Irony of the Week

Update: the pre-signing add by NOM... view it here, (30 sec.) Then call the NH Governor (it will cost almost nothing and take about one minute of your time!) and let him know how much you appreciate him signing the bill. NOM, nicely, provides you with that number in their video. Finally, they are useful:)

Yesterday, after years of working on the issue, the New Hampshire Governor signed a bill that would allow lgbt persons to marry in the state. This is the sixth state to "legalize" lgbt marriage.

The Episcopal Church's first openly gay Bishop, Gene Robinson, testified at the hearings in favor of lgbt marriage before the state's legislative body. +Gene is a New Hampshire resident, as is his partner Mark Andrew, and is Bishop of the New Hampshire Diocese.

Meanwhile, we learn, in the face of the upcoming TEC convention being held in Anaheim, CA--a state which recently banned lgbt marriage via Proposition 8--that a subcommittee (of nameless membership, and here) of the Bishop's Theology Committee is "studying" same gender relationships with a report due out in 2011, two years AFTER the upcoming July 2009 convention.

Over a dozen resolutions to be considered at the upcoming convention pertaining to marriage of lgbt persons, revision of Prayer Book language, canonical revisions, even the rescinding of B033 etc. are known at this time.

But the irony greatest to me is this:

This man, our Bishop of the Episcopal Church's New Hampshire Diocese...

can now legally marry his partner Mark Andrew, should they desire, anywhere in New Hampshire with one major glitch...

He and Mark could not, under B033, marry in a New Hampshire Episcopal Church.

So... the state gives the green light, TEC's B033 stands in the way, and a Bishop's Theological subcommittee want to study it for a few more years.

If this ghastly irony doesn't give you pause, it should.

While many of we Episcopalians are marching with our lgbt brothers and sisters, knocking on doors to "listen" to people in California (I am training this Sunday for this) in preparation for a 2010 or 2012 ballot measure to legalize equality through lgbt marriage in the state, our own church (already with lgbt's active in EVERY level of our church) lags behind after 30+ years of reflection on the matter.

As my e-mail signature suggests:

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

So I have to pop the question: Which will it be, TEC?

Moving Away From B033, Some Personal Thoughts

I deeply hope all of you, especially my TEC brothers and sisters, will read through this and take action. I beg you to do so.

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As many of you know, I have put my attendance at my TEC church (and all TEC churches) on hold pending the upcoming convention's decision on B033, meaning not necessarily rescinding it, but replacing it. As Susan Russell+ put it, 33 years is long enough (to wait).

This was, and remains, a very painful decision for me. But I simply cannot attend a church that does not recognize all the baptized in the sacraments which is, simply, TEC's own form of discrimination.

Today, I am sending letter to the priest of my church with a link to each video asking her to please forward this to the deputy representing my parish. I want to go home. I can do that if they allow others to go home too.

This is a very emotional issue for me not because I am lgbt--I'm not--but because friends and loved ones, Episcopal and not, are deeply injured by prevailing B033. I cannot stand with a church that would so injure those I respect and love and set them apart, spiritually. It is wrong and it must be corrected.

When one reads the pain on the faces of--or taste the tears of--those spiritually wounded and intellectually confused by a church like ours, self-described as a "big tent" church that claims to "Welcome Everyone" but doesn't in reality, how can one not turn away from this wrong?

In one respect, I am just as bad as the GAFCONers in that I left though I did not, and will not, cut the spiritual strings. I am 180 degrees from GAFCON's point of view, but I also took a departing path in fact over one of the issues they claim as their opposite own.

I feel so very conflicted about this and it has been very difficult. I feel like I have let those I love down. I have justified this because I don't, personally, have a vote. I cannot, personally, make a difference. I can support with my vote and presence and action in the public square, but not in TEC's square. But now I can at least do something to help, and so can you.

On the other side, I cannot look at any of my lgbt friends or those I meet, especially those Episcopal, and explain how or why I can walk through my sanctuary's doors in the face of B033's standing.

If you only knew how this makes my heart ache.

I have prayed and prayed for clarity. It has not come. I feel apart from my church. I cannot imagine what it must feel like for our lgbt brothers and sisters who have felt this way for decades.

Meanwhile, five states have legalized gay marriage, and more have approved its second cousin, domestic partnerships while in CA, the recent Prop 8 passage and subsequent Supreme Court decision have brought flesh back to the dinosaur of exclusion. Other states are addressing either recognition of lgbt marriages in their states, or are considering domestic partnerships or lgbt marriage. Yet in the states where marriage is legal--and even where domestic partnerships are legal--our TEC clergy cannot marry or bless our own brothers and sisters.

Will the government lead the way on an issue that is apparently confounding for the children of God? Ironically, that answer is unquestionably yes.

While my diocese is progressive and active on the issue, I see little if any parish leadership on the issue in Orange County with the exception of the likely suspects. No TEC banner was in the recent Prop 8 protest held in Santa Ana. No TEC priests were lined up supporting our lgbt brothers and sisters there along with clergy from other churches. Why? Why? Why?

Is keeping peace in conservative parishes more important that guaranteeing our church's baptismal promises to our lgbt brothers and sisters? Well, is it? Apparently, it is.

Fear of rancor and loss of giving frightens our clergy into silence? Apparently. Shameful.

So I hope you have seen the recent videos from Integrity, and if you have not, I hope you will not only view them right now, but contact your deputies and let them know your wishes on the matter. I am begging you to do so EVEN IF you believe they are already in support.

Both Integrity videos are below and both are excellent. Please watch them and take action. I ask you--I beg you--to do so. Please help us all come home.



The following video is VERY powerful and explains many legal and spiritual points.



Pray for the church.

Kizo and Silk the Cats, BO33, and Rick Warren

Well, my won- der- ful rescue cat, Kizo, is leaving for his very nice new digs this Saturday. And just in time to live in air conditioning, no less. A nice thing when temps--like today--are (sigh) almost 100 degrees F.

Kizo's new mom is very excited, and so are we!

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Silk the Cat is so much better! Thank you all for your prayers for her (please don't stop!). The specialists still cannot figure out why her BUN levels are high... they still believe she is bleeding internally somewhere perhaps a small stomach or intestinal lesion or ulcer. We are hoping to have her scoped when the specialist hits my vet next.

She is getting stronger and looks SO much better... has the run of the vet office pretty much... but we just cannot seem to get her well. The vet is trying some new medication and we are hoping this might help.

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Bumped into an explanation of the BO33 issue with some elementary explanations about resolutions at convention and the basic making of sausage in the church which I found extremely helpful. Perhaps you will too.

Read here.

There are eight separate resolutions pertaining to the "issue" of B033, none of them specifically revoking B033, but all of them supplanting it one way or another (which is how it often works, I learned). There are links to each resolution on the issue.

An excellent read.

*****

Since I went off on a toot yesterday about Bul, today it's back to Rick Warren who, as you know, spent a lot of time supporting Prop 8 and in general defaming lgbt folks and who also has an interest in Uganda/AIDS, including non-distribution of condoms, and who lobbied heavily against an update to PEPFAR to strike funding for abstinence-only programs. The bill failed, Warren succeeded and Uganda's AIDS infections rose dramatically.

Read about Warren in Uganda, here. This is a January 2009 piece, but warrants reading if you have not, already... even re-reading because of the cast of characters you will find below.

Interestingly, the Bush Administration lackey that supported abstinence-only programs--Randall Tobias, AIDS Czar-- was eventually found to be using the services of the D.C. Madam. Oops. Like Craig's wide stance, Tobias admitted he had only gotten massages. Read here.

Massages. Uh huh.

Tobias shared a stage with Warren as PEPFAR Czar.

Kay Warren has a vision of STOPPING aids. Her approach is that the ONLY way to really accomplish this is through abstinence, though she does not view condoms as an evil (or so she says), she just, personally, doesn't prescribe to the notion that this is any kind of solution. Uganda Rev. Ssempa (note that he and the Warrens are also friends and Ssempa has appeared several times at Warren's church) also has testified at the behest of the government of Uganda before the US Congress.

So, the next stop is Human Rights Watch (HRW) and their 2007 letter to Congress on the issue where they more or less tie all of this into a big bundle, though without direct mention to Warren. Read it here. It is well foot-noted, BTW.

One of the most important things to carry away from the HRW letter is that your taxes and mine are supporting not only religious people, such as Warren who has spoken extremely harshly IN Uganda about lgbt people, government agencies in Uganda that are killing, harassing, and/or jailing lgbt Ugandans. In the case of religious organizations funded through PEPFAR, both US and not, they are free to promote terrible legal penalties to be visited on the lgbt people of Uganda, but lgbt people are NOT free to speak for themselves. Rather a terrible irony. In fact, Ssempa has asked that the media refrain from ANY debate or discussion on the matter.

Nothing like a free press, right?

So, the bottom line here is that we are supporting human rights violations not only with our taxes, but through our Communion. I cannot speak for you, but as for me... that is just never going to be acceptable.

As an aside, now it turns out that Mark Carver who is an apparent employee of Warren's PEACE program is editing the Wiki discussion on Warren and it has created quite the war!

You can read about it at Lavender Newswire, here.