Tag Archives: LGBT

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.

Rainbow Sash followup: GLBT Catholics

Last week, before Pentecost, I posted on the upcoming Rainbow Sash plans for Pentecost mass at the Cathedral of St Paul (Minnesota). A reader asked what happened at that mass, and here is what I know.

Michael Bayly, in his blog Wild Reed, quotes extensively from Brian McNeill, Rainbow Sash organizer … who disrupted the Pentecost mass?

“Was it the thirty people who quietly and prayerfully were present as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Catholics?” he asks. Or was it Archbishop Nienstedt and Fr. James Adams who “perhaps intentionally opted for the alternative reading from Galatians because it served their sectarian and political purposes . . . [among them to] discredit the wearers of the Rainbow Sash as disruptive protesters?”

Paula Ruddy, in a lengthy and insightful post called “One Archdiocesan Community, Two Mindsets” on The Progressive Catholic Voice goes beyond the issue of GLBT Catholics and suggests there are fundamental differences in the view of “church”:

The Archbishop, as a good leader, wants to maintain order. He is focused on the external behavior of respect and reverence for the sacrament, shown in this case by not drawing attention to the fact that there is disagreement among the communicants. He is concerned for the inner life of the church in that to function well the members should be in agreement on all the basics and obedient to the leaders. The Church is one body, thinking alike, acting reverently, producing a right minded, godly membership. He is speaking like a Communion Catholic.

The Rainbow Sash Alliance, on the other hand, wants to affirm difference. There are many ways we are not alike. Perhaps it would be acceptable to leave differences at the door of the Cathedral when going in to celebrate Mass if there were a forum within the Archdiocese for bringing them up and having them affirmed in another venue. But there is such a high value on uniformity within the Communion leadership, that there is no room for difference. Individuals who do not fit are stifled. GLBT persons do not fit the mold, defined in formulations about sin. People who question do not fit the mold, defined in dogmas and “unchanging truths. [These are Kingdom Catholics.]”

This is a variation on the theme of “polity vs policy”. That is, what is more important … denominational unity, harmony, peace, etc. (polity) or an underlying issue of injustice (principle)? In my own ELCA, there will be a contentious national assembly this summer in Mpls over the issue of gay clergy. Many who resist the movement toward ordination of gays suggest that will be disruptive, schismatic, unsettling, etc., and I suspect they are right. If church unity (polity) is most important, then the ELCA should not ordain gays.

But, did Martin Luther or Martin Luther King worry about the unsettling consequences of their actions as they advocated for change (policy)?

Gay female bishop

I suppose most of us are proud of our ancestry. This week, I am especially proud to call myself a Swede upon news that the newly elected Lutheran bishop of Stockholm is a lesbian in a state registered homosexual partnership with another priest. That she is Lutheran is also a source of pride for me, and since my hometown is Upsala, Minnesota, the election of Rev. Eva Brunne from Uppsala, Sweden just makes it all the sweeter.

Episcopalian pastor and blogger Elizabeth Kaeton of Telling Secrets has the details in her post entitled “Another purple shirt with a pink triangle.” Kaeton reports:

Brunne, who is currently the dean of the Stockholm diocese, is the first Church of Sweden bishop to live in a registered homosexual partnership, the Uppsala-headquartered church said, and she is believed to be the first openly lesbian bishop in the world.

Brunne, 55, lives with priest Gunilla Linden in a partnership that has received a church blessing. They have a three-year-old son.

A comment following her post laments the lack of media attention to this breakthrough event compared to the extensive and continued coverage of the election of Eugene Robinson, an openly gay Episcopalian priest, to the bishopric of New Hampshire. Perhaps Europeans are more tolerant than Americans suggests one commentor or perhaps this is an evidence of sexism suggests another.

When the choice is between a story about a handsome Catholic priest who’s been photographed with a woman . . . and a story about two Swedish priests who are living together in a monogamous relationship, you know which one is going to grab all the attention.

As a hetero male, I would like to be counted among those “few good (straight) men” that Kaeton refers to in a separate blog post.

Solidarity is a powerful thing. It can embolden the bold who have become temporarily weary by the struggle.

It speaks a silent but powerful truth to power.

And, I know that those of you – LGBT and straight – who enjoy the sacramental grace of marriage will not know complete sacramental fullness until everyone who is called to stand where you are privileged to stand is allowed to pursue their vocation to marriage and family life.

Rainbow Sash Movement

The Rainbow Sash Movement is an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Catholics, with their families and friends, who are publicly calling the Roman Catholic Church to a conversion of heart around the issues of human sexuality.

Brian McNeill of the Minnesota Chapter has advised Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis that LGBT Catholics and their allies would be present wearing rainbow sashes at this year’s Pentecost Sunday noon Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul. McNeil also reiterates:

We cannot repeat too often that we attend Mass on Pentecost to celebrate who we are, not to protest. We participate in Mass in the same way we do all the other days of the year. But on Pentecost we come out of the closet as lgbt Catholics, family and friends to remind our fellow Catholics that we too are part of God’s loving family.

The archbishop has responded with a letter in which he states: archbishop john neinstedt

Anyone wearing a “rainbow sash” will not be permitted to receive Holy Communion, since their dissent is a sign that they have publicly broken communion with the Church’s teaching. I also ask that those not wearing the sashes refrain from sharing the Holy Eucharist with those who do. Such an action is unbecoming the dignity of the sacrament.

Read the full letter and additional commentary at The Progressive Catholic Voice.

Pentecost – three perspectives (Update plus a 4th)

An African Pentecost

In the calendar of Christendom, Pentecost is celebrated each year fifty days after Easter. The gospel writer, Luke, tells the story in his second book, The Acts of the Apostles.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:1-4 NRSV

From Christine Sine at God Space, a blog of spirituality:

Pentecost is coming. Pentecost, fifty days after Easter Sunday celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. As the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples, the barriers of language and culture were broken down – not so that everyone thought and looked the same, but so that everyone understood each other in their own language and culture. This festival draws us beyond the resurrection to remind us that through the coming of the Holy Spirit we become part of a transnational community from every nation, culture and social class.

“My peace I leave with you.” The story of Pentecost is a story of a wonderful international cross cultural gathering. God’s Holy Spirit draws us all into a new family in which we are able to understand and break down all the cultural barriers that separate us and create conflict. In spite of our cultural differences we are, through the power of the Spirit, enabled to understand each other and treat each other as equals, with love and mutual care.

From Dignity USA which believes that “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics in our diversity are members of Christ’s mystical body, numbered among the People of God.”

Noise, wind, fire; things which bring consternation and confusion, not peace and security. Have you ever seen a painting or stained glass window which actually depicts the event as Luke describes it; people’s clothes blowing in the wind, hands covering their ears? We usually see a group of people piously sitting or standing with neatly formed streaks of fire hovering over their bowed heads.

Luke deliberately chooses these disturbing images because his community has already experienced the Spirit at work in its midst, especially on such occasions as the controversial opening of their faith to non-Jews – an event prefigured by the non-Jewish languages the Spirit-filled disciples are now able to speak.

Those who believe their church already possesses all truth will be greatly disturbed to discover that, according to Jesus’ plan, there’s always more truth to be discovered.

The Christian celebration of Pentecost grew out of the Hebrew Festival of Shavuot, which jointly celebrated the spring harvest of barley and wheat and God’s gift of Torah on Mt Sinai. Rabbi Arthur Waskow offers these comments on God’s Politics blog:

The ancient rabbis assigned a special reading for Shavuot: the book of Ruth, which focuses on harvesting, on tongues of native and “foreign” speech, of wealth and poverty. What does Ruth mean to us today?

For Christians, that day became Pentecost, now counted 50 days after Easter (this year on Sunday, May 31), when the Holy Spirit came like the rush of a strong and driving wind, helping the early community of believers speak and understand all the languages of every nation under heaven.

When do we ourselves experience the Holy Spirit, that rushing wind that intertwines all life? The Holy Breath that the trees breathe out for us to breathe in, that we breathe out for the trees to breathe in? The Holy Breath that now is in a planetary crisis?

Both of these festivals look beyond the narrow boundaries of nation, race, or class.

In the biblical story, Ruth was a foreigner from the nation of Moab, which was despised by all patriotic and God-fearing Israelites. Yet when she came to Israel as a widow, companion to her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, she was welcomed onto the fields of Boaz, where she gleaned what the regular harvesters had left behind. Boaz made sure that even this despised foreigner had a decent job at decent pay. When she went one night to the barn where the barley crop was being threshed, he spent the night with her — and decided to marry her.

But if Ruth came to America today, what would happen?

UPDATE: A fourth perspective

In a recent editorial of The Jewish Daily Forward (Online), we are reminded of the obligations of sharing the harvest, by “Leaving the Gleanings“.

Shavuot, the biblical Festival of Weeks, arrives on May 29 this year, with a special urgency. Holidays on the Jewish calendar often speak to us with particular force at pivotal moments in our communal lives – Passover, for example, with its theme of freedom, or Yom Kippur with its call for repentance. This year, we need to be reminded of Shavuot, the spring harvest festival with its often-overlooked — or suppressed — teachings about the rights of the poor and the dangerous seduction of wealth.

The text spells it out as plain as day: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings” — the bits that fall to the ground — “of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord.”

The message of Shavuot is that the harvest you’re celebrating isn’t yours alone. Part of your crop belongs by right to people you don’t even know, simply because they don’t have as much. And if we restate this as a broad principle, as most of us agree the Bible is supposed to be read, the rule is this: A portion of one’s income shall be redistributed to the poor.

Nor is this to be taken as a recommendation of charity or generosity. It’s intended as a legal obligation, “a law for all time, in all your dwellings” — not just on the farm, and not just in the Middle East — “throughout your generations.” It’s almost as if the ancients knew we were going to try to wiggle out of it.

Conservatives in Washington these days like to dismiss taxes and regulation as “socialism.” But if you read your Bible, that’s just a fancy name for traditional values.

The National Voice of Jewish Democrats also comments on this editorial.

Church of Scotland affirms gay clergyman (Updated)

scott-rennie The Church of Scotland is part of the Presbyterian tradition. A gay clergyman, Scott Rennie, was recently appointed to Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen, but the bigger news is that his appointment was affirmed this past week by the churchwide assembly. “In a ground-breaking move, the church’s ruling body voted by 326 to 267 in support of the Rev. Scott Rennie, the church said in a news release Sunday,” according to CNN.

Elisabeth Kaeton, in her blog, Telling Secrets, includes a copy of a different news release from Ekklesia with more details than the CNN report.

In his blog, Madpriest, (an Anglican priest in England) commends the Scots for putting principle ahead of concerns over possible schismatic fallout.

What really struck me about how the Scots handled this potentially damaging matter was this. Although the reactionaries, as reactionaries are wont, immediately played the schism card at the start of the troubles, the elders of the Church of Scotland pretty much ignored it. When they came to debate the matter they concentrated on theology and the constitution of their church not on pragmatic issues concerning the future of their church. They consistently refused to be blackmailed or intimidated.

As my own church (ELCA) prepares for contentious consideration of gay clergy issues this summer at their churchwide assembly, church unity is often raised as a reason against affirming gay clergy. The fractious experience of the Episcopal church is cited as an example. But, the polity over principle argument merely postpones and does not resolve the issue, and is inherently unfair. Neither Martin Luther nor Martin Luther King shied from the unsettling consequences of their actions, and kudos to the Scots for their courage.

In his latest post, Madpriest suggests a movement is afoot by some dissenting Church of Scotland congregations to withhold funds from the churchwide organization.

UPDATE:

Tennesee Presbyterian minister John Shuck suggests this morning that the celebrations over the Church of Scotland sitituation may have been premature. While the ordination of gay clergyman Scott Rennie stands as reported, other actions by the church body are less progressive:

Mother (Dearest) Church Reconsiders

John Knox struck up the alleluias too soon it appears. The Church of Scotland (behaving like all superstitious and fearful cults–like the PCUSA) gave into its homophobic element. I praised it yesterday for approving an openly gay man as minister. The backlash has begun.

Instead of outright rejecting a motion similar to the PCUSA’s G-6.0106b (effectively banning gays without mentioning them), the General Assembly decided to set up a commission. From the BBC:

At its General Assembly in Edinburgh, it was decided instead that a special commission should be set up to consider the matter and report in 2011.

There will be a two-year ban on the future ordination of gay ministers.

Church of Scotland has avoided a potentially damaging debate about whether gay people should be allowed to become Kirk ministers.

“Avoided a potentially damaging debate” says the news. Potentially damaging to whom? Those of us who have watched commission after commission in the 35 year struggle in the PCUSA know what these commissions end up doing.

The Church of Scotland will experience a shit storm of fear-mongering for two years. At the end of this time, the beleaguered commission will come up with some report. It makes no difference what the report will say. Fundamentalist forces will wrest control and tell the same lies and offer the same threats that have been made here for the past third of a century. Then they will come up with some horrific rule (just like G-6.0106b).

The Church of Scotland will be no further ahead then than they are now.

It was fun for a day.

Prop 8 Court decision due

The California Supreme Court has announced that its Prop 8 decisions will be made public at 10:00 on Tuesday, the 26th of May.

Episcopalian priest, Susan Russell of Sacramento, and her partner will be among those waiting. She calls the GLBT friendly faith community to vigil in her blog, An Inch At A Time.

California “Decision Day” is Tuesday … May 26 … stay tuned for more info as it comes in! Meanwhile, here are some links from our friends at California Faith for Equality:

By 10:00am on Tuesday, 36,000 of our community will know if their marriages will continue to hold legal standing. Thousands more will know if our Constitution really protects all Americans.

We have been waiting for months, but we have not been idle. Our faith and LGBT communities across the state are prepared to act for and celebrate justice. Here are three things you can do to be prepared for Decision Day and the days after:

Sign up for National Center for Lesbian Rights text service to know exactly when and how the Decision comes down.

Dial in with hundreds of other people of faith on Friday @ 10am. RSVP to http://bit.ly/zAszd for call-in information.

Attend a Decision Day event in your area and Meet CA Faith for Equality in the Middle at our “Faith Tent.” You can find Decision Day events listed in the websites in the right column.

And here’s where I’ll be on Tuesday.

I’ll be sitting at my desk in Northfield, Mn, but my thoughts and prayers will be with all.

Gay marriage scoreboard

From the ashes of disappointment following the California Prop 8 results in November, new hopes arise this Easter season with a string of court and legislative victories. Starting with the unexpected court mandate of marriage equality in Iowa, legislative victories in New England have gained momentum with the latest news that the New Hampshire governor will sign a marriage equality bill once the legislature works out minor details. New York and New Jersey may soon follow.

Despite the “sky is falling” predictions of many conservatives, the Massachusetts experience proves the opposite. May 17th will be the 5th anniversary of the first same-sex marriages in Massachusetts. The occasion will be a time of celebration and reflection. Michael Cole in the HRC Back Story blog provides a brief retrospective, including video of early celebrations, on the historic Massachusetts day five years ago.

From the standpoint of Christian denominational support for GLBT equality, the national convention of the ELCA in Mpls this summer will be the next battlefield. Early procedural skirmishes suggest that chances are good that the ELCA will join the Episcopal church and the UCC as mainline denominations that support gay clergy ordination and marriage equality.