Religious Left

By GLBTQ PublicTheologian I am a strong believer in the separation of church and state. Living in the US, I find too often many pastors and religious leaders over step this established boundary. Theofascism is a religious ideology that requires absolute allegiance to a particular brand of theology or religion interpreted by either one individual or small group of individuals. Theofascism is the child of fascism. The same people who say “hate the sin, love the sinner,” “you can change, many have,” “you are an abomination,” and the like comments are all informed by either an overt or subtle adherence to theofascism. The heart of the civil rights, including religious freedom, for GLBT is the counterattack against theofascism. Theofascism starts with general oppression. For example, in Christianity, the bible and how it has been translated, interpreted and reinterpreted over the years have had an agenda or another of oppression. Anti-abolitionists used verses in the bible to justify slav

Jamaican church leaders stand resolute that despite strong lobbying by international gay rights activists, homo-sexuality will not be accepted as normal. The Church's rebuke comes in the wake of a recent scathing report from the New York-based Human Rights Watch and protests last week by a Florida church sympathetic to gays. The Rev Dr Merrick 'Al' Miller, pastor of the Fellowship Taber-nacle in St Andrew, said that Jamaicans generally deem homo-sexuality wrong. "Homosexuality is wrong from every possible angle," said Miller. "It's immoral from a physical, social and spiritual standpoint." He said that despite this, the Church was willing to help and support those homosexuals who are in need of counselling or assistance to change their lifestyle. Last week that on Valentine's Day, the Metropolitan Community Church in Florida staged a demonstration outside the Jamaican consulate in Miami over what they said was a series of anti-gay murders and gay

The New York State Supreme Court recently ruled that same-sex marriages performed legally in other jurisdictions are now legal in New York. Two women from Chili, Pat Martinez and Lisa Golden, were legally wed in Canada. When one tried to add the other to her insurance plan and was told “No,” they sued. Martinez knows change comes slowly at times. "We're going to advance towards the road of full equality,” she said. Advancing down that road is something the co-ministers of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester started doing when they stopped signing marriage licenses. Co-Minister Kaaren Anderson said, "In this state, I can only sign a license saying this is true and authentic for a heterosexual couple and I can't do that for a same-sex couple, which makes you feel really sick to your stomach." full story

by Tony Campolo By calling ourselves Red-Letter Christians, we are alluding to the fact that in several versions of the New Testament, the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting this name, we are saying that we are committed to living out the things that He said. Of course, the message in those red-lettered verses is radical, to say the least. If you don’t believe me, read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). In those red letters, He calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary American consciousness. He calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications for how we think about capital punishment. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he probably means we shouldn’t kill them. Most important, if we take Jesus seriously, we will realize that meeting the needs of the poor is a primary responsibility for His followers. Figuring out just how to relate those radical red letters in the Bible to the complex issues in the modern world will be difficult

by Rev. David North I was the pastor of a large Baptist church in Northeast, D.C., being a big hypocrite, and living on the down low. My biggest sin was living a lie so long, and denying who and what I was at the expense of the love of my family and church. As horrible as the experience was, being outed gave me a chance to make a clean, fresh start on life and ministry. IT IS FRUSTRATING that there are many churches with clergy who do not choose to be informed about modern biblical scholarship. Their clergy training, if any, is from fundamentalist institutions that perpetuate archaic and inaccurate biblical interpretations. I am appalled that there are many clergy persons who have received credentialed seminary post-graduate educations who choose to ignore the modern biblical scholarship they were taught. And so too many of our pulpits have clergy who either don’t know better, or even worse, clergy who know better but don’t and won’t preach and teach what they know to be the facts, the

KnowThyNeighbor has published the names of thousands of Florida residents who signed the state's petition to place a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the november ballot. 611,000 signatures are required to get a measure on to the state's ballot. Foes of same-sex marriage found themselves more than 20,000 signatures short of the goal in January, but a last minute push collected more than 92,000, more than enough to get the measure to the ballot. KnowThyNeighbor publishes the easily searchable list of names, which are a matter of public record, so people can see for themselves who among their neighbors is intolerant.

A minister and former Christian college instructor has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a young man who sought counselling after he feared he was homosexual. Terrance Lewis, 60, will be sentenced at a later date. In earlier testimony, the alleged victim, now 29, told court he started meeting Lewis for counselling sessions in early 2000 after his parents caught him viewing gay pornography on the family computer. The man said Lewis started a program of “touch therapy,” which included the two kissing and fondling each other and engaging in sexual roleplaying. “He said I was to tell no one about it because no one would understand,” the man testified During “touch therapy” sessions in Lewis’ car, Lewis asked him to masturbate, the man said. Lewis also admitted to fantasizing about him, the man said. full article

Despite claims a year ago that the good Rev. Ted Haggard had been cured, we now learn that valiant efforts by the New Life Church and their “spiritual restoration team”, were unable to exorcise the demon homosexuality from the good Reverend. The church released the statement, "the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete." The good Reverend Haggard himself requested an end to the purge after enduring a year of therapy from Phoenix Pastor Tommy Barnett. Because the process of curing homosexuality is of a confidential nature, no further statements will be released by the church in order to protect Rev. Haggard’s continued homosexual status.

A group of Christian ministers from mainstream denominations will march in the Mardi Gras parade to apologise for the church’s hostility to gay and lesbian people. The apology statement by the group calling itself the 100 Reverends asked for forgiveness, but insisted the signatories were individuals and not official representatives of any denominations. “The church has been responsible for fostering hatred towards and exacerbating the marginalisation of the GLBT community,” Pastor Mike Hercock said. “We choose to stand with the Lord of the church and offer friendship and welcome.” Metropolitan Community Church, which caters to gay and lesbian Christians, has given support to the statement and float, but will not play a major role. “Not everyone who is part of that approves of homosexual people, they’re just apologising for the way the church has behaved,” MCC Reverend Karl Hand said. “I don’t think anyone stands to gain from mainstream churches demonising gay and lesbian Christians. MC

"Because religion has treated LGBT people so horribly it is the last place we will look for support," said Robinson during an interview with Between The Lines last week. "There is no civil rights issue so closely tied to religious issues as homosexuality." "We cannot ignore the religious piece of the argument, since it is the greatest stumbling block to us making progress. I think it will take religious voices to counter the religious right." "Religion is not monolithically our enemy. But, homophobia justified by Biblical interpretation leads many LGBT people to stereotype all churches as the right arm in the religious right. " "In the Episcopal church, with me being elected, there have been lawsuits and people leaving the church. This is the church risking its life for gay and lesbian people. The church has put itself on the line to protect us." The use of religious beliefs against the LGBT community is viciously visible in the ongoing

original article In a 52-page decision, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett affirmed the jury's verdict in favor of the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. Albert Snyder successfully sued the church for emotional distress and invasion of his family's privacy after Westboro Baptist Church members waved signs decrying homosexuality at his son's funeral in March 2006. "There was more than sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict that [Westboro's] conduct before, during and after the funeral of Matthew Snyder was outrageous [and] highly offensive to a reasonable person," Bennett wrote. But the judge also more than halved the $10.9 million award announced in October to $5 million, noting constitutional concerns of appropriateness. He held up the jury's compensatory damage award of $2.9 million but reduced the total punitive damages to $2.1 million. full article comment by tom: Where was all the concern for the gay funerals (mostly AIDS victims)

TORONTO — Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, was in Toronto last week to discuss the conflict between homosexuality and Judaism and to offer a “poetic” way to interpret the biblical texts that are understood to condemn same-sex relationships. Before delving into the different ways the verse in Leviticus – which states: “a man shall not lie with another man as with a woman; it is an abomination” – can be interpreted, Rabbi Greenberg shared his story about his introduction to Orthodoxy. While in school, he found himself attracted to a fellow yeshiva student. Struggling internally with his feelings, he sought the advice of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, a posek in Jerusalem, one of the most respected arbiters of Jewish law in Israel. Rabbi Greenberg, who hadn’t had any physical relationships with women at that point, said to him, “I’m attracted to both men and women. What should I do?” Rabbi Eliashiv responded, “You have twice the power of love. Use it careful

After more than seven years as pastor of Union United Methodist Church in Boston’s South End, during which time he made welcoming the gay community into the life of the historically black church a significant piece of his ministry, the Rev. Martin McLee has been appointed to a new position within the United Methodist Church. When McLee arrived at Union nearly eight years ago from a Dallas church, his mission was to make Union a bridge builder in a diverse community that he perceived to have "this tribalistic understanding of life - this group here, this group [over] here." McLee became Union’s pastor just after the congregation made history by voting to become a Reconciling Congregation, meaning one that advocates for the full inclusion of LGBT people into the life of the United Methodist Church, whose official doctrine holds that homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching" and prohibits the ordination of openly gay ministers. Union was the first histor

To preface this report I once against state: If, during the civil rights movement, the rights of black people were voted upon by the people......... Therefore, as a gay man, I find it quite "interesting" and very biased, that gay rights are being subjected to the voting process. The marriage of two ISU students was the first and last for same-sex couples in Iowa. Judge Robert Hanson struck down an Iowa law restricting marriage to a man and a woman on August 30th, 2007. On that day he ordered the Polk County recorder to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The next day, same-sex couples lined up to apply for marriage licenses, shortly after the license was issued, Iowa had its first legally-married same-sex couple. Later that day, the Polk County attorney's office filed a stay that temporarily suspended Judge Hanson's ruling and prevented additional same-sex marriages. A battle over what happens next has been brewing ever since. A group called Everyd