(Cleveland, TN) ? The Equality Ride bus was defaced Thursday evening outside the hotel where Riders were in a planning meeting for their action on Friday at Lee University. As the meeting dispersed, Riders found pink letters scrawled across the side of the bus reading ?Fags Mobile.? The bus driver reported that he witnessed a middle-aged woman and a teenager drive away from the scene, possibly a mother and son. The vandalism and suspect description were reported to Cleveland police, who are investigating the crime.
?The attack on the bus is hate speech, plain and simple, spelled out for everyone to read,? said Jacob Reitan, Equality Ride co-director. ?But a more subtle form of hate speech happens when students at the schools we are visiting are told they are sick and sinful just for being the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people God made them to be.?
Today's Post-Gazette includes a letter from Scott Means, Administrator of the Seeds of Hope Fellowship in Bloomfield. Seeds of Hope is a mission church of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.
As a member of the Episcopal Church, I was ashamed to read Bishop Chane display his ignorance of African culture. He clearly presumes that it is acceptable to hold Africans to the moral standards of his own Western culture. Bishop Chane is guilty of the very same intolerance of which he accuses Archbishop Akinola.
Shame on you, Mr. Means! Shame on you for dressing up your homophobia in the guise of cultural relativism. Bishop Chane rightfully calls out Archbishop Akinola for his UNCHRISTIAN stance with regard to the welfare of homosexual Nigerians. This isn't about disrespecting the African culture underpinning the Nigerian homophobia. This is about a man of the cloth failing to uphold his moral obligation to the vulnerable members of his community.
It is xenophobia to claim that African's are culturally wired to be homophobic. Even if they are, it doesn't absolve Archbishop Akinola from his MORAL obligation to protect the human rights of Nigerian homosexuals.
Susan J. Boulden of Oakmont writes " As a 20-year member of Integrity, the Episcopal Organization of Gays and Lesbians, and a 35-year member of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, I had been praying that someone in our church would address Archbishop Akinola's complicity in the legal persecution against homosexual people in Nigeria."
She goes on to chastise Pgh's own Bishop Duncan for leading a war against the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Church of England
.
Jno and Anne Hunt of McCandless (wow - Malicious Hart territory) clearly get it. They write "It is tragic for Archbishop Akinola, a professed Christian, to promulgate doctrines of bigotry and hatred instead of the gospel of love, acceptance and respect for all of our fellow men that is the heart of Christ's teachings. "
But here's the best line .... Since silence is consent, how can we possibly tolerate their acceptance of Archbishop Akinola's doctrines of hatred and prejudice?
One more time -- Since silence is consent, how can we possibly tolerate their acceptance of Archbishop Akinola's doctrines of hatred and prejudice?
I'm writing this for Desiree. She's a student at Miami Sunset Senior High, where you teach business technology. A few days ago, she sent me an e-mail recounting an incident that happened on campus last week.
It seems that on three successive days, the morning announcements, which are televised throughout the school, featured student-produced segments on the subject of gay rights.
On the first day came comments from students who took the pro position. On the second day came remarks from a counselor who spoke of the need for students to respect one another. On the third day came you.
You and a few students, actually. One told classmates homosexuality was ''unacceptable in the eyesight of God.'' Another said gays were ``unrighteous.''
The coup de grace, though, was you invoking Sodom and Gomorrah and telling students homosexuality was ''wrong
And then this wonderful ending
Just once, I'd like to read a headline that said a Christian group was boycotting to feed the hungry. Or marching to house the homeless. Or pushing Congress to provide the poor with healthcare worthy of the name.
Instead, they fixate on keeping the gay in their place. Which makes me question their priorities. And their compassion. And their faith.
If you love me, feed my sheep.
For the record, Ms. Reddick, the Bible says that, too.
Just go read it. It is a great Sunday evening post!
Ms. Little writes " Surely the bishop knows that the tension within church communities is so great that to rise up against Peter Akinola could pull down the churches in a battle for the soul of the church, and that is the reason for the silence. We are not "cowed," but cautious in the face of an evil almost beyond comprehension."
Her letter ends with this statement. "The heavy task is to find a way out and to continue in a mission that befits the church and its followers, being not cowed, but cautious."
Ms. Little, you forgot to include the gay community in this pronouncement. What about us lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people -- what response befits us in the face of this great evil? Here in America, WE are the ones being stripped of our civil rights, our families, our access to health care and equal opportunity. WE are the ones being beaten up by off duty soldiers. WE are the ones being denied lifesaving CPR. Our LGBT brothers and sisters are facing criminalization of their very identity in Nigeria.
How much outrage will it take Ms. Little for you to agree that the "the reason for the silence" is no longer acceptable?
Last night, KDKA talk show host John McIntire interviewed a local presbyterian minister under investigation for joining two women in marriage. Reverend Janet Edwards is facing disciplinary action for officiating at the June 2005 wedding of two lesbians. A wedding your lesbian correspondent attended.
John and Janet discussed the issue for nearly 45 minutes and took an array of telephone calls. Some were typically homophobic, even hostile. Janet responded with aplomb and compassionate rationality.
But toward the end of the segment, a male caller asked why churches are regressive rather than progressive. Janet gave a wonderful answer about history, values and classical tradition. The caller listened attentively and then quietly told her that this was the first time he has ever heard a member of the clergy affirm homosexuality on the radio. He thanked her and hung up.
Now both John and Lynn Cullen speak often and loudly in support of the gay community and gay issues. And while we appreciate their love and their words, its even more powerful that they create a forum mfor the world to hear OUR voices. As the caller implied, hearing it from a member of clergy MATTERED to him.
So thank you to John and Lynn for creating that connection. You both rock!
Tune into the John McIntire show tonight on KDKA when John interviews local Presbyterian minister Janet Edwards. They'll be discussing the Presbyterian Church response to Edwards' performing a wedding for two women this past summer.
"Marriage is a sacred union of two people who are committed to each other, without regard to gender," Janet Edwards said. "I do not feel I have done anything wrong. On the contrary, I felt I was holding up the vows of my ordination."
This is an excellent article about a local Presbyterian minister facing scrutiny for performing a wedding for two women.
I was honored to be a guest at this wedding. Perhaps it is the latent Catholic in me, but the wedding was sacramental and reverential and real. It was important to me in at least a million ways. Again, I am not particularly artful today. I hope you'll read the article in the Trib and tune in to John McIntire's upcoming interview with Janet Edwards on KDKA.
From Wednesday's Post-Gazette, this response from the Rev. Luke Mbefo, C.S.Sp., associate professor in the Theology Department at Duquesne University to Sunday's Forum "A Gospel of Intolerance"
I'm having a rather unpleasant day so I'll refrain from too much editorializing. Reverend Mbefo seems to believe that Africans' worldview of the ordering of society (divinely ordered) prohibits them from accepting homosexuality. He's much more artful in his article.
While I respect and honor Reverend Mbefo's intent to portray Africans as active defenders of classical values rather than passive "consumer" of foreign ideals, I cannot help but wonder how African women feel about these same classic family values.
Its the same family value crap over and over again. God's will, the order of society, etc, etc, etc.
None of it justifies the Anglican Archbishop openly supporting attempts to criminalize homosexuals. His moral obligation is to treat all of us with love and human dignity. This legislation is so far from any pretense of love or dignity that he appears to be doing Catholic Vatican retro "I am holy man" paraodies rather than leading his church.
In Sunday's Post-Gazette, I found this piece from John Bryson Chane who is Episcopal bishop of Washington.
The Bishop questions the pastoral concern of the conservative wing of the Anglican church for the gay and lesbian community.
Archbishop Peter J. Akinola, primate of the Church of Nigeria and leader of the conservative wing of the communion, recently threw his prestige and resources behind a new law that criminalizes same-sex marriage in his country and denies gay citizens the freedoms to assemble and petition their government. The law also infringes upon press and religious freedom by authorizing Nigeria's government to prosecute newspapers that publicize same-sex associations and religious organizations that permit same-sex unions.
This clearly crosses the line from opposing gay marriage to criminalizing homosexuality and, in fact, homosexuals. This is clearly an assault on the human rights of gays and lesbians in Nigeria.
Where is the pastoral concern for the citizens of Nigeria? Is this the future direction of the worldwide Anglican church? Or the Pittsburgh church?
Here in Pittsburgh there is growing sense of schism (I'll get called out for using that term) within the Episcopal church led by our own version of Akinola, Bishop Robert Duncan and the Anglican Communion Network. In November 2005, Akinola was a prominent speaker at a local meeting of the Network. A meeting filled with battle cries to gird the loins of faithful Episcopal conservatives against the threat of homosexuality.
You may recall that the US Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2004.
