Category Archives: Religious News

A word from the conventions, Part II: UCC, Episcopal, ELCA

An earlier post reported on the closing of the Mennonite USA convention and the opening of the United Church of Christ (UCC) General Synod. Since then, the UCC has concluded its business; meanwhile, the triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church will convene in Anaheim on July 8.

Ballots

The main order of business for the UCC was the pro forma election of The Rev. Geoffrey Black to succeed the Rev. John Thomas as General Minister and President. Thomas was ineligible for an additional term. That Black was selected without opposition symbolized the unity and lack of divisive issues at the 27th General Synod. The UCC is one of the mainline Protestant denominations that welcomes gay clergy, and they appear to be at peace with the issue.

The Episcopal Church is also a denomination that ordains gay clergy, but the issue continues to roil. At the 76th General Convention since 1785, LGBT issues will dominate:

The Episcopal Church’s 45-year debate over human sexuality and the appropriate response to the desire of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people to participate fully in the church’s life will occupy General Convention’s attention once again as it meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California.

Deputies and bishops are being asked to reconsider the 2006 convention’s stand that the church “exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.”

Episcopal News Service, July 6, 2009

The Episocopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican communion, and the 2006 resolution sought to mollify international concern with the episcopacy of gay Bishop Eugene Robinson of New Hampshire, in a classic “don’t rock the boat” expression of church polity over principle. As the 2009 General Convention approaches, the Episcopalian blogosphere is electric with anticipation.

Elizabeth Kaeton, a self-described “joyful Christian who claims the fullness of the Anglican tradition of being evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, charismatic, orthodox and radical”, serves as Pastor of an Episocopalian parish in New Jersey. In her “Telling Secrets” blog, she has a telling video that addresses the perception that all African Anglicans have a negative attitude toward gay inclusion.

From the opposite coast, Pastor Susan Russell of California offers regular updates and a photo montage of the Integrity Team in preparation for the General Convention at her “Inch at A Time” blog. Pastor Russell also serves as President of Integrity USA, “a faithful witness of God’s inclusive love to the Episcopal Church and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. We are working for the full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments,” and the Integrity blog also has frequent updates.

Meanwhile, ELCA members and churches continue their 50 day prayer vigil that points toward their 2009 Churchwide Assembly in Mpls that begins August 17 and which will consider the ELCA versions of LGBT resolutions. I plan to be present in MPLS to liveblog the daily events.

A word from the Conventions: UCC, Mennonite, NOW, ELCA

The United Church of Christ General Synod convened in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday, June 26, and will adjourn on Tuesday, June 30th. The 27th synod is graced with 3,500 attendees. Here are a few highlights, so far.

Trinity UCC in Chicago made headlines last year as the home church of Barack Obama and fiery Pastor Jerome Wright. Pastor Wright has retired, but the church was represented by Pastor Otis Moss III who delivered an impassioned sermon to the gathered on Friday night.

God says I am the Alpha and the Omega, COMMA, who is, COMMA, and who was, COMMA, and who is to come, COMMA.

In a mind-jolting, three-minute recitation of the history of Christianity, Moss shouted a COMMA between each event, all the way through to the 1957 creation of the United Church of Christ and the presence of John Thomas as General Minister, who introduced him Friday night.

Don’t get angry with the haters, the Rush Limbaughs. Next time you hear them, just say, ‘COMMA!’ When you see Dick Cheney, just say, ‘COMMA!’ Remember, there used to be a period on Pennsylvania Avenue. At Calvary, death wanted to place a period, but Jesus got up on Sunday morning. ‘COMMA!’

Official actions of the synod will include the election of a General Minister and President of the UCC, Conversations on Race (a theme introduced by outgoing General Minister John Thomas within the last year) consisting of various workshops and discussion centers, seventy new UCC congregations were highlighted and celebrated, journalists Eugene Robinson and Ray Suarez addressed the assembled, all punctuated with commas, shouts, singing, and dancing.

Daily digests of synod happenings are available at the UCC website.

As the UCC General Assembly closes on the 30th, the Mennonite Convention 2009 convenes in Columbus, Ohio and will run through July 5th. The theme is “Breathe and be Filled,” and a Youtube video provides the anticipation.

Daily happenings can be followed at the Mennonite USA website.

Meanwhile, at the National Organization for Women (NOW) convention that adjourned a week ago, a new leadership slate was chosen. Terri O’Neill’s team, which takes office July 21, includes Bonnie Grabenhofer of Illinois as Executive Vice President, Erin Matson of Minnesota as Action Vice President, and Allendra Letsome of Maryland as Membership Vice President.

Finally, many ELCA congregations nationwide are answering the Presiding Bishop’s call for 50 days of prayer in anticipation of the Churchwide Assembly that will convene in Mpls on August 17th. The much anticipated assembly will deal with major resolutions regarding LGBT issues including gay clergy and same-gender marriage.

I plan to be present at the assembly to provide live-blogging updates.

UPDATED: June 28, 1969: Where were you? Stonewall remembered.

Many of you probably weren’t born, so I guess this is a question for the baby boomers, like me. But, I encourage the young’uns to read along, anyway, to get a better understanding of who and where we are this Sunday, the fortieth anniversary of Stonewall.

Here’s my answer. I had just turned 21 and had just finished my army infantry training in the heat and amongst the snakes and spiders of Fort Polk, Lousiana, “Fort Puke, the arm pit of America,” we called it. Pilfered from www.imjinscout.com/fort_polk1.html “If’n one of them coral snakes bites ya, here’s the proper military procedure,” droned the drill sergeant. “Spread yer legs to a comfortable military stance, put yer hands on yer knees, bend down at the waist as far as you kin, and kiss yer sweet ass goodbye.”

A few weeks earlier, over Memorial Day weekend, our battalion received back to back three day passes, a rare treat toward the end of our training. We were all headed to Viet Nam to become “grunts”, anyway, might as well allow us a good time. My new girlfriend of less than six months drove down from Minnesota — along with my parents, brother Mike, and his girlfriend — and we all camped out at Aunt Carol’s place in nearby Lake Charles. In front of a sultry red sun of dusk, under the bearded Spanish moss that hung from the live oaks that leaned over a dusty country lane, I had proposed, but the girlfriend had turned me down.

But now, three weeks later, I was back in Minnesota on a 30 day leave before departing for my one year tour of duty as an infantryman in Viet Nam, and the girlfriend had finally consented under my relentless urgings, and she allowed me to purchase an engagement ring. I needed that lifeline, that sense of committment and belonging, that sense that there was a future beyond the jungles of Southeast Asia, and her assent to one day becoming my bride gave me that grounding. Lynn still wears that ring, today. I didn’t know then what a privilege it was to ask the one I loved to be for me; to hold my hand and keep my heart close; to send and receive trite, and silly, and melancholy missives; and to wait and to be there when I returned.

Bobby Dylan was singing and saying that the times were a’changing, but it wasn’t clear in what direction. Tricky Dick was in the White House. Dion was lamenting the losses of Abraham, Martin, and John: “but it seems the good, they die young,” and in my narcissism I knew the song was about me. I wasn’t much concerned about what was going on in Greenwich Village, NYC.

If there were any gay people in my life then, I didn’t know it. Oh, there was elderly Emil, a hapless figure who would buy the small town boys cigarettes, but we all knew not to go behind any buildings with him. Maybe some did, I don’t know. I suppose somebody had to be the source of the giggling about the comic old man. In hindsight, I know that an older cousin later died in alcoholic squalor, never fully able to come to grips with who he was, and I have a younger cousin who thrives in a long term relationship with Robert. Perhaps there is symbolism in the differences between the older and the younger. In a reunion with my younger cousin a few years ago, he laughingly recounted how he loved to come and spend time with us in Minnesota and with dear old Grandma Olga because she allowed him to dress up in girl’s clothes.

Queers were deviates, so said the medical and psychological establishment. Fags were outlaws and security risks, so said the FBI, State Department, US Postal Service, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies. Homosexuals were sinners who had chosen the wrong path and needed repentence, so said the word from Christian pulpits. And these others, whoever they were, were mostly invisible:

a secret legion of people, known of but discounted, ignored, laughed at or despised. And like the holders of a secret, they had an advantage which was a disadvantage, too, and which was true of no other minority group in the United States. They were invisible. Unlike African Americans, women, Native Americans, Jews, the Irish, Italians, Asians, Hispanics, or any other cultural group which struggled for respect and equal rights, homosexuals had no physical or cultural markings, no language or dialect which could identify them to each other, or to anyone else.

Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, as quoted in the Wikipedia article on Stonewall. Whatever you may think of Wikepidia generally, I urge to read the lengthy article about the Stonewall riots.

Stonewall Inn When the eight police officers knocked on the Stonewall door at 1:20 a.m., June 28, 1969, and announced “Police! We’re taking the place!”, they didn’t know they were about to make history, any more than the bus driver who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat on the Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger 14 years earlier. Spurred by the successes of the civil rights movement, the bra burning feminists, and the college students protesting the war, the response of the gay community of Greenwich Village to the routine police raid on the Stonewell Bar of Christopher Street, said Dylan was right, the times were a’changin’.

We all had a collective feeling like we’d had enough of this kind of shit. It wasn’t anything tangible anybody said to anyone else, it was just kind of like everything over the years had come to a head on that one particular night in the one particular place, and it was not an organized demonstration…. Everyone in the crowd felt that we were never going to go back. It was like the last straw. It was time to reclaim something that had always been taken from us…. All kinds of people, all different reasons, but mostly it was total outrage, anger, sorrow, everything combined, and everything just kind of ran its course. It was the police who were doing most of the destruction. We were really trying to get back in and break free. And we felt that we had freedom at last, or freedom to at least show that we demanded freedom. We weren’t going to be walking meekly in the night and letting them shove us around—it’s like standing your ground for the first time and in a really strong way, and that’s what caught the police by surprise. There was something in the air, freedom a long time overdue, and we’re going to fight for it. It took different forms, but the bottom line was, we weren’t going to go away. And we didn’t.

Michael Fader quoted in the same Wikipedia article.

Will the occasion be noted from any pulpits this Sunday? Some, I hope, but only a few, I fear. Probably not in my own church, even though I know my pastor is willing, but the congregation isn’t ready. Not yet. But, someday, and sooner than you think. It’s blowin’ in the wind.

UPDATE:

Here is a list of links to other blogs or websites discussing the 40th anniversary of Stonewall.

Twin Cities Pride (including info about 2009 Pride Events)
Kate Clinton: Stonewall 40
The Gifts of Stonewall – 40 Years Later
Pride in the South Central Region
Stonewall, 40 Years Later, What Has Been Achieved?
Weekend Video Roundup: Why We Fight (Idaho Edition)
Stonewall Remembered

Quick check of denominational news

This blog contains a page (see the sidebar) called From Headquarters that contains RSS feeds downloaded from the official websites of progressive denominations or religious organizations. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of an RSS feed, it is a subscription to real-time updates of the latest entries from a website or blog. The feed is typically a headline that a reader can click on for the whole story.

Here’s a sampling of the headlines that appear as this post is being written.

From the Alliance of Baptists website, we see the headline “Being Ecumenical” which is a clickable link to the full story that starts with the following paragraph:

During my initial involvement as a representative of the Alliance of Baptists at the National Council of Churches, I grew to realize that all I need to know about ecumenism, I learned in Hurdle Mills, N.C. — not from my home church, but from the farming community in which I was nurtured.

Here’s another. From the official website of the ELCA, we see the headline, “Lutherans Open their Church Doors to Immigrant Families”, which clicks to the following opening paragraph from the ELCA news service article,

CHICAGO (ELCA) — For Howard Lamont being welcoming to the immigrant population is “simply part of the Christian message.”

And another. From the Mennonite Church USA comes the headline, ” Mennonite Church USA Convention 2.0″, and the clickable link takes the reader to a news release of instructions for following their general convention online.

NEWTON, Kan. — Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 will take place in Columbus, Ohio, June 30 to July 5, but people who don’t make the trip physically can still experience convention on the Internet like never before.

And finally, one more. From the Action Center for Reform Judaism comes the headline, “At Interfaith Service, Saperstein Stresses Urgent Need for Health Care Reform”, and the link will take the reader to the full article about the comments of Rabbi Saperstein.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 18, 2009 – At today’s Interfaith Service of Witness and Prayer for health care reform, sponsored by more than 40 national faith organizations and religious denominations, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, spoke of the pressing need for health care for all and encouraged our nation’s leaders to pass health care reform legislation this year.

So, the point is that this page of headlines From Headquarters is a quick and easy way to see what’s up as reported by various religious organizations. I hope you find this tool to be handy and helpful.

Schism is in our genes

Those of us in the Judao – Christian family tree have a long history of internecine struggle and splits. I suppose we could go back even earlier and talk about Isaac and Ishmael if we want to include the Muslims in this family history. The Pharisees disagreed with the Sadducees over Torah and the Temple, and the Essenes had enough of each and ran away to the desert. Paul split with Peter and started his own Gentile mission apart from the Jewish Jesus movement in Jerusalem. Later, the Christians and the rabbis disagreed over who could worship in the synagogues. First, the Coptics retreated to Egypt; then, the Greeks packed up for Constantinople leaving the Catholics in Rome; and a millenium later, Luther spewed nourishment to new nestlings.

So why should I be surprised when several blogposts come through my RSS reader today about schismatics in today’s christendom?

Several hundred former Episcopalians, meeting in a school gym near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, ratified a constitution Monday for the fledgling Anglican Church in North America as a direct challenge to the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada.

So says the Washington Times online.

Frederick Clarkson in Talk to Action blog points out that noted evangelical Rick Warren spoke at this meeting, inciting the schismatic sentiment.

The Presbyterians apparently have the same schismatic genes. According to Pastor John Shuck on his Shuck and Jive blog:

When the two main branches of the Presbyterian Church finally decided the Civil War had ended in 1983, they reunited. Ten years prior to reunion, some congregations of the then “southern branch” broke away and formed their own denomination. The larger church had become too liberal for their tastes.

Each of these two latter day stories relate to LGBT issues, and whispers of schism within my own ELCA waft on the breeze emanating from the direction of the WordAlone Network if the ELCA does what the Network fears this summer and allows a local option for gay clergy and gay marriage. Fear of defections from the ELCA causes some to wring their hands and advocate for the status quo.

Schism is part of our history and undoubtedly part of our future. When defections occur, we should grieve the losses and then move on, but we should not retreat from principle. We should not fear history, nor should we ignore it, nor can we stop it.

An ELCA sexuality statement and assembly primer: #CWA09

ELCA assembly On August 17, “1,045 voting members from 65 synods and 10,448 congregations serving on behalf of the 4,709,203 baptized members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America” will convene in Minneapolis for the 2009 biennial assembly. I will be there, too, and I plan to liveblog during the six day event.

There will be worship services, workshops, and plenty more to keep delegates busy, but all eyes will be on the plenary sessions in which the ELCA sexuality statement and LGBT issues will be debated and voted upon. The following is an overview of players and constituencies likely to play major roles or have significant interest in the proceedings.

Bishop Hanson

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson. In the ecclesiology of the ELCA, this is an elected position for a limited term. The presiding Bishop is largely an administrative position without significant legislative functions. The body of delegates at this and other biennial conventions have ultimate legislative authority.

Church Council (Council of Bishops). Each of the 65 synods has a presiding bishop. As a collective body, the bishops serve as the Church Council, which acts as board of directors and legislative body between biennial assemblies. When the Church Council met late in March, it voted to submit the ELCA sexuality statement to the churchwide assembly for consideration. Significantly, it also set guidelines in which voting decisions on the statement would proceed according to majority vote (opponents of the various measures prefer a 2/3 or supra-majority standard). Of course, since the assembly itself has final legislative authority, these standards could be changed, and early skirmishes over procedures are likely to be telling during the assembly.

Sexuality Study Task Force. At the 2001 biennial assembly, a resolution was passed to create a task force to study and report on a proposed social statement on human sexuality.
Although the composition of the task force has changed over time, it has consisted of 27 appointed persons, most recently under the leadership of Pastor Peter Strommen (formerly the bishop of the NE synod of Mn and a personal friend of mine). The proposed Sexuality Statement is the work product of this task force. Three general comments can be made about the Statement: first, it is generally favorable toward LGBT persons; second, it allows LGBT persons in a committed relationship to become rostered clergy based upon local, congregational option; and, third, it is silent regarding “gay marriage”, but that may also be subject to local congregational decision.

Of course, there are advocacy/interest groups on both sides.

Since 1974, a group called Lutherans Concerned has advocated on behalf of LGBT Lutherans. This group’s official posture regarding the proposed statement is mostly positive since gay clergy will be allowed according to local congregational option but also concerned that the local option rule will also allow pockets of dissent within the ELCA that will fester over time. But the biggest criticism pertains to the absence of “a means of public recognition of same-gender relationships, no rite of blessing or marriage. Unacceptable, but correctable inconsistency.” Press release Feb 19, 2009.

Another organization supportive of LGBT issues is The Lutheran Network for Inclusive Vision, and their website may be found at The Network.

Perhaps the most proactive, pro-LGBT group is Goodsoil, and they solicit assembly delegates and other volunteers to offer a full range of advocacy activities during the assembly. I have joined this group and will volunteer my services during the assembly.

On the right is the well-known conservative movement within the ELCA known as the WordAlone Network. Originally founded in 1996 to resist the ecumenical agreement with the Episcopalian Church, the group has continued over the years to offer a conservative point of view within the ELCA. They now claim a membership of over 6,000 ELCA Lutherans and 1,000 clergy. Their website includes the following statement:

WordAlone’s primary concern is that the ELCA is losing its Christ-centered focus. ELCA churches and members are turning to authorities other than the authority of God’s Word, revealed in his risen Son, Jesus Christ, and in his inspired Word in the Holy Scriptures. The other authorities – human experience, wisdom and tradition – are used to turn aside the authority of God’s Word.

As to the Sexuality Statement specifically, the WordAlone Network claims that the ELCA usurps divine authority.

The usurped authority resolution criticizes the ELCA for voting on matters governed by Divine Law when it has no legitimate authority to do so and for sending proposals that “explicitly reject Scripture’s clear, consistent witness concerning marriage and sexuality” to the churchwide assembly.

It will be an interesting summer in the ELCA, and I will keep you posted from my vantage point on the left side of Northfield, Mn.

Feminist News

Here are a couple of week-ending notes.

First, highly regarded author, theologian, and elder in the African Methodist Church, the Rev. Dr. Renita Weems has an interesting blog post about Rabbi Alysa Stanton. Rabbi Stanton is apparently the first black woman to become a Rabbi. Congratulations to Rabbi Stanton and thanks to Dr. Weems for an excellent post.

Second, the popular GLBT website, Advocate.com notes that After coming out as a lesbian in 2006, Batwoman finally gets her own comic book series — and this time, she’s out, proud, and here to stay.

Third, Desert’s Child Blog reports on a speech by award winning actress Patricia Clarkson to the New Orleans gathering of the Human Rights Coalition. “The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks,” she said, quoting playwright Tennessee Williams. The theme of her talk was the groundswell of support for gay rights and gay marriage breaking through the hard, the cold, the oppressive … by a force that is beautiful, natural, colorful, alive.

Finally, happy Father’s Day (to mothers, too). You are my child, my beloved; I am well pleased with you. This paraphrase of the gospels is my view on the most important attitude a parent can manifest to a child. Let us celebrate our parents, and our children, this weekend.

Catholics Right and Left

I offer a couple of tidbits of Minnesota news, one from the Catholic right and one from the Catholic left.

The ultraconservative Catholic Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) made local news in Minnesota today. This is the breakaway group whose four bishops were excommunicated two decades ago then recently reinstated by Pope Benedict XVI despite controversy over holocaust denials by one of the four, Richard Williamson. Williamson was recently booted out of Argentina where he had been serving.

In Minnesota, the group has reappeared in the news due to the announcement that thirteen seminarians will be ordained by one of the four reinstated bishops, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais. Although the excommunications of the four bishops have been lifted, the Vatican states that the four have no official standing; thus, the ordinations will not be recognized by the church. In an article in the Mpls Star Tribune, Rose Hammes, spokesperson for the Winona Diocese, states:

the men being ordained by the society on Friday would not be eligible to serve as priests in any Roman Catholic diocese.

The St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary of Winona, which is affiliated with SSPX, will host the ordinations.

Meanwhile, in local Minnesota news from the Catholic left, the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM) has announced that Democratic candidate for governor, Sen John Marty, will speak at The Committee’s annual community meeting on June 22. Marty is sponsor of a pending bill in the Mn Senate that would provide for gender-neutral marriage laws, and he will speak on why as a person of faith he supports marriage equality for LGBT people. Marty’s father is Martin Marty, a well known Lutheran theologian, who has strong ties to St Olaf college of Northfield. The event will take place at St. Martin’s Table.

Obama criticized by left and right

Obama memorandum On June 17th, President Obama signed a memorandum extending partial benefits to same-gender partners of federal employees, a decision that has drawn criticism from opposite sides of the gay rights debate.

The left has been emboldened by hallmark advances at the state level and wants nothing less than a full loaf. According to MSNBC.com:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama signaled to gay-rights activists Wednesday that he’s listening to their desire for greater equality in “a more perfect union.” But he didn’t give them even close to everything they want, bringing to the surface an anger that’s been growing against the president.

While Pam Spaulding was receiving an award at the Women’s Media Center Awards, others filled in on her popular blog, Pam’s House Blend. In a post entitled, “Dump DOMA“, guest poster Lurleen includes a series of angry comments such as What a lame-assed, watery, pathetic presidency this is. Although the President has spoken in favor of repealing DOMA, the brief filed by the Department of Justice in support of DOMA is especially vexing.

Similarly, The Other McCain vents and offers commenters space to vent also.

But much as certain conservatives are gloating at the response of gay Democrats (see Glen Reynolds at Instapundit), conservatives are mostly critical. Well known conservative Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council suggests that the President has violated both the letter and spirit of DOMA. Dan Gilgoff of God and Country blog reports:

Conservative Christian groups criticizing the president’s memorandum extending certain benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees are alleging that the president is approximating the benefits of marriage—that he’s basically creating ‘marriage light.’

While the left complains about the pace of Obama’s reform, the right fears the direction. As an old negotiator, I am reminded of the adage that when neither party to a deal is satisfied, then the agreement is probably a fair compromise.

Miscegenation: Loving v. Virginia

lovings In 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving were arrested in Virginia and charged with violating that state’s anti-miscegenation laws prohibiting inter-racial marriages. With the assistance of the ACLU, the couple fought all the way to the US Supreme Court which overruled their conviction in June of 1967, 42 years ago.

According to blogger Nick Covington, the trial court that found them guilty cited religious “truths”:

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

My wife and I are white folks of Scandinavian ancestry, but this fall we expect to become grandparents of a “beautiful brown baby”, in the words of my now deceased mother. When mom was dying of ALS, she expressed few regrets, but she confided to Guni, my black son-in-law-to-be, that she was sorry that she wouldn’t get to meet her great-grandkids, the “beautiful brown babies” to be born of his marriage to our daughter Greta.

Guni and Greta

So, when the child is born sometime around Oct 1, one of the prayers I will offer will be thanks for mom’s compassionate heart. I will also remember the words of our friend, Sandra from Barbados, who said life is good “when you’re all mixed up” referring to her own pot pourri ethnicity of English, African, and East Indian.

While vestiges of racism remain, America has clearly traveled far down the road of racial justice in the 42 years since the arrest of the Lovings. But interest in the Loving’s story is rekindled as precedent for the analogous struggle for gay marriage. Although she has since passed away, Mildred Loving herself stirred the debate with her own statement two years ago on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in her own case (quoted in Mountain Sage blog):

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.

I’m not sure about imbedding video in this blog, so I will simply refer you to another blog, Down with Tyranny, to listen to Nanci Griffith’s title song from her album to be released on June 9, The Loving Kind.