Sunday, May 6, 2012

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 6, 2012

 

Joyful Energy

We can get greater energy out of love and joy than out of hatred. Hatred is so off balance. You blow your adrenals in one minute, then you're shaky and weak. But if you're joyful, you'll get an endless source of energy.
- Robert Thurman, "Rising to the Challenge: Cool Heroism"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

Finding acceptance of homosexuality in the Bible


Vines is a Christian, a 22-year-old Harvard undergrad raised in a conservative evangelical church in Kansas. He is also gay and says he grew up being taught that the Bible condemns his sexual orientation. He took two years off from school to research and study whether or not that assertion is true. 

The result is "The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality." It's a video -- you can find it online with a simple Google search [see video below] -- of a speech he gave in March at a church in Wichita that has become a minor sensation. Small wonder. Vines' speech is a masterwork of scriptural exegesis and a marvel of patient logic, slicing and dicing with surgical precision the claim that homophobia is God ordained. 

So effective is the video that after viewing it, Sandra Delemares, a Christian blogger from the United Kingdom who had, for years, spoken in staunch opposition to same-sex marriage, wrote that it "revolutionized" her thinking.


Via Syrinx: We will always love her no matter what

In the universe next to ours, a woman emails her sister:

Hey, sis, good to hear from you.

Have you seen Elyse lately? I wondered if she talked to you. Did you know what's been happening at our place? You will have to tell me you are surprised. Elyse came out as straight. So our household has been in a bit of an uproar.

Well, of course we are supportive. Debs and I are very conventional parents but we have always supported our daughter's choices and we will always love her no matter what. We may express concern, that's what mums do, but we will always support her. And she is a good kid, we just never saw this coming.

Click here to make the jump here to read the full article at Syrinx

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 5, 2012

How Do You Practice?

I used to think that to become free you had to practice like a samurai warrior, but now I understand that you have to practice like a devoted mother of a newborn child. It takes the same energy but has a completely different quality. It's compassion and presence rather than having to defeat the enemy in battle.
- Jack Kornfield, "The Question"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Friday, May 4, 2012

Via JMG: "Ex-Gays" Cancel Conference


The "ex-gay" industry has been rocked to its core this year. First the head of its most infamous group announced that not one person had ever actually been "cured." Then the researcher who authored the most widely cited "ex-gay" study recanted his findings and apologized to the gay community. So maybe it's not surprising that nobody wants to attend an "ex-gay" convention.
In what seems like the logical extension of the recent trend, Exodus International has decided there were not enough people interested in attending their Love Won Out conference scheduled for later this month to justify the expense. Conference attendance has been trending downward, with their last conference bringing in barely 400 people. This is down from nearly 1000 in Exodus’ headier days. In November, XGW reported on a secret meeting held by Exodus president Alan Chambers to come up with ways to rebrand the organization in the wake of social and financial collapse. Since then events have occurred which seem to validate that scenario. The cancellation of this conference, the first time we know of since either Exodus or Focus on the Family held the event, appears to provide more evidence of their decline.
As everybody here doubtlessly knows, "ex-gay" therapy is a con job, a scam, a cash-cow designed to separate self-hating homosexuals from their money. It's sort of brilliant, really. You're never "cured" so you just have to keep paying and paying and paying. It's like Jenny Craig, but without the delicious cardboard aftertaste.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: The Avengers Plus One




reposted from Joe