Religious Left

You wouldn’t expect to be harassed because of your sex, race or religion at work. At least not without some sort of repercussion dealt to your attacker. So, what seems to be the difference in the case of sexual orientation? Surprisingly, there are still no laws in Utah against such discrimination for gays, lesbians, bisexual or transgendered people. After a state legislative meeting this morning, one group hopes that will all change. “She said she wouldn’t work with a freak…with a faggot,” says Ariana Losco. “They were calling me a faggot. They said I was disgusting, that it was disgusting to the Mormon religion,” says Bryan Horn. Both these quotes have more in common than just their hateful messages. Both attacks were both delivered at the work place, during company hours. Ariana and Bryan were two of several gay, lesbian or transgendered people who testified before a state legislative committee this morning. At this meeting, an openly lesbian representative introduced a bill that wou...

The headlines this week about a new "gay" infection were dramatic. FLESH-EATING BUG SPREADS AMONG GAYS, said one Australian newspaper, referring to a study about an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection affecting homosexual men in San Francisco and other American cities. EPIDEMIC FEARED--GAYS MAY SPREAD DEADLY STAPH INFECTION TO GENERAL POPULATION, shouted a press release from the Concerned Women for America, a conservative public-policy group. another religious right site, wordpress, had headlines like THE NEW GAY DISEASE - MDR Staph Infections yet another, catholic.com, said AFTER LINKING NEW STRAIN OF STAPH TO GAY MEN, UNIVERSITY SCRAMBLES ... There were MANY more religious right sites that jumped on with hateful headlines. Can you feel the love? But is there a new HIV-like public health epidemic on the horizon? Not likely, says Dr. Henry (Chip) Chambers, coauthor of the study, which was published this week in the online edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine . ...

Mark Deli Siljander (R) was indicted Wedensday as part of a terrorist funding ring. The former UN Delegate appointed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and former Senator for the state of Michigan is accused of aiding in the aiding and distributing of over $130,000 to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist . Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is said to be affiliated with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban and has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. The Islamic American Relief Agency sent the money to Hekmatyar in 2003 and 2004. The money was masked as donations to an orphanage and placed in a bank account in Peshwar, Pakistan. The IARA paid $50,00 to former Senator Siljander for lobbying purposes, the payoff was stolen from U.S. Agency for International Development. Siljander did not issue a statement, but his lawyer said he would plead not guilty. He certainly doesn't have the résumé of an accused Al Qaeda aider. An archconservative Re...

A recent article quoted Mike Huckabee: “ I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.” First, let us not forget separation of church and state, even if it is a blurred line. Secondly, bible scholars can’t even agree on some parts of the bible. So I ask Mr. Huckabee, which bible do we use? Of course, we all know, in his eyes the only correct bible would be the one Mr. Huckabee reads.

I’m not a fan of sweeping generalizations so I’ll just say the clubhouse for honest politicians must be very small. Awhile back when I heard Barack Obama say he’d give us federal civil unions, with benefits equal to marriage, as soon as he was in the White House, I dismissed it as a “campaign promise”. A week or so ago we saw news regarding the significance of “the gay vote”. So it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise when we hear Barack say “We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them”. It would be easy to dismiss this as well, were it not for the venue. Barack was at the Ebenezer Baptist Church which is the church Martin Luther King Jr. called home. They were having a special service celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. full story

A question was posed to Terry Kellog, a VP at Blue Cross Blue Shield or BCBS. Kellog was asked why BCBS still refuses to offer a product to any of its clients that extends health insurance benefits to the partners or children of the unmarried, primarily same sex couples. Kellog offered a widely expected litany of economic and business related excuses, noting that Blue Cross in Alabama does not offer benefits to domestic partners, either heterosexual or homosexual, arguing that ultimately, BCBS of Alabama’s customers don’t want to pay the alleged costs for additional coverage. Danny Upton, Executive Director of Equality Alabama, the state’s largest LGBT civil rights organization later said, the excuse by Blue Cross Blue Shield is unacceptable, considering the fact that 78 percent of the Fortune 100 largest corporations and 49 percent of the Fortune 500 offered health benefits to employee’s domestic partners. Alabama’s “liberal” Congressman, Artur Davis concurred with Kellog. adding, muc...

I found this letter online. It was a known religious right website so I was surprised: I offer here brief anatomy of a life which ended prematurely. I mean to outline difficulties associated with that life in it’s cultural context. Finally, I wish to comment on the doctrinal and spiritual implication of the these matters. We are a Latter-day Saints family whose antecedents in the Church go back for generations on both sides. As a young man I served a mission to Denmark, my wife and I were married in the Logan Temple. We have raised four sons in the Church, have participated in its programs in the ways that are advocted by our leaders. As parents, we have tried diligently to create for our sons a vision and an example of the Christian life. All of our boys were obedient to their parents and faithful to the standards of the Church as they grew up; they were good students, good citizens. As young men, three of them carried the gospel message into the mission field. As a family we have bee...

ATLANTA -- Court officials say the 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge he lied under oath. Cobb County Magistrate Frank Cox said Archbishop Earl Paulk of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church was sentenced to 10 years probation and a $1,000 fine for the felony charge. The felony perjury charge against Paulk stems from a civil lawsuit against him, his brother Don and the church by former church employee, Mona Brewer. The lawsuit alleges that Earl Paulk manipulated Brewer into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. In a 2006 deposition for the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer. But the results of a court-ordered paternity test revealed in October that Paulk is the biological father of his brother's son, D.E. Paulk, who is now head pastor at the church. As part of Brewer's lawsu...

(Fresno, California) The Episcopal Church has banned a California bishop from practicing his religious duties until March after he led his congregants to secede from the national church. Bishop John-David Schofield drew sharp criticism from the U.S.-based denomination when he urged his conservative diocese to sever its ties to the church last month in a fight over the Bible and homosexuality. Clergy and lay members of the Diocese of San Joaquin became the first full diocese to break from the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican family when they voted to secede Dec. 6. Schofield cannot give sermons, do confirmations or perform any religious rites until the national denomination's leaders meet to determine a final judgment by March 13, said the Rev. Canon Charles Robertson, canon to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "He was aware of the consequences of his action, warned repeatedly, and there comes a time when it is important for the church to hold its...

Signature collection is getting more difficult for right-wing extremists on both coasts. A group in California has failed to garner enough support to remove civil rights protections provided by SB 777. And now the Orlando Sentinel reports that a conservative group backing the gay-marriage ban has failed to collect the appropriate amount of signatures necessary to place a constitutional amendment - to ban gay marriage - on the 2008 ballot. Although the group announced last month it had enough signatures to put it on next fall's ballot - the effort was actually more than 20,000 signatures short of the number needed . Maybe a Bush appointed federal judge will step in (which happened in Oregon) after some out of state conservative agency gets involved.

A small Protestant church in Adrian, Mich., has weathered controversies surrounding abolition, the Civil War, desegregation and Vietnam since it was established in 1836. Now, because its denomination supports gay rights, the church has been deemed too risky for property insurance. Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. of Fort Wayne, Ind., turned down the West Adrian United Church of Christ, citing its national governing body's approval of gay marriage and the ordination of homosexuals. "Based on national media reports, controversial stances such as those indicated in your application responses have resulted in property damage and the potential for increased litigation among churches.

Click here to read the comic strip put out by WeHo church .

www. TruthWinsOut .org today called on Mike Huckabee to explain his close association to prominent members of the Christian Reconstructionist movement – which believes Old Testament law should replace the Constitution and that the Bible also justifies corporal or capital punishment for adulterers and homosexuals, among others. “While Huckabee makes jokes on the campaign trail, his ties to the fundamentalist fringe is no laughing matter. We hope the media will continue to explore the radical associates of Mike Huckabee.” In 1998, Mike Huckabee co-wrote the book, “Kids Who Kill” with Reconstructionist author George Grant. Grant is an ideologue with extreme, even dangerous religious views. The question is, does the former Arkansas governor share Grant’s view of the role of Christianity in government? This passage is from Grant’s 1987 book The Changing of the Guard (Ft. Worth, TX: Dominion Press, 1987), pp. 50-51: “Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibil...

"Kill a Queer for Christ" In your small town you probably have not seen that cleverly alliterative bumper sticker. For you and me it is unbelievable, unreal. Sadly, it is very real. The thinking shown in the bumper sticker and the position of many churches and their pastors abets the crimes against gays and lesbians. Peter Gomes, Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard, says, " The combination of ignorance and prejudice under the guise of morality makes the religious community, and its abuse of scripture in this regard, itself morally culpable ." He relates this: In preparing for her novel The Drowning of Stephen Jones, based upon the true story of a young gay man tossed from a bridge to his death by a group of young gay-bashers, author Bette Greene interviewed more than four hundred young men in jail for various forms of gay-bashing. Few of the men, she noted, showed any remorse for their crimes. Few saw anything morally wrong with their crimes, and more than a fe...

Following his fourteenth birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was enrolled in the Hitler Youth — In 1943, he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti-aircraft corps. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted. He was posted to the Hungarian border area of Austria (remember the movie Sound of Music?). When Hungary was occupied by the Red Army Ratzinger was put to work setting up anti-tank defences in preparation for the expected Red Army offensive. While there, he saw Jews being herded to death camps As a Nazi, Ratzinger was arrested by the American military and placed in a prisoner of war camp.

A row erupted yesterday after it emerged the Archbishop of Canterbury kept the details of a communion service for gay clergy so secret that he failed to inform the Bishop of London it was taking place in his diocese. Dr Rowan Williams reignited the row that is causing divisions within the Anglican Church after agreeing to hold a Eucharist for homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender clergy. Details of the service, attended by around 100 people, emerged yesterday, with the Archbishop said to have spoken openly about the future for gay people in the church. The service was held at the end of last year (2007) in All Hallows by the Tower, a 7th Century church in the City of London, after the original venue, the liberal St Peter's Church in Belgravia, was "outed" on a hostile website.

Rome (1 January) - Heterosexual Pope Benedict XVI has called for peace in the world during his New Year's Mass in Saint Peter's Cathedral. Since 1967, New Year's Day has been World Peace Day in the Roman Catholic Church. The pope said that there is a direct relationship between peace in the world and the traditional family, based on a bond between man and woman. Indirectly he criticised unmarried couples and homosexual marriage, which has been legalised in many countries including Spain, which is mostly Catholic.

The American Family Association (AFA) has sent out an " action alert " to its members informing them that Ford's health care policy covers the medical expense of workers who undergo a sex change operation. The AFA report claims "Ford offers medical benefits to help pay expenses of those who choose to undergo sex change operations. Ford pays for mental health counseling, hormone therapy, medical visits, and short-term disability after surgical procedures for employees who desire to change their sex." IMHO I believe the AFA and other anti-gay religious groups actually help gays, lesbians and transgendered people more by highlighting the cause. Demonstrating the insanity, bigotry and hatred surrounding this issue reveals who the real monsters are. Hate mongering and religious zealotry have done more to destroy faith and push people away.

If you listen to the religious right, morality and religion go hand in hand. If you aren't religious you can't possibly have morals. I suppose that's why I see many cars with the "fish symbol" speeding through traffic. They must be on a religious mission of importance. Because we know they are moral and wouldn't want to put others at risk or imposition due to thier selfishness. I don't consider myself a religious person but I do have morals. I was taught that you don't speak ill of the dead. Now I know it shouldn't surprise me but when I see "religious folks" speaking ill of the dead that irks me. Today when I viewed a right wing religious website speaking ill of Sylvester , I decided to write about it. In case you don't believe me you can view it here . If you ask me, religion is it's own worst enemy. Gone are the days where people have blind faith. For ages many people have been murdered, enslaved, oppressed and demeaned by reli...