/14

“Once we become independent, we may or may not end up helping to sustain our parents, but we need to observe who in us is doing this. Where does our sense of responsibility come from: guilt or love? Do we want to help because our heart is open, or because we feel guilty? Many people help their parents out of a sense of obligation, but they will later expect 'compensation,' even charging 'interest' and 'inflation adjustments.' Rather than being monetary, this compensation comes in the form of emotional pressure. One actually ends up subtly humiliating one’s parents, taking revenge for having been hurt in the past.”

Sri Prem Baba

 

Read the complete text>

Via Dialy Dharma

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The Things That Matter | September 26, 2014

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If you’re not really what you stand for, then the things that matter the most are always going to be at the mercy of the things that matter the least. 

 

- Cheri Maples, "She's Got the Beat" 

 

Flower of the Day: 09/25/14

“Gluttony is related to sexual repression. There is a subtle channel that connects the tip of the tongue to the sexual organ. You cannot fulfill the objective of life without looking at sexuality. Once you are able to free yourself from repression, your whole body can relax and an internal space will open up. An awareness springs, which also helps bring one’s eating habits into balance.”

Sri Prem Baba

Read the complete text>

Via Daily Dharma

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Hanging Off a Rock | September 25, 2014

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Hanging off a rock is an exaggerated experience of facing the unknown. It is exhilarating, scary, and completely vibrant. When we can’t find a foothold, the mind falls into an open stillness—the same brief pause we encounter in any situation where we lose our familiar reference points. If we have the wherewithal to relax, we find our way. 

 

- Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, "Open Stillness"