Rick Warren Screws Himself All Around

Mark Twain said, “Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” Rick Warren, darling of the “intellectual evangelicals,” is learning that lesson the hard way this week after an appearance on Larry King Live. Obviously I don’t agree with the evangelical view on homosexuality, and believe they are misreading the Bible based on many years of misinterpretation by their clerics, but I understand their right to believe as they wish. One thing, though, I’m fairly clear about is that lying is pretty much frowned upon throughout the Bible, yet Warren decides to play fast and loose with the truth. Now, even the evangelicals are mad at him.

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Christian Anti-Defamation League Appropriates the Word Bashing

From the, “it would be funny if it weren’t so sad” category, we have the Christian Anti-Defamation League listing their top 10 examples of Christians being “bashed” in 2008. It includes things like Obama defaming Christianity by claiming to be Christian. Give the video below a watch.

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Supreme Court Won't Hear Anti-Gay Student's Case

The Supreme Court has declined to take up the case of a Kentucky High School student who wants to sue the school district for barring him from expressing opposition to homosexuality. Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the Boyd County school district over a policy that required students to undergo anti-harassment training. He claimed the policy threatened him with punishment for expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality.

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LDS Prophets Experience Sudden Revelations

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin seems to have found out why the Proposition 8 people were so hell bent in trying to prohibit the release of the names of donors to their campaign to take away the rights of Gay people in California. It seems the LDS had way more to do with this than they were claiming. (And by the Church, I mean the church corporate…not just “members.”) Burroway reports they had 190,000 reasons to prevent the disclosure. Seems the LDS provided lots of official corporate support and in-kind services.

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Rick Warren and The Obama Inauguration

For those of you living under a rock, President Elect Obama has invited Rick Warren, from the Saddleback Mega-Church, to deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration. Gay rights and other activists groups have strenuously objected, and Obama and his aides have made any number of statements defending the choice with the tired old line of how the Obama campaign has always been about “uniting people” and showing how “we can disagree without being disagreeable.” So let me be clear in my response. In the case of claims by the Warren supporters (including you Obama), they are correct. I am being intolerant and am applying the standard applied by Warren and his supporters to love the sinner and hate the sin. I believe that the sin of hate and bigotry, most especially when used for monetary gain, should never ever be tolerated. I guess that fits the definition of intolerance, so I am guilty as charged.

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Doubt – A Movie Review

It’s 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the school’s strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the country, and, indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius is galvanized to begin a crusade to both unearth the truth and expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shred of proof or evidence except her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn, a battle that threatens to tear apart the Church and school with devastating consequences. This is an excellent must-see movie.

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Milk – A Movie Review

His life changed history. His courage changed lives. In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay rights; he forged coalitions across the political spectrum. From senior citizens to union workers, Harvey Milk changed the very nature of what it means to be a fighter for human rights and became, before his untimely death in 1978, a hero for all Americans. Milk charts the last eight years of Harvey Milk’s life. This is an important story.

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Enough is Enough – The Fallout From The Gay Marriage Vote

Maybe, finally gay people have decided that enough is enough when it comes to having second-class citizenship foisted upon us by krazy kristian kooks. Across the country Saturday were a series of rallies decrying the enactment of three marriage amendments on election day which enshrine discrimination in the Constitutions of Florida, Arizona and California. As angry as we may all be, we should not be surprised at the outcome. There is no leadership within the gay community, and practically no community left anyways. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has become a parody, and while I respect the work done by Equality Florida, they too have been totally ineffective. So let’s take a look at what happened, and think about what comes next.

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2008 Election Wrap-up

Last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was certainly a bittersweet time. As I’ve said before, I’m not one of the millions of Obama-maniacs, but I was glad he won. I think America will soon be in far better hands than she is now. I was even more pleased to see a good number of hateful and bigoted Republicans kicked to curb, and their nasty campaign rhetoric repudiated. Obviously though, the passage of the three anti-marriage amendments was a great disappointment. In this post, I’ll provide my observations on where we are now relative to the election.

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Indocrination – BOO!

An article at the Florida Bilerico project points out the lengths to which the American Taliban will go in order to scare people. John Stemberger, lead proponent of Florida’s Amendment 2, is claiming that if Amendment 2 fails, the schools will have indoctrinate children to gay marriage. And to top it all off, despite being an attorney (or maybe because of it), Stemberger and Florida4Marriage.com are being accused of violations of campaign finance laws. Seems they may be trying to hide who their donors are, a violation of Florida Campaign laws.

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Courage In The Face of Hate

“What most Catholics hear about being gay or lesbian at their parish church is–silence. A numbing silence, which slowly and insidiously tells them, “You don’t belong here, this is not for you, and you are not welcome.” It is not the crude overt vulgarity of some churches. But rather, it is the coldness of a maitre d’ who simply won’t seat you, or the club which has put you on a waiting list with no intention of allowing you to join. And simply asks you to wait in polite almost, apologetic tones.”

Once in a rare while, in the political discourse of this country, there is a flash of courage and clarity of thinking. One such flash has happened in California. Father Geoffrey Farrow of the Saint Paul Newman Center on the campus of the University of California (Fresno) is courageous cleric. Here is a man who has spoken truth to power, and perhaps ended his career. Below is the entirity of his Homily from this past Sunday.

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