Anne Rice: “I quit being a Christian. … I remain committed to Christ … but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” The bestselling novelist, who turned from atheism to Christ in 1988, explains that the last straw for her was “Christian” hatred of gay people – what the polls find is the most prevalent stereotype of “Christians” in the public mind today. “No wonder people despise us, Christians, and think we are an ignorant and violent lot. I don’t blame them. This kind of thing makes me weep. Maybe commitment to Christ means not being a Christian. … My faith in Christ is central to my life. … But following Christ does not mean following his followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity.”
Interviewed on NPR, Rice said it was “very painful” to take this step away from the community, but said she can no longer identify with “the public face of Christianity.” She said what matters is “devotion to God, devotion to Christ, embracing the orthodox truth of Christianity. Certainly I will never go back to being that atheist and that pessimist that I was.” But, she added, we must distinguish between “conversion to Christ, belief in God [and] conversion to organized religion”.
Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites – and Other Lies You’ve Been Told is the Bethany House title of a new book by sociologist Bradley Wright. Yet, in a Christianity Today interview, Wright admits he was “dismayed about our attitudes toward gays. I’m not talking about whether gay sex is appropriate, but the standard ‘social distance’ questions in sociology, like whether someone should be allowed to give a talk in public or have their book in a library or, ‘How do you feel about this kind of person?’” He adds that, “if one thing is clear in Scripture, it’s that we’re supposed to love people who are different from us. And we [Christians] just don’t do it as well as other groups do.”
Most assumptions on why Californians voted against same-sex marriage are “just plain wrong” according to a two-year study of 10,000 documents by an analysis team led by David Fleischer of L.A.’s Gay and Lesbian Center.
Fleischer reports that, in the six weeks before the vote, “more than 687,000 voters changed their minds and decided to oppose same-sex marriage.” More than 500,000 of those were parents with children under 18. Prop 8 passed by 600,000 votes. “This shift alone more than handed victory to proponents.”
Antigay ads had warned “that impressionable kids would be indoctrinated … and that they might choose to be gay.” Fleisher says these parents were not motivated by hate but “frightened by misinformation.” And, he points out, half a million people who opposed gay marriage mistakenly voted against Prop 8. They thought a “no” vote meant “no to gay marriage” when a “no” vote meant “yes to gay marriage”. So, the vote was not as close as has been assumed.
Religious Right activists claim that Judge Vaughn Walker’s own alleged homosexuality disqualifies his ruling on same-sex marriage. But William G. Ross, a judicial ethicist and law professor at Cumberland School of Law at Alabama’s evangelical Samford University, explains that a judge’s sexual orientation has no more relevance to his or her ability to rule fairly on a gay marriage case than it would for a deeply religious judge or a judge who had been divorced many times. Says Ross: “Under the logic of people challenging the judge’s fitness to rule on a case involving gay rights because he or she was gay, one would have to find a eunuch to serve on the case, because one could just as easily argue that a heterosexual judge couldn’t rule on it either.”
The Religious Right is angry over the Prop 8 ruling. Ralph Blair evaluates the reaction: “Samford University’s Divinity School dean Timothy George who, by his own characterization, grew up in a dysfunctional family, smirked at the extension of marriage to same-sex couples: ‘Thinking biblically does not allow us to regard marriage as merely prudential or preferential (I like strawberry, you like pistachio)’, thereby exposing no grasp of the loving commitments with which functional families of same-sex couples respond to their given sexual orientation. Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins mocks the ruling because the judge is rumored to be gay. And Perkins misstates history by overlooking the very different marriage customs of millions for millennia, claiming that ‘for millennia’: ‘Marriage as the union between one man and one woman has been the universally-recognized understanding of marriage.’ Perkins denounced homosexuals who simply ‘prefer not to enter’ heterosexual marriage. Do heterosexuals simply prefer to marry heterosexually? Calvinist Peter Jones blogs: ‘by legalizing “gay marriage”, America is becoming officially pagan. We are converting from a “hetero-cosmology” of Two-ism, to a “homo-cosmology” of One-ism.’ Say what? ‘If there is no other, no difference, we have lost the saving key to the cosmos.’ But both heterosexuals and homosexuals experience their sexual orientation by perceiving a fascinating otherness in someone else’s sexual persona, not by getting sidetracked by the “otherness” of body parts. It’s not like tinker toys! Jones adds: ‘heterosexual immorality is heresy; homosexual immorality is apostasy.’ Chuck Colson chimes in: ‘We have got to mobilize. … Not only traditional marriage, but our religious and personal liberties depend on it.’ And Southern Baptist social activist Richard Land and the twice divorced and remarried Newt Gingrich are calling for a constitutional amendment to reserve marriage for only heterosexuals, i.e., themselves.”
Affirming evangelical responses were voiced. Scot McKnight, who teaches religion at the Evangelical Covenant’s North Park University, says: “I wish Christians would cease using so much money and time to establish our Christian ethic through legal processes. Instead we need to witness by word and deed to an alternative reality in our churches. We need to tell a better story through our families. Whether our laws change or not, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.” Jenell Williams Paris, Messiah College anthropologist, says: “ The gospel invites believers to support marriages and families, including in their legal and institutional dimensions, an effort that will surely last beyond our lifetimes. Whether believers accept legal gay marriage or work to preserve marriage as a heterosexual institution, they should work with civility and with concern for the public good. An even more immediate challenge for those who believe marriage is properly between a man and a woman is to live with genuine love and concern for homosexual individuals and families in our local contexts.” Says New Testament scholar Reta Halteman Finger, now retired from Messiah College: “Marriage in the ancient world was for economic and procreative purposes. Legitimate children were valued as economic assets, support to parents in old age, and carrying on the father’s lineage. The institution of marriage in our culture has changed dramatically, now focusing more on companionship and romance, with legal and financial privileges – something that can be achieved in either heterosexual or gay marriage.” She adds: “Legal marriage should be a secular institution, with churches making their own decisions about ‘holy matrimony’. Maintain separation of church and state.” Renowned social psychologist David G. Myers of Hope College says: “It’s easy to make a case that marriage would be strengthened (and the world would be a happier and healthier place) if, for all people, love, sex and, yes, marriage went together. That’s something we Christians should argue for, not against.’
B. Daniel Blatt, lawyer, classics scholar, screenwriter and GayPatriot.net blogger, gives a mixed review to Judge Walker’s ruling. “To be sure, he makes a good case for gay marriage, but a lousy one for usurping the power from the people to decide this issue. In this sense, his ruling becomes a political boon for the GOP – as it can tie his decision to the increasing sense that our governing bodies (e.g., Congress and the various bureaucracies it has created) are disregarding the popular will as they make laws and set policy.”
Conservative pundit Glenn Beck, scoffs at Bill O’Reilly’s asking him if gay marriage is “a threat to the country in any way”. He states firmly: “No, I don’t.” Then, in mocking tones, Beck quips: “Will the gays come and get us?” Beck says: “Honestly, I think we have bigger fish to fry. You can argue about … gay marriage or whatever you want. The country is burning down.” Beck, a Mormon since 1999, appealed for perspective “instead of arguing over these divisive things.” He cited Thomas Jefferson: “If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?”
“A growing body of evidence [is] showing that marriage and social support can buffer against stress.” Neurobiologist Dario Maestripieri, lead author of a new University of Chicago study, notes in the journal, Stress, that, levels of the stress hormone cortisol were lower in married individuals than in single and unpaired individuals: “We found that unpaired individuals of both sexes had higher cortisol levels than married individuals.”
The National Organization for Marriage held a national protest tour. Cities visited included Raleigh, Orlando, Atlanta, St. Louis, Sioux City, Charleston, WV and Harrisburg, PA. About 50 NOM supporters met in an Assemblies of God parking lot in Sioux City to protest Iowa’s Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage. The director of the state’s chapter of Concerned Women for America called justices “black robed bandits.” Counter demonstrators cried out: “Keep Your Gospel Off My Rights”.
Gay author and activist Dan Savage recently appealed to evangelicals: “All gays and lesbians want from evangelical Christians is the same deal the Jews and the yoga instructors and the atheists and the divorced and the adulterers and the rich all get: full civil equality despite the going-to-hell business. (And isn’t hell punishment enough? Do we have to be persecuted here on earth too? It’s almost as if they don’t trust God to persecute us after we die. Have a little faith, people!)”
“The issue of the full citizenship of gays and lesbians ought to resonate with those of us who are black”, says 76-year-old “segregation survivor” Gilbert H. Caldwell, a founder of the United Methodist Black Caucus. “As a Christian, I do not believe in divorce, gambling, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking or capital punishment, but as a citizen I must recognize that not everyone shares my perspective.” The minister continues: “Many of the religious arguments against same-sex marriage are similar to those made against racial integration” and cites “Noah’s Curse” in Genesis 9:25, once used to justify less-than-full citizenship to blacks. He cites antigay arguments from “tradition” and recalls that “tradition” was also used to fight racial integration.
Among Hispanic Americans, 31 percent support same-sex marriage. This is the finding of a new poll by the Spanish-language Univision television network and the Associated Press. An additional 28 percent support same-sex civil unions.
In the past six years, over 26,000 Mexicans have been killed in drug trafficking-related violence – not counting deaths and ruined lives from drug addiction itself. Since March, when same-sex marriage was legalized in Mexico City, over 300 gay and lesbian couples have gotten married there. Same-sex marriages “do worse damage than drug trafficking!”, says Hugo Valdemar, speaking for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City.
Saqib Ali supports same-sex marriage. He’s a Muslim and a member of the Maryland Legislature. Though educated in Saudi Arabia where, as in other Islamic nations, homosexuality is punishable by death, he says that legal marriage for gay or lesbian couples “doesn’t affect my marriage; it doesn’t affect anybody else’s marriage. It doesn’t harm us in any way.” Writing in an op-ed piece, he acknowledges that many would not appreciate his stance, but: “I represent people of all faiths and no faith at all. If I tried to enforce religion by law – as in a theocracy – I would be doing a disservice to both my constituents and to my religion.”
“Muslims should not support same-sex marriage.” So says Muslim attorney and playwright Wajahat Ali on his blog, Goatmilk. He continues: “Having said that, I don’t believe that Muslims should devote all their time trying to stop same-sex marriage from being legally recognized. I just think that our energies, as Muslim Americans, would be better spent elsewhere, neither pushing for legal recognition of same-sex marriage nor actively opposing it.”
“Muslims should support same-sex marriage,” according to Muslim novelist and cultural provocateur Michael Muhammad Knight, in his blogged essay at Goatmilk. He reminds his readers: “Let’s remember this hadith: ‘Not one of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”
A former fifth generation Mormon and mother of two gay children, has launched, with her husband, MomsForEquality.com and DadsForEquality.com to encourage other parents of gays. Linda Stay calls herself an “accidental activist” and, in a short video at her website, describes her anxiety, anger and spiritual calm the night she learned of her son’s homosexuality. She is featured in a documentary, “8: The Mormon Proposition”, that premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
“Homosexuals were with us in Auschwitz and were persecuted along with Jews throughout Western societies for the past several thousand years, so we stand with them in the struggle for full acceptance and full legal equality.” This was the lead sentence in a press release from Tikkun editor, Michael Lerner, after the Walker ruling on Prop 8. His The rabbi wrote: “The Torah’s command to ‘love our neighbor’ and ‘love the Other (stranger, in Hebrew: ger)’ are intrinsic to how most American Jews understand their Jewish obligations today. The claim by some fundamentalists that gay love is forbidden by the Bible is itself an interpretation and a selective reading of Biblical text. Few of those fundamentalists demand that their society take literally the command to forgive all loans every seventh year (the Sabbatical Year) or to redistribute the land every fiftieth year (the Jubilee) or to not light a fire in their homes on the Sabbath, or for that matter, the command to not destroy the trees of your enemy when engaged in warfare.”
A Lutheran bishop from Africa says his countrymen came to the Lutheran World Federation meetings in Germany this summer “with their hands formed into fists in their pockets, ready for a fight” over homosexuality. Given the high level of tension between the pro-gay American Lutherans and the antigay African Lutherans, further debate on the divisive issue was postponed. An African bishop told reporters that if the issue had been discussed on the floor of the assembly, it would have exploded.
The assembly asked forgiveness for 16th-century persecution of Anabaptists – today’s Amish and Mennonites. Both Protestants and Roman Catholics persecuted Anabaptists as heretics. Pro-gay Lutherans saw the irony in this repentance.
A pro-gay church elder was elected Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) this summer. Attorney Cynthia Bolbach was the only one of six candidates who expressed unqualified support for same-sex marriage: “Who poses the greatest threat?”, she asked rhetorically: “Larry King, who’s been married seven times, or a gay couple [her friends] in Washington, D. C., who have been together for 62 years and who got married two weeks ago?”
Ernest T. Campbell, former senior minister of The Riverside Church in New York City, has died. A Bob Jones and Princeton Seminary alum, he supported an early gay caucus at Riverside and, in a 1974 sermon, said: “For too long a time now we have made life difficult for homosexuals. We have made them the butt of cruel jokes and epithets, treated them like criminals, made them feel unwelcome in our clubs and churches. … They didn’t closet themselves. It was we who drove them into hiding! … If I were sure that two homosexual adults really loved each other and were willing to commit themselves to a relationship that included intended permanence, I would not hesitate to solemnize their vow.” After retiring from Riverside, he taught at Princeton, Union and Fuller seminaries and guest-preached with Ralph Blair, for R. Maurice Boyd, at The City Church, New York.
In June, the U. S. Supreme Court decided (5-4) in favor of The University of California’s Hastings Law School, ruling that all student groups must be open to any student, regardless of whether or not that student’s status or beliefs were opposed to that of the group. The case revolved around a Christian student group’s restricting membership to Christians. The university contended that the Christian group was discriminating against non-Christian students. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and four other justices agreed with the university. She wrote the ruling for herself, Justices Stevens, Breyer, Kennedy and Sotomayor. In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote: “The proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate’ [but]“today’s decision rests on a very different principle: no freedom for expression that offends prevailing standards of political correctness in our country’s institutions of higher learning.” Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts argued that the university’s demand is “a pretext to justify viewpoint discrimination.”
In the run-up to oral arguments, a group of gay libertarians, a Muslim group, other Christians and 14 states filed briefs in support of freedom for groups to set their own membership rules. The Washington Post ran an editorial excoriating Hastings.
The British Medical Association finds that “reparative therapy” for gay people is harmful and not therapeutic: “Sexual orientation is such a fundamental part of who someone is that to attempt to change it will just result in significant conflict and depression, and even sometimes suicide.”
Alan Medinger, 74, former executive director of the Exodus “ex-gay” network, died in June. During his leadership in the “ex-gay” movement, he honestly acknowledged that, “his group had problems with ministry leaders who return to a gay lifestyle … and that when an ex-gay is trying to help a struggling homosexual, the temptation to fall [into homosexual acts] is great.”
Arthur Goldberg served time in prison for financial fraud and is now pushing gay “reparative therapy”. His “ex-gay” group is JONAH – Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing. Two young Orthodox Jews who’d been through shock therapy and ritual baths to become “ex-gay” turned to Goldberg who said they’d be heterosexual within two years.
They’ve told the Jewish Daily Forward that Goldberg sent them to “life coach” Alan Downing who told one to “take a pillow and beat it with a racket. He told me my mother is the reason for me being into guys, and I should beat the pillow as if it’s her. He said my dad was not man enough, that he didn’t show me proper masculinity. I actually began to hate my mother. He convinced me it was her fault.” The young men say Downing told them to disrobe slowly in front of a mirror while he watched. One took off his shirt but was too uncomfortable to go further. The other stripped naked. He says Downing told him to “grasp [his] genitals” to experience his “new masculinity”.
Downing tells The Forward he was just using “body work”, “psychodrama” and “guts work”. Goldberg says he’s still refering guys to Downing.
Euro-gays’ icon, Nina Hagen, has a new CD, “Personal Jesus”, that the Religious Right’s World magazine judges, “no joke. Rather, it’s the first musical fruit of Hagen’s baptism in the Protestant Reformed Church of Schuttorf.” World’s Arsenio Orteza raves: “What really dropkicks this album through the goalposts of life is Hagen’s version of the title track. … Coming from Hagen, it’s an altar call like they just don’t make anymore – and probably never did.” Currently, the CD is available in the US only as an import, “but,” says Orteza, “it’s worth every exorbitant cent.”
Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson explains a basic reason for turnarounds in public opinion in the culture wars over abortion and gay rights. Gerson, whom Time magazine ranked as ninth among the top 25 most influential evangelicals in America, writes: “ ‘Coming out’ has personalized [the gay] debate as surely as the sonogram” has personalized the abortion debate. Each has achieved a human face. “Both [the pro-life and gay rights movements] have moved away from extreme-sounding moralism (or anti-moralism) and placed their cause in the context of civil rights. … [O]nly bourgeois arguments triumph in America.”
Ken Mehlman, highest profile Republican ever to come out as gay, says he wishes he’d done it 20 years ago but, he says, it took him “43 years to get comfortable with this part” of his life. He chaired the RNC from 2005 to 2007. He says that when word of his anticipated announcement in The Atlantic began to circulate, former President George W. Bush contacted him with encouragement and support. RNC chair, Michael Steele, says: “I am happy for Ken. His announcement, often a very difficult decision which is only compounded when done on the public stage, reaffirms for me why we are friends and why I respect him personally and professionally.”
Mehlman is helping the American Foundation for Equal Rights fight for gay marriage. He’s recruited hedge fund founder and Manhattan Institute president Paul Singer, who contributes millions of dollars to pro-gay causes, former GOP governors and other Republican leaders to co-host an AFER fundraiser. The LGBT Left has been less than welcoming of Mehlman, but Dustin Lance Black, gay activist Academy Award winning writer of “Milk” says: “Ken represents an incredible coup for [AFER]. As a victorious former presidential campaign manager and head of the Republican Party, Ken has the proven experience and expertise to help us communicate with people across each of the 50 states.”
AND FINALLY
The gay-faulting Right and gay-fawning Left are in a tizzy over the gay Republicans’ 2010 GOProud convention’s headlining conservative pundit Ann Coulter. And, as usual, Coulter’s having a ball – along with anyone with a sense of humor, i.e., some perspective.