St. Andrew the Apostle: A Saint with A Message of Inclusion

The Church calendar today invites us to consider St. Andrew the Apostle. If you look at the order of Collects (the prayers used at the beginning of Eucharistic Liturgies and at the end of Morning or Evening Prayers) you will find something very odd. The date of November 30th and feast of St. Andrew is at the beginningof the list of Holy Days in the Book of Common Prayer on Page 237. Now why do you suppose that is? Author James Kiefer wrote in today's commentary for Morning Prayer: "Just as Andrew was the first of the Apostles, so his feast is taken to be the beginning of the Church Year. The First Sunday of Advent is defined to be the Sunday on or nearest his feast (although it could equivalently be defined as the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day)."

Earlier in the Commentary James Kiefer wrote: "Most references to Andrew in the New Testament simply include him on a list of the Twelve Apostles, or group him with his brother, Simon Peter. But he appears acting as an individual three times in the Gospel of John. When a number of Greeks (perhaps simply Greek-speeking Jews) wish to speak with Jesus, they approach Philip, who tells Andrew, and the two of them tell Jesus (Jn 12:20-22). (It may be relevant here that both "Philip" and "Andrew" are Greek names.) Before Jesus feeds the Five Thousand, it is Andrew who says, "Here is a lad with five barley loaves and two fish." (Jn 6:8f) And the first two disciples whom John reports as attaching themselves to Jesus (Jn 1:35-42) are Andrew and another disciple (whom John does not name, but who is commonly supposed to be John himself -- John never mentions himself by name, a widespread literary convention). Having met Jesus, Andrew then finds his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus. Thus, on each occasion when he is mentioned as an individual, it is because he is instrumental in bringing others to meet the Saviour. In the Episcopal Church, the Fellowship of Saint Andrew is devoted to encouraging personal evangelism, and the bringing of one's friends and colleagues to a knowledge of the Gospel of Christ."

If we were to attend Eucharist today, the Gospel for today's Liturgy would be taken from Matthew chapter 4:18 to 22. This is the story of Jesus calling on Simeon Peter and Andrew as well as James and John to leave their nets and trade their fishing business and "Fish for people". (Matthew 4:19). In today's Speaking to the Soul we read: "Someone may wonder: At the Lord’s beckoning, what or how much did these two fishermen, who scarcely had anything, leave behind? On this, my beloved, we should attend to one’s intention rather than one’s wealth."

This is a great place to talk about the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the Church and society. I am choosing this because this is one of those places where the religious right especially evangelistic preachers just loves to pick on gay people. It is a full demonstration of spiritual violence and pastoral abuse for sure, but one that LGBT individuals will do well to learn how to answer. Evangelistic preachers with their hell, fire and brimstone love to attempt to say: "Your sinful life of homosexuality is the net that is keeping you from following Jesus Christ and therefore you are selling your soul to the devil." This is especially a tactic that preachers in Christian college chapels enjoy using on LGBT and Questioning youth. For that reason it is very important here to employ and use a good spirituality that affirms LGBT people and does not shame or make us feel guilty.

Let's take a look at something shall we? All Andrew really had was a net and a business with which to feed and care for his family. He was living in the time of the Roman oppression of the Israeli Nation. The amount of fish he and his brother Peter caught would often cause them to owe a tax on the fish to the local tax collector. It was a difficult time to work and live in. So, when Jesus called Andrew, he did not call some man who had all the right theology. Jesus did not call upon Andrew because he was a wealthy pastor who got his money out of pushing his agenda and deciding who should be excluded from the Church. No, Jesus saw a simple fisherman with a hungry soul looking for God to come and give Andrew some peace in his life. Jesus called out to Andrew and invited him, his brother Peter, James and John into a new way of life, a new business and one that was not about who could be excluded. In fact, Jesus was about to build a new community where everyone was to be welcomed. It was to be a Church where sinners of all kinds were welcomed and given an opportunity to be reconciled with God, without sacrificing who they were. In Andrew's situation he really did not have much to loose, yet he gave everything. Once Andrew knew that he had found everything he needed in God's perfect revelation in Jesus Christ, what did Andrew do? He brought others along to meet and be touched by the God who had changed his life.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people come to the Church with as much or as little to give as anyone else. We come with our lives broken by prejudice and discrimination because we are "different." We come to God with our wounds, our hurts, our confusions and questions. When LGBT people are told my Church leaders that they cannot participate in the Church as members or leaders because of their sexual orientation and/or gender expression and/or identities, unless they "change" what they are in fact doing is spiritual violence and pastoral abuse. When I came out to one Priest I worked with as an organist, I was told: "Everyone has their weakness, this one just happens to be yours." Again, an example of spiritual violence and pastoral abuse, no matter how "loving" the Priest thought he was. Within a persons sexual orientation and/or gender identity and/or expression whether gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered is the soul of an individual whom God is madly in love with. How do we know this? Because every individual is created in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity. I would like to call everyone's attention to Genesis chapter 1 verse 24: "And God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness,,," Notice here that my quote here has written in bold the plural words us and we. These are very important. When we say that we and all people are created in the image and likeness of God, we are correct. God exists though in a Community of Love in the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. All of us including LGBT people were created as we are by that Communion of Love known as God the Most Holy Trinity. Just that knowledge in and of itself means that LGBT people are not "intrinsically disordered" as the Catechism of the Catholic Church suggests. What is in the soul of LGBT people are people created and redeemed and are being sanctified by God in that Community of Love and no Priest, Bishop, Pope or Minister has any business taking that dignity away from us. God does not ask that we surrender the very soul of who we are to be in a relationship with God. As one of the most wisest Priests once told me: "You have to love people in the way God created you to love them." Our love for our same-sex partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse and best friend is just as blessed and honored by God as the love between heterosexual people.

What God is asking of us though is to become people who lead others to God through our giving of ourselves on behalf of others. Same-sex relationships are relationships of self sacrifice and a total giving of ourselves for the benefit of someone else. As an individual who once lived a very promiscuous sexual life, who went into an ex-gay ministry for 17 months and came back out and into a very fulfilling committed gay relationship, I can say that giving up my life for the man I love is a life so much more meaningful than spending it in bars, sex parties and on the web reading porn all day. Having been through all that, I cannot and will not pass judgment on anyone else and their relationships or experiences. Everyone has to find their own path to happiness and wholeness. But, I can say that when God does not call on us to give up who we are, God does call us to give of ourselves in service to others beyond ourselves. God does want us to invite others to come into God's presence and experience healing and wholeness in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God does want us to experience that unconditional love and share it with others. As we go through this season of Advent, God calls on us to prepare for the coming of Christ by helping others to find their path to God and to be instruments of service and healing for those in need. LGBT people can often be "Wounded Healers" as Henry Nouwen once wrote. We are people who are wounded by hatred, oppression and prejudice. God can and does wish to heal us and make us ready to serve others. Yet we can hear the call of Jesus to be Apostles and evangelists, leading others to Christ as Andrew once did.

In what ways are we allowing the religious oppression we experience to keep us from a relationship with God? How are we answering God's call to leave everything and follow Jesus? How are we leading other people to God through our lives, our loving and our service?

Almighty God, who gave such grace to your Apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Page 237, Collect for November 30 Feast of St. Andrew.)

First Sunday of Advent: Be On Guard That Your Hearts Will Not Be Weighed Down

The readings for the First Sunday of Advent tend to sound like doom and gloom. They don't sound very happy and they don't sound like the joyful preparation for Christmas that we are hearing in the shopping malls. The Human Rights Campaigns Weekly Commentary on the Sunday Scriptures for today's Gospel of Luke says: "Luke 21:25-36 can be a difficult text to understand, especially during what is supposed to be a joyous time. We prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus at Christmas, but this passage addresses the end of the age. Jesus tells his disciples that the time will come when people “will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Luke 21:26). The interesting twist is that although this would appear to be a text of doom and gloom, it is in truth the opposite. This period of chaotic change, when entire populations will be confused “by the roaring of the sea and the waves,” is just the birth pangs of a new age of justice (Luke 21:25)."

When Jesus is speaking about all the things that will be destroyed he is actually talking about the destruction of Jerusalem that will eventually follow when the Roman Empire will invoke massive destruction. It was a difficult time, because of the oppression with which Israel lived because of Rome. Jesus was telling them that there will be a time when destruction and distress will come, and they come to all of us. Imagine the distress that will come to the LGBT citizens of Uganda if their Parliament passes the anti-homosexuality bill. I bet many of them are feeling the fear that Jesus speaks about in today's Gospel. Nevertheless, even amidst all the destruction that can and does occur in this world, there is no situation too big for God through which God cannot impact our lives and the world. When old walls are ripped apart, it can take many years, but new ways of thinking do emerge and a new understanding becomes the tale of the land.

I think this could very much be applied to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities during this Advent Season. As we prepare to remember the thousands of people who have been affected and died of AIDS on World AIDS Day on Tuesday, December 1st, we have an opportunity to tear down the walls that ignore people with HIV/AIDS and build a new civilization that recognizes people who live with HIV/AIDS without shame and guilt. The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made a Statement on World AIDS Day. Presiding Bishop Schori said the following: "December 1 each year is World AIDS Day, an occasion both to remember the 25 million beloved children of God who have lost their lives to the pandemic over the past three decades, and to rededicate ourselves to building a future without AIDS. This year, new challenges both at home and abroad remind us again of the costly work that remains in the world's fight to eradicate AIDS.

In poorer countries around the world, stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS has proven the most difficult of the eight Millennium Development Goals and the one that threatens to undermine progress toward all the others. More than 33 million people continue to live with HIV/AIDS around the world, and nearly three million are newly infected each year. The global economic crisis has made matters worse, pushing as many as 100 million more people below the poverty line. Their futures are more at risk than ever, yet their interests have rarely been considered in wealthier nations' political conversations about the economic crisis."

As discussions about HIV/AIDS as well as the conversations about the ending of civil and religious oppression for LGBT continues it is important to be thinking about preparing for the coming of Christ on earth by calling people to a new attitude, way of thinking and talking. It is an opportunity to be active in changing the way our nation thinks about the issue of health care for people who do not have medical coverage when they really need it. Advent gives us an opportunity to speak back to people like Lawyer Harry C. Arthur"in downtown Houston whose office is near Christ Church Cathedral,and is suing in pursuit of shutting down The Beacon, the cathedral's well-used program for area homeless." As we prepare for the coming of Christ we can become people who do not turn the other way when things like this are happening, we can become a voice for those who have no voice and help build the Kingdom of God here on earth.

In order to understand how we can play our part in doing away with the darkness of our times, we need to understand that we cannot do it alone. Vicki Black in the Episcopal Cafe wrote: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. . . .”

The year begins with a bleak, eerie prayer, uttered in the darkness. The darkness terrifies us. It is no ordinary darkness. The scientists speak of a darkness that has no form or movement or will because it has no existence; it is neither good nor bad because it is nothing at all, the mere absence of light. But this is not the darkness of the scientists. This is a different kind of darkness, an energetic, aggressive malevolence seeking to envelop and consume us. In this darkness the seeds of self-will sprout and grow; they strangle what is left of our health. Cut off from light, we grow accustomed to the darkness; damp, stale air fills our lungs. We have stopped resisting the darkness. Perhaps it is normal, inevitable. Perhaps it is simply the way things are.

But God, I know that it need not be so. The darkness has not yet claimed every corner, and I can still dream of a different place and time. We all dream of it. We dream of a garden where we walk with you in the light of day, of a time of contentment with you and all your creatures. The dream is distant but clear. We long for it, as for a blessing remembered from long ago, from before we had succumbed to the works of darkness.

We would cast away the works of darkness, O God, but we lack the strength. And so we pray to you: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.” We are helpless; the power to cast away the works of darkness must come from outside ourselves. It must come from you, O God. We beg for your grace, the power that you give to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. That is what we pray for, O God—grace to begin again.

From A Gracious Rain: A Devotional Commentary on the Prayers of the Church Year by Richard H. Schmidt. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com."

This First Sunday of Advent also marks the beginning of a new Liturgical Year in the Church. And to help celebrate this year Episcopal Bishop Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts, has opened the way for those Episcopal Priests in Massachusetts to the "Solemnization, in accordance with Massachusetts law, includes hearing the declaration of consent, pronouncing the marriage and signing the marriage certificate. This provision for generous pastoral response is an allowance,," in keeping with resolution C056from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church this past summer. Such a decision has been "tearing down the walls" of injustice in many places, and for many it has been a "tearing down" of walls that have become all too familiar to replacing them with walls that make room for LGBT people to receive the blessing of the Church and the State upon their relationship. Creating a new world of justice and inclusion is one way that we prepare for the coming of Christ.

In the Human Rights Campaigns Scriptural Commentary for the First Sunday of Advent we also read: "Jeremiah 33:14-16 makes this point (The point made in Luke 21: 25 to 36) most clearly. The prophet tells us that God has promised us that one day we will live in a land where justice and righteousness reign. Instead of being in despair because of the rapid and often confusing changes that are occurring around us, Jesus tells us, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). Changes, especially huge social ones, are often difficult for us to accept. At other times, those who press for such changes are met with fierce resistance. The gospel tells us, however, that such change is to be welcomed as preparation for the new age that will be ushered in by Jesus Christ."

How are we playing the role of preparing the world for the changes that Jesus Christ brings? How are we calling the world around us to a new way of justice and inclusion for people who are considered "different"? How are we communicating God's justice to people who are not accepting the call to change? In what ways do we need to tear down walls within our own relationships, homes, jobs, governments and communities? How are we preparing the world around us for the coming of Christ? Are we trusting in God to help us or are we trying to do it all ourselves? What places do we need God to heal this Advent Season, so that the Christ's coming can be a coming of peace and love and justice in our own lives? Who do we need to be the presence of God for in our home, town, society, family or community? What walls in our communities or lives need to torn down, so that God can use us to build new cities and ways of thinking?

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in teh last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the First Sunday of Advent, Page 211).

The Day Before Advent Begins: Time to Come Out and Be Hospitable and Courageous

The first Sunday of Advent and the beginning of this holy Season starts tomorrow. Already the holiday rush for Christmas shopping has started, many of the radio stations are playing all the Christmas muzac. Last night in Minneapolis was the first Holidazzle Parade of the season. It is wonderful to be thinking Christmas, no question about it.

However, I think it is also a good time to stop for a while and ponder Advent. Advent is the season when we prepare to recall the first coming of Christ at Christmas, while also pondering the second coming of Christ at the end of time. Today is not a time to be sitting on the sidelines and just watching all the preparations for Christmas. Today is a day to ask God in our prayers how can we be part of spreading that peace on earth and good will toward all of God's people. Today is a day for us to consider our work to include everyone in the work of justice and equality. Advent is a great season for LGBT people everywhere to think about what we can do to help spread the message of love and cheer.

Today's Gospel of Matthew chapter 20: 29 to 34 is about Jesus healing two blind men. When the two blind men shout: "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" The crowd attempts to silence them saying: "Be quiet." Yet the two blind men shouted even louder: "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" Then Jesus asked: "What do you want me to do for you?" "Let our eyes be opened" the two blind men answered. Jesus touched their eyes and immediately their sight was recovered. The Gospel says that Jesus "was moved with compassion."

It is interesting what often happens when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people often speak up about religious and civil oppression. The Religious right and their followers will often say: "Keep quiet, do not try to inject the world with the gay agenda." Yet LGBT Christians and all people have every business speaking up to be included in the Church and society. We are absolutely right to refuse to keep quiet and insisting that we be allowed to approach Jesus in the Church, in the Eucharist and to be recognized as people who need compassion and understanding. In our faith, we should never stop calling out religious leaders and individuals who discrimination and marginalize LGBT or any other people for that matter. In the days of slain gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk whenever some city in the country would repeal the civil rights of it's citizens, Harvey used such an opportunity to create a force to speak up. The more civil rights were taken away, the louder Harvey and the gay folks of San Francisco would speak up. All LGBT people need to do the same if we are to experience successes in working for our civil and equal rights. In terms of the Church, we should never stop calling religious leaders who do not recognize LGBT people as good people, created by God and affirmed by Jesus in our love and relationships to experience a conversion of heart and call them to task for the religious oppression they heap upon the LGBT Community.

In today's Scripture readings 1 Peter 4:7-19 Peter says: "Be hospitable with one another without complaining." (Verse 9). The LGBT community in our work for justice and equality must continue to work towards being a community of hospitality, especially towards people when they first come out. I do remember when I was first coming out I was met with much compassion from people in the psychological fields. However, the anger and resentment that I often discovered among gay men and a total lack of compassion in most cases was something that to this day I still find difficult to remember. While there is plenty of room for anger due to the rejection we have often experienced, there does need to be a point where we do not hold other gay men, especially those just coming out with the same contempt and lack of compassion that we sometimes do. Hospitality does not mean letting everyone take advantage of us, and I know all too well how that can happen. However, just being a listening ear for someone who is just fresh out and is scared and not sure about what to do is something everyone can do. Having an extended LGBT family is a most important asset to us and anyone fresh out of the closet. Become a good resource for people to find places and resources for people coming out to find what they need.

As we approach the Season of Advent tomorrow, let us do so from a point of activism, anticipation and celebration. Let us also remember that all of us have been purchased at the great price of the Son of God, who loves us all, yes that is all of us and calls us to be a source of love and compassion for all as well.

Lord, Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Between Thanksgiving and Advent: A Time to Consider Our Next Move

Today's Gospel Reading from Matthew chapter 20: 20-28 sounds a lot like the day after Thanksgiving when some people at the dinner table might have had a squabble. James and John's mother came to Jesus with a request not fully understanding what she was asking. And because of James and John the other Disciples became angry with them and Jesus has to calm them down. Jesus plays the role of quite the good referee first taking care of the issue with James and John and then talking to the other Disciples. Jesus' main interest appears to be making peace amidst the arguments of those who are having their temper tantrums. But the answers Jesus gives his followers sound anything but peaceful. It sounds like: "Hey boys, everyone will get theirs in the end."

Today is the day after Thanksgiving with only two days before Advent officially starts. We have left over food from our Thanksgiving Day feasts, dishes to wash, perhaps still guests to attend to and parties to go to. There are phone calls to make. Perhaps there are some hurt feelings from the day before. Perhaps Thanksgiving was not very happy for someone. Yet, in two days we will begin celebrating Advent when we wait in anticipation of the Lord's coming. What always tends to get to me this time of year is how Thanksgiving becomes Christmas without some time being paid attention to Advent. While it is great to go get those gifts and put up the decorations, the fact is there is some time of waiting in anticipation and hope that comes between Thanksgiving and during the Advent Season that really could use some down time. Time to think about how we can be servants to those who are needy, without their civil rights, health insurance and be the voices for the voiceless. The work of Justice is a work that never quite takes a holiday.

Yesterday we all received some very disturbing news. The Catholic church in Ireland covered up years of child sex abuse. We cannot hear news like this without walking away down right furious. This is an outrageous abuse of not only children but ecclesiastical authority. The world ecclesiastical by the way is suppose to mean "wisdom." There is no wisdom in church leaders who cover up injustice for the sake of their reputation. And there is no wisdom in a Pope who blames such activities on the number of gay clergy in the church. The very fact that all of this was covered up for as long as it was tells me that the leaders of the Catholic church are much more concerned about their immediate appearance rather than the long term consequences on children and on those Priests who were obviously ill due to their inability to create healthy intimate relationships. Episcopal Priest Fr. Paul Bresnahan in his blog An Invitation to An Inclusive Churchwrote: "we figured out 600 years ago that it is a good idea to allow the clergy to marry. This is a splendid way to channel clerical libidinal energy. It is no assurance of rectitude, but the instances of clergy misconduct are far more likely to be held in check if there is a marriage within which to practice intimacy than if there is celibacy with no such outlet. Terrible things can happen to a church with celibacy as the only libidinal outlet as we well know, and the Anglican/Episcopal Church figured that out a long, long time ago." This very event that has been released from Ireland shows that the leaders of the Catholic church need to be reminded of Jesus' words in today's Gospel just as much as we do. "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:26-27).

As we approach the great Season of Advent I think all Christians and people of good will would do well to ponder on how and where we can be a voice for the injustice that is taking place both in the Church and in society. As the Ugandan Parliament considers the draconian measure that homosexuals should be put in prison or put to death, I think we need to give ourselves permission to be angry about those things and call upon church leaders and political leaders to be voices of liberation in the midst of injustice. Write letters to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. The email address for the Presiding Bishop is pboffice@episcopalchurch.org. If you are the member of another denomination or if you are part of an advocacy organization for LGBT people ask your organization to speak out about the bill before the Ugandan Parliament. Don't let these individuals earn all that money and not ask them to speak up for the most endangered of society. After the long list of individuals who were murdered last year because they were transgendered, I think we need to speak up and let Church leaders and others know that these kinds of numbers are not okay. The approach of Advent is a call to remember that one day Christ will come again, but until then there is much work to be done. LGBT individuals have been a united voice for our equal rights and those of others and now is not the time to stop voicing our concerns. The LGBT Community has such a bold and beautiful message that we can love and call others to love us and be faithful stewards of all that God has given. In so doing, we share in the service, mission and even the "cup" of Jesus Christ. When we take what we have been given, even though it is despised by society and the Church and use it to bring about justice for all who are oppressed we fulfill the call of Jesus to serve.

O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (From the Book of Common Prayer, #7 For the Diversity of Races and Cultures, Page 840).

Thanksgiving Day Blog: Trust in God

As we gather with friends, family and our communities to celebrate God's goodness on this Thanksgiving Day we hear Jesus during his Ssermon on the Mount tell us: "Do not worry." Today's Gospel is taken from Matthew 6: 25-34.

Jesus begins saying: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grown, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith? Therefore do not worry saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."

This Thanksgiving comes during a very dismal economic time. Many people over this past year have lost their jobs, homes, dreams and had their hopes crushed. Many, many soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have lost their lives leaving many families without their husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, cousins and best friends. The LGBT folks of Maine gather for Thanksgiving Day after Stand for Marriage Maine, the National Organization of Marriage and the Catholic Diocese worked to revoke their civil rights to legally marry. Many more service members have been discharged from America's military services due to don't ask, don't tell. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act has not yet been passed. The Defense of Marriage Act has not been repealed. The health care reform debate remains in limbo due to insurance companies lobbying against the needs of Americans who are sick and in need of medical treatment. The executives on Wall Street continue to grow fat on the bail outs they received from tax payer moneys given to them to help aid America's economy. For many people, this Thanksgiving is happening after having lost a loved one in death or separation or divorce and faces the day lonely and in despair. It is said that during the Holiday season that more relationships and marriages break up during this time of year due to high expectations and lack of communication. These issues and many more I am sure I have not named do not sound like today could be a very happy Thanksgiving. Yet, in today's Gospel Jesus tells us not to worry. How do we listen to Jesus and receive God's peace during a Thanksgiving Day while all of these realities remain part of our world?

Sometimes in our struggle to relieve those who are troubled or relieve our own troubles, we might tend to forget who Jesus was, is and always will be. Jesus Christ is God's perfect revelation in the human condition. Jesus was born into the middle of the filth and dirt of the human condition. Jesus was preaching: "Do not worry" as someone who lived as a poor man. Jesus very often had no where to lay his head. The very people who Jesus associated with were those who were marginalized by society and the religious establishment of his time. Jesus "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:6-8). And also "...our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus Christ who was God had every rich ability of heaven and earth at his command. For we read in John's Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being." (John 1:1-3). Yet in Jesus Christ God came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. (See Matthew 20:28.) Jesus fed five thousand people in Matthew 14:13 to 21 and four thousand in Matthew 15: 32 to 39 with the Goodness and Grace of God without requiring them to oppose abortion or same-sex marriage or endorse the teachings of the church of their time. Jesus was the best friend of those whose rights were being denigrated and showed great friendships with women.

God is interested and active in all that is happening in the world both good and bad. However, God does not act on the problems of the world without employing the work of God's people. God has endowed all of us with the ability to speak up when our rights and dignity are violated. God has also given many of us the ability to speak up in behalf of someone who may not be able to speak for themselves. God has given to us the day of incredible technology to be able email our President, representatives and senators, Governors, Mayors and City Council members. God has given us church leaders who can be contacted and confronted. God has given us today the duty to be a voice for the lonely, the poor, those who's civil rights have been violated or not protected. God has given us another opportunity today to be agents of justice and peace in our world. We have every reason to give thanks today because we have the opportunity to be the hands, feet and heart of Jesus Christ in today's times. God has and does provide for all of us even in the midst of very dark times. We have an opportunity to be friends with the friendless, to invite and be a companion for those who are missing someone today. We can make a phone call and invite someone who is missing someone to spend Thanksgiving with. And we can love our significant other(s) who would not be being loved by us today. Therefore, God has indeed provided an abundance for us today. And therefore, if we only trust in God and God's grace and power what God does today is only the beginning of what God will continue to do in and through us as the days go forward. Let us never stop being a voice for those without health insurance, jobs, civil rights, food, clothing, electricity and a place to live. By being advocates for the poor, lonely and those who face prejudice we help people rely on God and God's promises through Jesus Christ.

Let us give thanks today that we can enjoy God's goodness and abundance and can give thought to how we can be God's message of goodness and abundance to others.

A General Thanksgiving taken today from the Book of Common Prayer on page 836.

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures which lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptations, for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Being Thankful for All That We Have By Giving and Remembering

On this day before we celebrate Thanksgiving when many of us will gather with family, friends and our communities, it is a good idea to remember that all that we have is a gift from God. It is interesting that today's Gospel story from Matthew 19: 23-30 is about leaving our wealth for the sake of others.

Thanksgiving for so many of us is a day to give thanks. We have been given so many blessings and favors. The good bounty of God has enabled us to experience many good things and in reality, we should be thankful every day, not just once a year. Being thankful does not come without really remembering what it is we are to be thankful for. So many times especially in a consumerist society such as ours, we just soak everything up for ourselves and forget that there are so many who are still left on the edge of society.

I was particularly interested in a web article I read yesterday that was written by Rev. Irene Monroe Entitled: Remembering Two-Spirits this Thanksgiving. In the article Rev. Monroe writes: "As I prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, I am reminded of the autumnal harvest time's spiritual significance. As a time of connectedness, I pause to acknowledge what I have to be thankful for. But I also reflect on the holiday as a time of remembrance - historical and familial.

Historically, I am reminded that for many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is not a cause of celebration, but rather a National Day of Mourning, remembering the real significance of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 as a symbol of persecution and genocide of Native Americans and the long history of bloodshed with European settlers. "

While we are enjoying our turkey with all the trimmings, we tend to forget those who have lived with oppression and discrimination throughout the centuries and even in our own time. The very Puritans who came to this land looking for Religious Freedom brought a great deal of Religious oppression for many of the Native Americans upon their arrival. Rev. Monroe goes on to explain: "I am also reminded of my Two-Spirit Native American brothers and sisters who struggle with their families and tribes not approving of their sexual identities and gender expressions as many of us do with our families and faith communities.

"Yes, there's internalized homophobia in every gay community, but as Native Americans we are taught not to like ourselves because we're not white. In our communities, people don't like us because we're gay," Gabriel Duncan, member of Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits (BAAITS), told the Pacific News Service.

And consequently, many Two-Spirit Native Americans leave their reservations and isolated communities hoping to connect with the larger LGBTQ community in urban cites. However, due to racism and cultural insensitivity, many Two-Spirits feel less understood and more isolated than they did back home.

But homophobia is not indigenous to Native American culture. Rather, it is one of the many devastating effects of colonization and Christian missionaries that today Two-Spirits may be respected within one tribe yet ostracized in another.

"Homophobia was taught to us as a component of Western education and religion," Navajo anthropologist Wesley Thomas has written. "We were presented with an entirely new set of taboos, which did not correspond to our own models and which focused on sexual behavior rather than the intricate roles Two-Spirit people played. As a result of this misrepresentation, our nations no longer accepted us as they once had."

Traditionally, Two-Spirits symbolized Native Americans' acceptance and celebration of diverse gender expressions and sexual identities. They were revered as inherently sacred because they possessed and manifested both feminine and masculine spiritual qualities that were believed to bestow upon them a "universal knowledge" and special spiritual connectedness with the "Great Spirit." Although the term was coined in the early 1990s, historically Two-Spirits depicted transgender Native Americans. Today, the term has come to also include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and intersex Native Americans.

The Pilgrims, who sought refuge here in America from religious persecution in their homeland, were right in their dogged pursuit of religious liberty. But their actual practice of religious liberty came at the expense of the civil and sexual rights of Native Americans.

And the Pilgrims' animus toward homosexuals not only impacted Native American culture, but it also shaped Puritan law and theology.

Here in the New England states, the anti-sodomy rhetoric had punitive if not deadly consequences for a newly developing and sparsely populated area. The Massachusetts Bay Code of 1641 called for the death of not only heretics, witches and murderers, but also "sodomites," stating that death would come swiftly to any "man lying with a man as with a woman." And the renowned Puritan pastor and Harvard tutor, the Rev. Samuel Danforth in his 1674 "fire and brimstone" sermon preached to his congregation that the death sentence for sodomites had to be imposed because it was a biblical mandate.

Because the Pilgrims' fervor for religious liberty was devoid of an ethic of accountability, their actions did not set up the conditions requisite for moral liability and legal justice. Instead, the actions of the Pilgrims brought about the genocide of a people, a historical amnesia of the event, and an annual national celebration of Thanksgiving for their arrival."

In his book: In the Eye of the Storm Bishop Gene Robinson wrote: "The problem, though, isn't exactly "homophobia." That surely exists, but it's always a conversation stopper. Some claim they're not afraid of homosexuals so they're "not guilty" of homophobia. But the further sin our society is guilty of is "heterosexism."

Everyone knows what an "ism" is: a set of prejudices and values and judgments backed up with the power to enforce those prejudices in society. Racism isn't just the fear and loathing of non-white people; it's the systemic network of laws, customs, and beliefs that perpetuate prejudicial treatment of people of color. I benefit every day from being white in this culture. I don't have to hate anyone, or call anyone a hateful name, or do any harm to a person of color to benefit from a racist society. I just have to sit back and reap the rewards of a system set up to benefit me. I can even be tolerant, open-minded, and multi-culturally sensitive. But as long as I'm not working to dismantle the system, I am racist.

Similarly, sexism isn't just the denigration and devaluation of women, it's the myriad ways the system is set up to benefit men over women. It takes no hateful behavior on my part to reap rewards given to men at the expense of women. But to choose not to work for the full equality of women in this culture is to be sexist.

So the sin we're fighting now, within the secular sphere, is the sin of heterosexism. More and more people are feeling kindly toward gay and lesbian people, but that will never be enough. More important is the dismantling of the system that rewards heterosexuals at the expense of homosexuals. That's why equal marriage rights are so important. That's why "don't ask, don't tell" is such a failure and such a painful thing for gay and lesbian people, even those who have no desire to serve in the military. These are ever-present reminders that our identities, our lives, and our relationships are a second class--because the very system of laws that govern us discriminates against us and denigrates our lives." (Page 24).

Today we need to ask ourselves what blessings are we enjoying that came at the expense of others? What are we committed to doing this Thanksgiving to help advance a world of justice and peace for others who live with oppression? Are we truly thankful to the point where we share the goods we have with others who are without?

Today I received a very nice email from HRC President Joe Solmonese thanking me for helping to advance the cause of rights for LGBT individuals. I think the LGBT community does have much to celebrate this year. We did get the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Bill passed and it is a victory we should celebrate and be proud of. Yet, on that same bill there was a military defense bill that was written to build weapons and advance wars upon other lands. The goods we gain come with a price for others. Should we still not give thanks? Indeed, we should give thanks for progress made. But we should not stop our advocacy, our activism and concern until justice and peace for all peoples is accomplished. As long as there remains the possibility of the Ugandan Parliament passing an anti-gay law that could find homosexuals in that country imprisoned or even put to death our Thanksgiving should come with a prayer as to how God can use us to make the world a better place for everyone. As long as the insurance companies continue to rake in the money at the expense of those who cannot receive or afford health care, our activism and prayers for our Senate Leaders to pass a Health Care Reform Bill that includes a Public Option should be on our list of priorities. As long as there are people still loosing their homes, jobs and the very dreams they had dreamed due to the greed of Wall Street executives gobbling up tax-payer bail outs, we should pray about how we can play our role in being sure that everyone gets a share in the wealth.

Today's Gospel is not really about money or possessions. It is about how we honor God and our neighbor with all that God has given us. We do that through our service, prayers and willingness to do our part to make the world better for everyone.

"Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: we humbly pray to you that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of your favor and glad to do your will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to your laws, we may show forth your praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in you to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." (Book of Common Prayer, #18 For our Country, Page 820).

Our Letter to the Leaders of the Episcopal Church Concerning the Anti-Gay Bill in Uganda

The following letter was written and sent through email to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, The Rev. Canon Timothy L. Anderson and Rev. Terry Star repesentatives of Province VI and Bishop James L. Jelinek of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota regarding the anti-gay legislation pending the Ugandan Parliament. Each copy of this letter was written to and about the appropriate people.

Philip Lowe, Jr. & Jason King
(Address removed for privacy sake)

November 24,2009

Dear Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori,

We are writing you today to seek your immediate attention on an act of injustice that is about to take place. The Ugandan Parliament is considering a bill that will increase prison sentences and even possibly impose the death penalty for citizens violating the countries anti-homosexuality law. This draconian measure can only be seen as an outrageous act of injustice and discrimination.

We all know that throughout the Gospels Jesus drew unto himself the marginalized and stigmatized of society. It is very frightening that any government would even consider a measure that would jail, imprison or put to people to death because of their sexual orientation and how they choose to exercise it. Sexuality as we know is a gift of God and homosexuality is no different. It is an act of love between two people who desire to share God's love in a very beautiful and powerful way. The news that Uganda is drawing up and preparing to pass legislation that would give the State the power to destroy people who are gay who exercise their free will to love, is simply absurd.

This bill will create a level of fear in homosexual people in that country that cannot be fully understood. If passed gay people will fear for their lives. If passed questioning gay youth in that country may very well consider and commit suicide out of fear of the State executing them. This bill is such a miscarriage of the State of Uganda that it's impact just cannot be over stated.

We were delighted to hear that the Executive Committee has arranged for a telephone conference on December 7th concerning the situation in Uganda. We cannot impress enough upon you to be sure that the Executive committee in this situation what is right here. The dignity, integrity and lives of homosexuals in Uganda hang in the balance here. This situation is severe enough that no response from the Episcopal Church in this matter would also be an injustice. Please act as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for all that you do and all that we know that you will continue to do to help lead the Episcopal Church forward in these difficult times.

Sincerely Yours,
Philip Lowe, Jr. and Jason M. King

If you are someone connected to a religious organization or one that does any kind of Advocacy consider writing them letters asking them to speak out against this legislation in Uganda. People's lives may depend on your action.

Children: Here's Hoping to Better Days Ahead

Jesus often had the harshest things to say to the Religious leaders of his day. The Pharisees would come to Jesus to ask him questions or present him with situations in an attempt to trap him. Jesus never gave in to their tactics and often surprised them with the many things he said or did. Those who lead people in prayer came with an understanding and expectation that their robes and status brought them prestige and honor. For many of them, Jesus was a threat because of his acceptance of those who had been marginalized by the system. Up to the point in today's Gospel of Matthew 19:13 to 22, Jesus had met every challenge and the next would be no exception.

Jesus said: "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs." (Matthew 19:14).

According to the Collegeville Bible Commentary in the New Testament Volume when Jesus talks of the children here, he is speaking of those who have no legal rights to claim anything. (See Page 888 and 890 for references.) They come with nothing and they have no claim to anything and therefore whatever they receive is understood as a gift from the giver. It is received with gratitude and total dependence upon the one who has given the gift. They trust and they also risk. They often learn the hard way who they should and should not trust. It is by trial and error and no matter how painful the lesson learned is, they keep on looking and trusting and wondering.

How are we in our relationship with God? Do we come to God as God's people knowing full well that all that we receive from God's hand is a gift? Do we understand that every opportunity, every person, every thing big and small is from God. Or do we limit our appreciation of God's gracious love that if it doesn't come quite the way we think it should be, then we are like spoiled brats? If you have fallen into the latter category, you are in the right club. The Church is not for all those who have it together. The Church is here precisely because growing in our understanding of ourselves, one another and God is an every day and every event experience. Today is an opportunity given by God to open up our minds and hearts and to see beyond where we are and allow God to shape our lives by God's goodness.

As part of this blog post for today, I would like to talk specifically about one area in which children are constantly violated and given the wrong message. They come with their child-like innocence and they want to know about the nature of their own bodies. I am of course, talking about sexuality. I am bringing up this topic as part of the reflection on this Gospel, because children often approach the subject of sexuality as a gift to be explored and understood. Yet, all too often over the years and centuries it is the one subject that parents and religious folk have often chased them away from or tried much too hard to control. As a result children often grow up with a false view of their sexuality. And if by chance a child reaches an age of reason where they begin to understand that their sexuality is a bit different than others expectations, the responses given to them are often misguided and show a lack of compassion. This is one of the reasons why homelessness and suicides among LGBT and questioning youth is so high.

Just yesterday in the Advocate there was the story of how one church that was closed down became a place for homeless gay and lesbian teens to find a place to sleep. "A church-turned-shelter for homeless youth in Queens, New York is a far cry from sleeping on the streets after a $200,000 renovation and a partnership with the Ali Forney Center for LGBT youth." This is very great news. However, the issue that brings so many LGBT youth to this stage is not very good news at all. This means that there are still way too many LGBT children, teens and youth who are experiencing rejection from their families when they discover their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. In situations like these, the wrong messages have been sent. It is time to open up hearts and minds to new ways of talking about LGBT issues between parents and their children.

Sexuality whether heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual is a gift from God. A gift from God too is a sense of one's gender and/or their seeing with in them a gender different than the one they currently have. The body is one matter, but the person and the soul within is the one that needs to be loved, cherished and taught how much God and their parents love them no matter what the outcome. Most LGBT children when they later come out often say that their one desire is for their parents and closest friends to know that they are still the same person they always were even though they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. When children and youth come out to their parents only to be met with rejection or a parents plea to change, the interior person in the child is just crushed and confused. I have heard story after story of some gay teens and youth who after they came out to their parents were told that if they wanted any money to go to college or if they wanted to participate in the family business, they had to go to gay "change" therapy or ex-gay ministries. These and other efforts including reparative therapy are harmful and destructive. Just this past summer The American Psychological Association produced the results of their study on "change therapy" that showed how harmful such therapies are. Yet, many ministers, Priests, Bishops and parents continue to suggest such ideas to their children when they come out. It is in moments like these that children and their understandings of their sexuality are so violated. It is scandalizing to children and it can destroy their faith. No wonder so many LGBT individuals have rejected the Church that has so often rejected them.

We need to be supporting LGBT and questioning youth services and organizations. We need to help spread the word that sexuality is not a dirty or shameful subject. LGBT and questioning youth are part of God's creation too. They need help to understand the nature of their body and their capacity to love and be loved is a beautiful and wonderful gift. There is also no doubt in my mind that safer sex practices needs to be taught so that children can know and understand how to take responsibility with their own bodies and to be concerned about the health of the bodies of others. This closed discussion and constant message that sex, sexual orientation and/or gender expression and/or identity being a subject of shame, confusion and ugliness has got to stop. Children come with their gift of sexuality all thankful to the One who made them who they are, it is a terrible message for them to receive from a parent, minister, priest, bishop or Pope that somehow their God-given gift to love and be loved by others is somehow less beautiful and wonderful than it is.

O God, giver of every good and perfect gift may we have a thankful heart; help us to be people who see our sexuality as part of your loving plan for our lives. Give to parents the ability to love unconditionally. Help parents when they are told that their child is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered to still see their children as gifts and their sexuality and/or gender expression and/or identity is part of your loving plan for their lives. May there be compassion and understanding. May there be places for run away, questioning or trouble LGBT and other youth to go. May the Church rise up to these and other challenges by responding with the love and compassion and understanding of the Holy Spirit, we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Message from Fr. Paul Bresnahan to Patrick Kennedy

I do not normally write a short message like this, but I just read an outstanding blog written by Fr. Paul Bresnahan. His blog is an open letter to Patrick Kennedy in response to the Catholic Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island telling Kennedy to obstain from taking Communion.

I encourage my readers to click on the link and read the blog. It is a compassionate response and promotes some very deep thought.

Enjoy and let us continue to pray for one another.

Christian Marriage: It Is Not Just for Heterosexuals Anymore!

Well isn't this interesting! Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Reign of Christ and we wake up on a Monday morning to hear Jesus teach about marriage, divorce, adultery and the Eunuchs. Wow! What a great way to start the week.

I am most interested in writing about this Gospel today because for seventeen months I was involved the Catholic church's ex-gay ministry called Courage. You can read about my experience in Beyond Ex-gay. Just last Tuesday night I gave a presentation about my Courage experience at a meeting of The Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities.
During the time I was involved in Courage this Gospel of Matthew 19:1 to 12 as well as Mark 10:1 to 12 is where Fr. John Harvey and the Courage group claim Jesus didcondemn homosexuality, gay marriage and all forms of marriage that were not of one man and one woman. The problem with that interpretation is that no where in this Gospel or in Mark's Gospel did Jesus include homosexuality in his comments. In addition, there are several problems with the historical and cultural context where this Gospel would have taken place.

Among the first problems we are met with is that during the time in which Jesus would have been addressing this problem it was understood that a woman was a piece of property to be transferred. And from this particular Gospel has come centuries of the Church misusing women. Many Christian men have made poor use of this Gospel as well as the creation account in Genesis to which Jesus is referring to speak of why women should live in subjection to men. Over the many years through the use of reasonto help us interpret Scripture we have been moving past our ancient understanding of women and our understanding of marriage too.

In his column just last week Episcopal Bishop John Bryson Chane wrote: "Christians have always argued about marriage. Jesus criticized the Mosaic law on divorce, saying "What God has joined together let no man separate." But we don't see clergy demanding that the city council make divorce illegal.

Some conservative Christian leaders claim that their understanding of marriage is central to Christian teaching. How do they square that claim with the Apostle Paul's teaching that marriage is an inferior state, one reserved for people who are not able to stay singly celibate and resist the temptation to fornication?

As historian Stephanie Coontz points out, the church did not bless marriages until the third century, or define marriage as a sacrament until 1215. The church embraced many of the assumptions of the patriarchal culture, in which women and marriageable children were assets to be controlled and exploited to the advantage of the man who headed their household. The theology of marriage was heavily influenced by economic and legal considerations; it emphasized procreation, and spoke only secondarily of the "mutual consolation of the spouses."

In the 19th and 20th centuries, however, the relationship of the spouses assumed new importance, as the church came to understand that marriage was a profoundly spiritual relationship in which partners experienced, through mutual affection and self-sacrifice, the unconditional love of God.

The Episcopal Church's 1979 Book of Common Prayer puts it this way: "We believe that the union of husband and wife, in heart, body and mind, is intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord."

Our evolving understanding of what marriage is leads, of necessity, to a re-examination of who it is for. Most Christian denominations no longer teach that all sex acts must be open to the possibility of procreation, and therefore contraception is permitted. Nor do they hold that infertility precludes marriage. The church has deepened its understanding of the way in which faithful couples experience and embody the love of the creator for creation. In so doing, it has put itself in a position to consider whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

Theologically, therefore, Christian support for same-sex marriage is not a dramatic break with tradition, but a recognition that the church's understanding of marriage has changed dramatically over 2,000 years."

Yet the same week that this great piece of writing was published in the Washington Post a group of Catholic Bishops, Religious right wing nuts including the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher put together and signed the Manhattan Declaration. The problem with this mean spirited declaration is that it is found on ideologies, not Biblical or even Christian principles. It is certainly not based on an adequate interpretation of Matthew 19:1-12 or Mark 10:1-12.

As part of my discussion on the teaching of Marriage I would like to include some thoughts from Bishop Gene Robinson in his Book: In the Eye of the Storm.

"It's time that progressive religious people stop being ashamed of their faith and afraid to be identified with the Religious Right, and start preaching the good news of the liberating Christ to all God's Children.

But what is a good, positive, and appropriate way to voice one's religious convictions in public discourse? I think it involves a simple shift in focus from the public to the private in these expressions. I'm free to express my own personal and religious reasons for coming to the opinions I express, but the minute I start arguing that you must come to those same opinions because my religious truth must be your religious truth too, then I violate the divide between private and public. Most alarming of all is when "my" truth becomes "the" truth, applicable to everyone. James Dobson and Pat Robertson are perfectly free to tell me about the religious beliefs that compel them to oppose the acceptance of gay people, but when they claim that their beliefs are right and true for all humankind, they move from democracy to theocracy.

Similarly, if I argue for the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in society, I must do so on the merits of my argument, not on a claim that my understanding of God is right and true and compelling for everyone. I must make my arguments based on democracy, compassion, democratic principles, and a notion of the common good--not on any reading of sacred text to which I must subscribe.

We need to separate, as best as we can, the civil realm for the religious, especially in the struggle for equal civil marriage rights for all citizens. Clergy have long acted as agents of the state in the solemnization of marriages. Because a priest or rabbi or minister acts on behalf of the state in signing the marriage license and attesting to the proper enactment of marriage, we've lost the distinction between what the state does, while the church pronounces it's blessing on it. In France, everyone is married at the mayor's office; those who are religious reconvene at the church for the religious blessing. Those who don't desire such a blessing are still fully married according to the laws of the state. In such an arrangement, it's clear where the state's action ends and the church's action begins." (Pages 26 and 27).

My final quote which I used in yesterday's blog is from Fr. Paul Bresnahan who wrote in his blog An Invitation to An Inclusive Church: "There was a special place in his (Jesus) heart too for the “eunuchs” of his time. I wonder what he meant by the following startling saying; But he said to them, "Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (Matthew 19:11-12) You can define that term as you like, but they clearly were not a threat to folks of the opposite sex. There is considerable evidence that when the biblical material refers to “eunuchs” we were talking of folks whose interests lay with folks of the same sex. We now refer to this group as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgendered, LGBT for short. And isn't it interesting to note that even Jesus realized that there were those who would find this teaching a hard one to accept. The radical love of Jesus is often hard to take because it includes our enemies.

I believe that Jesus stood up for this crowd too as he stood up for us all, and I am convinced that is why they put him to death on the cross. Jesus was not a liberal. He merely loved everyone! That’s why God died. That’s why God is Risen. That’s why God will come again!"

It is clear at least to me that based on what I have read and quoted above that there really is no longer a place for the discrimination of same-sex marriage in the Christian Church. The discussion about why lesbian and gay couples should be allowed to marry in both society and the church needs to continue. We must pray for people to open their minds and hearts to the radical love of Jesus Christ for all people including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered.We must pray and work for a better understanding of marriage, love, relationships and sexuality. There is room in this great society and in Christ's Church for everyone. Those churches and religious institutions that do not want to perform weddings and commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples should not be compelled by any law or regulation to do so. However, neither should the churches and religious institutions that do wish to perform weddings and commitment ceremonies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people be prevented from doing so by those who oppose same-sex marriage. And opposing religious institutions should not be imposing their understandings of same-sex marriage upon the State. I agree with Bishop Robinson, it is time to separate the two.

Let us continue to pray for greater openness and acceptance. Let us be instruments of God's peace in this tumultuous fight for marriage equality.

God of all love, bless all married, espoused and committed couples both straight and lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. We thank you for those who lift up their voices in support of marriage equality. We pray for the conversion of those who still voice opposition to same-sex marriage due to prejudice and limited understanding of your Holy Word. We also pray for those members of the LGBT community that still live in states and countries where inequality is still rampart and alive. We ask for the enlightening of your Holy Spirit that people, government and religious leaders will open their hearts and minds to a renewed understanding, and that those of us who are LGBT will continue our work for justice, equality and inclusion of all people; we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Reign of Christ: Exactly Where Is That Kingdom of Justice and Truth?

Given the climate that many Christians have made for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, if I were to bring up the subject of today's particular feast day to many of them they would say: "Oh, I gave up on organized religion a long time ago." As a gay Christian I totally understand their disowning of religion. Given the activities of this past week such as The Manhattan Declaration the reaction of chucking all religion is a valid emotional and personal response.

Today the Church celebrates the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year. The Feast of Christ the King or other wise known as the Reign of Christ. In today's Speaking to the Soul, author Vicki K. Black writes: "What in fact is Christ’s kingdom? It is simply those who believe in him, those to whom he said, “You are not of this world, even as I am not of this world.” He willed, nevertheless, that they should be in the world, which is why he prayed to the Father, “I ask you not to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.” So here also he did not say, “My kingdom is not” in this world but “is not of this world.” . . .

Indeed, his kingdom is here until the end of time, and until the harvest it will contain weeds. . . . Everyone who is reborn in Christ becomes the kingdom that is no longer of the world. For God has snatched us from the powers of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. This is that kingdom of which he said, “My kingdom is not of this world; my kingly power does not come from here.”

From Tractates on the Gospel of John 115.2, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVb, John 11-21, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2007)."

While I believe in what Vicki Black is writing here, I am fully aware of how many LGBT people do not. The disbelief in Jesus Christ is a result of the spiritual violence LGBT people have experienced from Christians. The pastoral, psychological and emotional injuries LGBT people have experienced are valid and their pain from massive rejection is real. As Christians, if we are to make the kingdom of Christ known then the leaders of Christian Church's that welcome LGBT individuals need to continue to make their voices heard and be sure they are ready to listen and respond pastorally.

Among the points that need to be shared with both the Church and the LGBT community on this Sunday of celebrating the Reign of Christ is the word all. In today's first reading from Daniel we read: "As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples nations and languages should serve him."(Daniel 7:13,14). God came to us in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is God's perfect revelation to bring liberation and salvation to all humankind. When Jesus read his "inaugural" address the same "inaugural" address for every follower of Christ, he read from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18 to 19, Isaiah 61:1 and 2). Jesus Christ came as one like us and yet different because he was without sin. Yet, Jesus came to seek those cast out by society and the Church and to make a home for them with God. Those whom society has forgotten, stripped them of their civil rights and ostracized as dirty or corrupted where the ones that Jesus came to find and bring them home to God. No Church leader has any business pushing LGBT people away from God or the Church.

In today's Gospel Jesus is facing his interrogation with Pontius Pilate. When Pilate asks Jesus: "So you are a king?" Jesus answered: "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." (John 18:37) The "truth" that Jesus is referring to, is himself. Jesus is proclaiming the reality of who Jesus is. Jesus is God's prefect revelation of God's self, the Incarnate Word. God came in Jesus Christ to call all humankind to God's self through Christ. So that the Reign of Christ's kingdom of justice, peace and mercy could come into this world, though it would not be ofthis world. Yet, the problem that many Christians have is that they just appear to want the Reign of Christ to be an exclusive social club for the right wing agenda. An agenda that excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, women, people who are uninsured, the homeless and the most needy. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it is the furthest thing from the truthabout the Reign of Christ the King.

Fr. Paul Bresnahan in his outstanding post An Invitation to an Inclusive Church wrote: "Even in Biblical material we are “one in Christ” as the blessed Apostle put; it without respect to classification by sex, gender, orientation, class, or ethnicity. In his very own words, he put it this way, “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28)" There is absolutely noBiblical text that supports ostracizing LGBT people from the Church or society. Fr. Paul Bresnahan further wrote: "There was a special place in his (Jesus)heart too for the “eunuchs” of his time. I wonder what he meant by the following startling saying; But he said to them, "Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (Matthew 19:11-12) You can define that term as you like, but they clearly were not a threat to folks of the opposite sex. There is considerable evidence that when the biblical material refers to “eunuchs” we were talking of folks whose interests lay with folks of the same sex. We now refer to this group as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgendered, LGBT for short. And isn't it interesting to note that even Jesus realized that there were those who would find this teaching a hard one to accept. The radical love of Jesus is often hard to take because it includes our enemies."

The Reign of Christ is a reign of justice and equality for all people. Jesus has not put limits on who can or cannot receive the grace of God. Jesus has invited all people to receive the peace and love of God, to be forgiven of their sins and to experience conversion to become God's representatives of justice, love and equality in the world. Jesus Christ was often homeless. He hung around with the marginalized and stigmatized of society and the religious establishment of the day. Jesus called everyone to conversion of heart and so to recognize that we cannot save our own souls on our own. All of us need the help of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit to obtain salvation in this world and in the life to come. God does not close the door on anyone, except the one that will not let God in. In Jesus, God was often close to the lost, those left behind who knew that they needed God. The one's who thought they had God all figured out by just following the rules, well, Jesus had the most stern warnings to say to them.

Today as we celebrate the Reign of Christ, let us do our part to work for a society of equality, justice and peace. Let us make the kingdom of Christ visible on earth by agreeing to work towards acceptance of each other, no matter what our differences might be. Let us speak out against injustice against LGBT people such as those in Uganda who are facing their Parliament passing a law that says they could be put in prison or even face the death penalty just because they are gay. Let us pray for the conversion of the religious leaders who drafted the Manhattan Declaration. Let the Reign of Christ come on earth, because we refuse to tolerate injustice towards everyone who could be forgotten because of prejudice. Let the Truth about Jesus as God's revelation be known because we loved as Christ has loved us.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grand that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Last Sunday in Pentecost, Christ the King, Page 236).

FORGIVENESS!?! NO! NOT THAT!

I have to say that when I read today's Gospel from Matthew 18: 21 to 35 I had a hard time with it. I had a difficult time with it because I am a gay man who has experienced a lot of spiritual violence and pastoral abuse over the years. I know that so many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people have experience unspeakable violence and discrimination, much of it has come from the religious right including the Catholic church and the Republican party.

Just last night my partner Jason and I attended a memorial service at Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ in Minneapolis to remember over 145 transgendered people world wide who were killed over this past year. As the names of the dead were read along with their ages and how many of them died, we were just angered at the violence that has taken place and continues to happen. I am willing to bet that most of the violence that is committed comes from the hands of people who think they are doing a courageous religious duty. There are many Christians who would justify such behavior.

So, how can the Christian Faith today speak to and about LGBT individuals forgiveness for all the pain and anguish that we have experienced by so many religious bullies? Why should LGBT people discuss forgiveness when so many Christian leaders who preach "forgiveness" continue to encourage violence towards LGBT individuals? I know how many gay men especially youth respond to such a question. Their response is "Forgive the Christians for discriminating against me? Fuck that shit!" It is easy to walk away and be angry at the vulgar language, but this is the attitude that many Christians have encouraged through their acts of prejudice and hate.

Let's talk just a bit about what forgiveness is not, before we discuss what it is. Forgiveness is not trust and it is not excusing inappropriate attitudes or behaviors. Forgiveness is not, not standing up and speaking against injustice. Speaking up against inequality and injustice towards LGBT people is something everyone needs to do. Forgiveness does not mean that those who continue to endorse actions like The Manhattan Declaration should be excused for promoting religious bias towards LGBT people. We also do not laugh or rejoice when Lutheran's separate from the ELCA over welcoming LGBT individuals to be Bishops, Ministers and allow LGBT Individuals to get married in the church. No, these actions are still wrong and we still need to play our role in educating the public about LGBT issues and calling for justice from our President, Congress, as well as our local States, Cities and Towns. We also must hold the Pope, Bishops, Priests, Ministers, Rabbi's and all Religious figures accountable when they incite violence towards LGBT people.

What forgiveness does is that we do not place the individuals and their actions between us and our relationship with God. Forgiveness means that although their behaviors are unjust and cannot be condoned, we still do not let them take the place of God in our life. As LGBT Christians, we have been forgiven by a loving and merciful God. God does not condemn us for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. Our love for our significant other(s) is not condemned by God. We were created in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity. We have been redeemed through the blood of our loving Savior Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit continues to work in and through us to sanctify and comfort us. "Christians have no right to place any limit on forgiveness." (Collegeville Bible Commentary, New Testament Volume Page 889). The writer in today's "Forward Day by Day" writes: "If we need time to process..the hurt..that is okay. Forgiveness is too important to minimize." (Page 22). We need to understand that forgiveness is a process. For many, especially LGBT people it does not come for a very long time. One Priest once taught me to pray not only for the grace to forgive, but for the grace that we may want to forgive. It is easy to forgive from a half-hearted position. Just as our lovers and spouses do not want a half-hearted lover, neither does God. When we do forgive, it needs to be with our whole heart in the exercise.

Because forgiveness is so very important in the process of healing for LGBT individuals, I cannot encourage enough the necessity of finding a church or congregation that welcomes LGBT people. There are many churches that welcome, affirm and embrace LGBT individuals, families and couples. There are many churches that take the cause of speaking out for LGBT equality very seriously. Just yesterday the Chicago Consultation a group of Anglican Bishops, Priests and Lay people made a request of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to speak out about the anti-gay bill in Uganda. As a result The Executive Council has planned to discuss the Uganda situation in a special session on December 7th. An Episcopalian responded with great disappointment concerning the Manhattan Declaration. As I have written in the past, the negative voices are not the only loud mouths that speak. We need more of them, but positive voices are speaking. The point is for LGBT people to find churches that welcome them to help them with the healing process so that they can come to a place where they can forgive. Believe me when I say, I know first hand how difficult forgiveness can be. I still have a long way to go myself. But, as LGBT people we are in this together. As the writer for today's piece in "Forward Day by Day" writes: "And because we are humans and sinful we will have lots of chances to practice forgiveness." (Page 22).

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Truth Wins Out (TWO) Speaks Out About Manhattan Declaration

Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out (TWO) wrote today about the so called: "Manhattan Declaration."

Religious Activists Claim to be Above the Law and Express Desire to Force All Americans To Obey Sectarian Church Rules, Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) condemned a theocratic anti-gay manifesto that seeks to foist compulsory Christianity on the nation, at the expense of basic liberty, pluralism and freedom. The so-called “Manhattan Declaration” was signed by 145 fundamentalist, evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox Christian activists, who claimed they were above the law and would refuse to obey state rules unless they were in alignment with their sectarian church beliefs.

“This is a disturbing call for anarchy from a group of radical clerics and activists who believe they don’t have play by the same rules as other taxpaying Americans,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We call on all Americans who value a free society to stand up and reject this theocratic and intolerant manifesto.”

“It is heartbreaking that these so-called Christians have elevated bigotry to be the defining aspect of the religious experience,” said Rev. JR Finney, pastor of Covenant Community Church in Birmingham, Ala. “These churches are uniting by dividing this country and making a mockery of the rule of law.”

0904CHRISTIAN_RIGHT_wideweb__470x2970The manifesto was unveiled today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Spearheading the effort is convicted Watergate felon Chuck Colson (pictured above), who runs Prison Fellowship ministries. The activists at the press conference signed a declaration proclaiming they will not obey or comply with laws that they falsely claim could be used to force their institutions to partake in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples.

“We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” reads the manifesto.

“In naming this manifesto, the far right makes great use of symbolism,” said TWO’s Besen. “We believe they have chosen to co-opt the ‘Manhattan Project’ and the ‘Declaration of Independence’. We must pay attention when a powerful group of clerics plans to go nuclear on American values, spending significant political and financial capital to impose their narrow religious beliefs on society.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters anti-gay misinformation, fights religious extremism exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about the lives of GLBT people.

In the Episcopal Cafe Andrew Gerns wrote: "But for the signers, religious freedom does not extend to those who would bless same-sex unions out of religious conviction, or who of theological reflection understand that birth control is a matter of conscience and those who would pastor rather than condemn women who have had abortions.

The freedom to opt-out is not enough because conscience clauses for this group flows in only one direction and so, it follows, does religious freedom. They contend (without citing a single example) that conscience clauses are being eliminated so that "pro- life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions."

Chicago Consultation Asks Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury to Speak Out for Gays in Uganda

In an excellent piece shared from The Episcopal Cafe, the Chicago Consultation group has called on the Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury to speak out against the draconian anti-gay bill in Uganda.


CHICAGO, IL, November 20, 2009—The Chicago Consultation today asked the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church; Dr. Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies; and the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi, Primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda, to speak out against draconian anti-gay legislation introduced in the Ugandan Parliament last month.

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and Jesus teaches us to care for the vulnerable and the marginalized. The proposed Ugandan legislation is as far from those commandments as it could be,” said the Rev. Lowell Grisham, co-convener of the Chicago Consultation. “The Anglican Communion has committed itself to the pastoral care of gay and lesbian people. At a time like this, we implore its leaders to speak out.”

Uganda’s so-called “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” proposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and life imprisonment for touching another individual with homosexual intent. Belonging to a gay organization, advocating gay rights and providing condoms or safe-sex advice to gays and lesbians could result in a seven-year prison sentence. Failing to report violations of the law within 24 hours would be punishable by a three-year prison term. In contravention of international law, the new legislation would also apply to Ugandans living in other countries.

In 1998, the Lambeth Conference, a worldwide gathering of Anglican bishops passed Resolution 1.10, committing themselves to the pastoral care of gays and lesbians. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church passed legislation (D005) in 2006 opposing the criminalization of homosexuality.

Seventeen human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have pointed out that the bill would criminalize their work and significantly diminish the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. Even Exodus International, which promotes controversial therapies to change a person’s sexual identity, opposes this bill because it is so harsh.

“Across North America, Europe and Africa, people of goodwill oppose this draconian legislation,” Grisham said. “But within the Anglican Communion, only the Church of Canada has found its voice. We are eager to hear our leaders speak out on behalf of frightened, isolated and persecuted gays and lesbians in Uganda, and on behalf of all Anglicans who believe in the dignity of every human being.” Grisham said.

Spokesmen for the Church of Uganda initially supported the bill, but advocated that the death penalty provision and extradition provisions be removed. As the international backlash against the bill has intensified, the Church has retreated from its original position and now says it has no position on the bill.

American evangelist Rick Warren, who has close ties to Archbishop Orombi and the Ugandan church, has refused to condemn the bill, saying he has no position on it.

The Chicago Consultation, a group of Episcopal and Anglican bishops, clergy and lay people, supports the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion. To learn more about the Chicago Consultation, visit www.chicagoconsultation.org.