Christian leaders issue ‘call of conscience’

(Washington) More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration Friday reaffirming their opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious freedoms.

The 4,700-word document, called “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” sounds familiar themes from political …

SCLC SPLIT OVER GAY MARRIAGE: Los Angeles office at odds with national officials.

*Civil Rights Movement icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a group of Black activists who founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1959.

Even after King’s assassination in 1968, the SCLC remained one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations. But now the group’s cohesion is under threat. The issue which could potentially split the organization is same-sex marriage.

The Atlanta, Georgia-based leadership of the group has threatened to suspend or remove Rev. Eric P. Lee as head of the Los Angeles SCLC chapter because of his outspoken support for homosexual marriage.

But Lee and supporters in the L.A. chapter are fighting back essentially arguing that the national board does not have the authority to remove him. Lee is also thought to be seeking support from other SCLC chapters around the country.

Officially the national board says it is neutral on the gay marriage issue but in reality, the group dominated by Black Southern ministers is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage. Their view appears to be backed by a large majority of African Americans. An Edison/Mitofsky exit poll found that 70 percent of Black voters supported California’s Proposition 8 last fall. The proposition banned gay-marriage in the state.

A similar national online survey conducted recently by Taylor Media Services found 72 percent of Blacks opposing same-sex marriage which was supported by a slim majority of whites. Hispanics were evenly split on the issue.

SeeS CLC SPLIT OVER GAY MARRIAGE: Los Angeles office at odds with …

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Christian conservatives fight expansion of hate-crimes law

WASHINGTON — Conservative Christian leaders are fighting a bill that would provide federal hate-crimes coverage to gays and lesbians, prompting questions of who, if anyone, should be protected by such laws.

With a Democrat-controlled Congress and a president who has indicated his support for the Matthew Shepard Act, time may be running out for its opponents. To stop the legislation, a few Christian leaders have suggested repealing all hate-crimes law, which would undo historic protections for race and even religion.

FAITH & REASON: How does sect handle disparate views within the ‘family’?

“The entire notion of hate-crimes legislation is extraneous and obsolete,” said Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with the conservative nonprofit Liberty Counsel, adding that he believes hate-crimes laws are unconstitutional.

In addition, a number of Christian conservatives have raised fears that pastors would be prosecuted for inciting hate crimes if they had preached against homosexuality, despite assurances that the law only targets physical violence.

See Christian conservatives fight expansion of hate-crimes law

USA Today

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Politics, Religion and Discourse: A Conversation about Same Sex Marriage.

SAVE THE DATE

Monday, June 22, at 7PM at GRACE CATHEDRAL – San Francisco.

Politics, Religion and Discourse: A Conversation about Same Sex Marriage.

Panelists:

Bishop Gene Robinson, Episcopal Church, New Hampshire

Rabbi Doug Kahn, Executive Director of the San Francisco based Jewish Community Relations Council

Bishop Yvette Flunder, The Fellowship, a multi-denominational fellowship of 110 Pastors and Christian leaders representing 56 churches and faith-based organizations throughout the United States Mexico and Africa.

Reverend Lindi Ramsden, Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry, California

Joe Tuman, Political Analyst, CBS 5 Eyewitness News, Professor, SF State University, Author “Political Communication in American Campaigns” (Sage, 2008)

Moderator Bishop Marc Andrus, Episcopal Church, Northern California

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Statewide Action: On Heels of Prop 8 Ruling, “Meet in the Middle for Equality” Rallies ,Civil Rights Advocates in Fresno for LGBT Equality on a Federal Level

FRESNO, CA – In the first statewide demonstration following the California Supreme Court rulings which upheld the ban on same-sex marriage, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) advocates and allies will gather in Fresno on Saturday, May 30th in solidarity to support full federal equality. This all-inclusive event will attract supporters of social justice and equality from across California and ask them to renew their dedication to fight for the rights of LGBT individuals who currently struggle to have their rights protected. Moreover, progressive leaders and activists will be setting goals for a new movement which will call upon organizers and attendees to continue the fight and call upon the federal government to provide full equality to LGBT individuals.

Meet in the Middle is the beginning of a civil rights movement for today’s generation. In a symbolic sign of respect to the social movements of the past and present, the event begins with a five-hour 14.5-mile Equality March from Selma, California to downtown Fresno, California. The march and rally is the result of a major grassroots effort, modeled after President Obama’s campaign relying on the Internet and word of mouth. Traditionally, the LGBT rights movement has concentrated efforts in major metropolitan cities, but California voter demographics from November 2008 reflect that this approach did not garner the expected results. Consequently, organizers for Meet in the Middle have created an inward-working-out geographic strategy based upon the belief that the “Selma” or “Montgomery” of the LGBT rights movement will be in smaller communities needing equality education, resources and support – communities like Fresno who are at the epicenter of middle-American values.

Meet in the Middle for Equality is the brainchild of Central Valley organizers and a growing coalition of partners that include the Courage Campaign and hundreds of other organizations. The event’s lead organizer is Fresno resident Robin McGehee, a lesbian mother of two who was forced from her post as President of her child’s PTO due to her advocacy efforts for the No on Prop. 8 campaign.

WHEN:
Saturday, May 30, 2009, 1st Statewide Action After the Proposition 8 Decision
7:50 a.m. – Equality March Kickoff; 8:00 a.m. – March from Selma to Fresno
1:00 p.m. – Rally at steps of Fresno City Hall

WHERE:
March from the intersection of W. Front St. and Whitson St. in Selma, CA, then along the Golden State Highway to the Meet in the Middle rally location at Fresno City Hall, 2600 Fresno Street, Fresno, CA 93721

WHO:

Equality March speakers at Selma Kick-off include:
Anne-Marie Williams of Jordan/Rustin Coalition
Nii-Quartelai Quartey of Courage Campaign
Yardenna Aaron of Here to Stay Coalition
Andrea Shorter of Equality California (EQCA)
Roland Palencia of HONOR PAC (English/Spanish-language)
Rally Speakers at Fresno City Hall Location include:
Robin Tyler, the original plaintiff in Tyler vs. the County of Los Angeles
Angelica Salas, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
Molly McKay, Marriage Equality USA
Christine Chavez, Latino and African-American Leadership Alliance and Granddaughter of Cesar Chavez
Kate Kendell, National Center for Lesbian Rights
Rabbi Denise Eger, Congregation Kol Ami & California Faith for Equality
Father Geoff Farrow, Former Catholic Priest for Fresno’s Saint Paul Newman Center
Lt. Dan Choi, West Point graduate, recently discharged under “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
Reverend Eric Lee, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Reverend Dr. Amos Brown, Third Baptist Church, San Francisco
Rick Jacobs, Chair and Founder of the Courage Campaign
Cleve Jones, founder of Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and Harvey Milk intern
Dustin Lance Black, Academy Award Winning Screenwriter for Milk
“With this ruling, Californians are experiencing a great loss – a loss of justice, loss of compassion, and a loss of humanity. But rather than become disabled by our grief, we must shift our shame to strength and revitalize for the sake of the entire American LGBT community. We must use this ruling as a catalyst for an even greater goal and a greater good,” said Robin McGehee, lead organizer for Meet in the Middle.

Over 100 organizations from around the state have endorsed Meet in the Middle for Equality. The Courage Campaign and White Knot for Equality are providing buses to bring activists and progressive allies from San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco to the middle of California. Additional active participants include the California Nurses Association, Dolores Huerta Foundation, Equality Action NOW, Equality California (EQCA), Equal Roots, Freedom Action Inclusive Rights (F.A.I.R.), Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Network, HONOR PAC, Jordan/Rustin Coalition, Marriage Equality USA, Martin Luther King Legacy Association, NAACP Youth and College Division, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, and the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco.

Meet in the Middle for Equality is a group of Central Valley equality activists and grassroots organizers who are working to raise awareness of progressive issues in middle-America-type communities. The group was founded by Robin McGehee, a Fresno-based mother who was forced out of her position as PTO president at her child’s school after speaking out against Proposition 8. From McGehee’s public yet peaceful protests of Proposition 8 in November 2008, a group of supporters emerged with the common goal of taking action in order to protect individuals’ civil rights and to create a statewide response to the California Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage. It is the long-term goal of Meet in the Middle for Equality to work with other organizations’ leaders to create a working group that actively addresses LGBT outreach and equality issues across America. www.meetinthemiddle4equality.com

Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender-rights advocacy organization in California. In the past decade, EQCA has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil-rights protections in the nation. EQCA has passed over 50 pieces of legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, public education and community empowerment. www.eqca.org

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Danny Westneat Debate about gay equality appears to be ending

Whatever you may think of Joe Fuiten — the Bothell megachurch pastor and family-values political activist — you gotta give him points for bluntness.

Fuiten put out a revealing memo this week on gay marriage and domestic partnerships. To my eyes, it is the strongest sign yet that sweeping cultural change isn’t just someday coming to our state.

It’s already here.

Last month the state Legislature passed a bill that extends all the state-given benefits of being married to same-sex couples who register as domestic partners.

It’s dubbed the “everything but marriage” law. Its point is: Homosexual marriage may still be illegal here, but in the meantime gay and lesbian couples should have the same legal protections as everyone else.

Fuiten and other conservative Christian leaders opposed the bill, arguing it’s a precursor to gay marriage (which it is). Lately they’ve been debating whether to try to repeal it at the ballot box.

On Monday, Fuiten, pastor at Cedar Park Church, published the frank views of 34 right-leaning political or religious activists on the topic at his blog, franklyfuiten.com.

It’s wide-ranging, so you should read it for yourself. My take-away was that our long debate about gay equality seems to be ending. Gays and lesbians have won. Nobody understands this better than the other side.

“I have seen nothing approaching religious and/or other opposition that amounts to a hill of beans,” wrote Tom Henry, a GOP political consultant.

“Voters are immune or desensitized to the word ‘gay marriage’ right now. Besides, they think we hate them,” wrote Josephine Wentzel, a Vancouver-area Christian conservative.

“With every passing day, we lose more young people to the postmodern philosophy (no absolutes) and older people (with the Judeo-Christian value) to death. Time is not on our side,” wrote Heidi Lestelle, a Kitsap County Christian activist.

I called Fuiten. Though he and I disagree on many political issues — gay marriage in particular — we still stay in touch and debate. I asked him: Is the war over gay rights ending?

See Danny Westneat Debate about gay equality appears to be ending

Seattle Times

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Broad Coalition Collaborating on Poll to Assist Community on Timing, Efforts to Repeal Prop. 8 Should Court Uphold Marriage Ban

Representatives from a diverse coalition of faith, civil rights and LGBT organizations will host a conference call to announce the launch of an innovative, collaborative polling project to help determine the timing and targeting of efforts to repeal Proposition 8, should the California Supreme Court uphold the constitutional amendment banning marriage for same-sex couples.

The polling project will share qualitative and quantitative polling data with community members and stakeholders as part of a larger strategy to involve the community in the decision making process and engage the broad coalition of organizations to better coordinate and partner with on-going efforts to restore marriage for same-sex couples in California.

Expected at the session are:

Tawal Panyacosit Jr., Director, API Equality
Rick Jacobs, Founder and Chair, Courage Campaign
Marc Solomon, Marriage Director, Equality California
Luis Lopez, President, Honor PAC
Ron Buckmire, Board President, Jordan/Rustin Coalition
Molly McKay, Media Director, Marriage Equality USA
Reverend Eric Lee, President and CEO, Southern Christian Leadership Council of Greater Los Angeles

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Lowery’s Preaching, Not Warren’s, Will Illuminate Inaugural Day The Nation.

No one should be surprised that President-elect Barack Obama would choose self-promoting Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural. Warren has been hustling for years to make himself the “new Billy Graham” — seeking to fill the vacating role of spiritual adviser to presidents, be they born-again Republicans or born-right-the-first-time Democrats.

Obama, always on the watch for ways to broaden his base of support, has been developing a relationship with Warren for many years, as he has with other fundamentalist preachers who try to put a smile on their intolerance.

Back in December 2006, when he was merely a senator with unannounced presidential ambitions, Obama delivered a smart, sensitive address at Warren’s “2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church,” a high-profile event on the pastor’s Saddleback Church campus in Lake Forest, Calif.

Twenty months later, as the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee, Obama went back to Saddleback for an unfortunate joint appearance with Republican John McCain — the last major misstep of the senator’s bid for the nation’s top job.

Past is prologue, and Obama’s dalliances with Warren, for better or worse, always pointed to the placement of this particular pastor on the inaugural stage.

What will be significant about Warren’s remarks, however, is that they will be so insignificant.

Warren’s invocation will be forgotten five minutes after it is finished.

Indeed, the only “news” that will come from his appearance at the inaugural is the controversy surrounding it — and the protests that controversy may spark.

Far more significant, and encouraging, than his off-putting selection of Warren to deliver the invocation is Obama’s choice of a genuine spiritual progressive to deliver the benediction.

It is the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery who will present the far more uplifting and meaningful religious message on Inauguration Day. And in his appealing selection of the 87-year-old Lowery, Obama has made a choice that is far more adventurous — even, dare we say, radical — than his unappealing designation of Warren.

Lowery was the longtime president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he co-founded in 1957, before Obama was born, with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth. An essential player in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Lowery was sent by King to deliver the demands of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march to Alabama’s segregationist governor, George Wallace, and it was to Lowery that Wallace apologized three decades later.

Long after King and most of the other founding fathers of the civil rights movement had been buried, Lowery carried on the struggle. He led the 1982 drive to extend the federal Voting Rights Act. In 2005, when it came time to renew the act once more, Lowery famously cornered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a memorial service for Rosa Parks to ask for maintaining voting rights protections. Why did Lowery choose so somber a setting to make his appeal to the most prominent African-American member of President Bush’s Cabinet? “Because I knew she could not move,” he explained.

See Lowery’s Preaching, Not Warren’s, Will Illuminate Inaugural Day The Nation.

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Anti-gay extremists are trying to intimidate justices on the California Supreme Court by threatening a recall if they rule that that Prop 8 is invalid.

In a recent Mercury News interview, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said if California Supreme Court were to overturn Proposition 8:
“You will see a mobilized group like you have never seen in the state of California… There are grounds for a recall. We saw that with Gray Davis. We have an oligarchy, an oligarchy in judges’ role in the state of California.”1
Protect California leaders who stand with us—make a donation today.
http://www.eqcapac.org/protect-ca-leadership
Equality California has stood up to these threats many times before and we will stand up to them each and every time they are made. We worked to prevent an attempt to recall the judge who ruled that California’s domestic laws were invalid and we worked to make sure every legislator who voted for marriage equality was re-elected (and helped take down several who didn’t vote for equality).

And with your support we will defend justices who stand for the Constitution’s promise of equal protection.
We must demonstrate that we have the resources and are prepared to defeat these threats.

Make a donation to EQCA’s California Marriage Equality PAC to protect any—and every—California official threatened because they support our Constitution.
http://www.eqcapac.org/protect-ca-leadership

There is too much at stake to allow right wing threats against the Court to gain any traction. If the Court rules that the rights of a protected minority can be amended out of the Constitution through the less protective process used by our opponents, then all of the rights we have worked so hard to gain–and the rights of other minorities–are at risk. And anti-LGBT groups know this.

They are already planning on attacking safe schools laws if the Court upholds the process used to pass Prop 8. We cannot allow the threats of Randy Thomasson and his misnamed campaign for children and families to carry the day.

Your donation today will protect an independent judiciary and fight this latest right-wing attack.
http://www.eqcapac.org/protect-ca-leadership
In solidarity,

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Second Changing Attitude Nigeria leader granted asylum in UK

Stephen Wariebi Hobobo, co-leader of the Changing Attitude Nigeria (CAN) group in Port Harcourt, has been granted asylum in the UK. Stephen applied for asylum in May 2008 having arrived in the UK in April.

He travelled to the UK following the violent assault on his life which occurred in Port Harcourt on Maundy Thursday 20 March 2008. He was savagely beaten in an attack outside the compound where the funeral ceremony for the sister of Davis Mac-Iyalla was taking place.

Stephen went into hiding and flew to the UK in early April, still having a valid visa from his previous visit in November 2007 when he addressed a National Union of Students Conference. Having made contact with Changing Attitude leaders here and consulted with them about his safety and future in Nigeria, he applied for asylum in the UK. In September he was notified that his application had been refused. He appeal against the refusal was heard on 20 November in London. His solicitor informed him that his appeal had been successful on 4 December.

In granting asylum to Davis Mac-Iyalla and Stephen Wariebi Hobobo, the UK Government has recognised that lesbian and gay Christian leaders in Nigeria are under serious threat to their lives when their status and activity enters the public realm.

Davis Mac-Iyalla entered the public realm from the founding of Changing Attitude Nigeria in August 2005, gaining publicity in the national Nigerian press for the first General Meeting held in Abuja. The leaders of the nine other Changing Attitude groups in Nigeria have carefully protected themselves by maintaining a low profile. Colin Coward and Stephen Coles met many of the leaders at the meeting in Togo in May 2007. A photograph of those present was posted on the CA web site with the faces of all but Davis Mac-Iyalla and the two English priests present pixellated to protect their identities. One of those is Stephen Wariebi. The General Meeting held in November 2005 and the leaders’ meeting in Togo both attracted international attention in the Anglican Communion. Reports were posted on the Changing Attitude web site and the events received attention in Abuja where the headquarters of the Church of Nigeria are located. Reports from contacts inside the Church office confirmed this.

Stephen’s invisibility was compromised in 2007 when the CAN group in Port Harcourt developed a relationship with an orphanage as part of their group ministry and pastoral work. On Sunday 17 June 2007, 48 lesbians and gay men held a party for the children of the Orphanage Home, Borokiri, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. A report of the party was posted on the Changing Attitude web site on 19 June 2007 which included a picture of Stephen. We posted the report and pictures of the Port Harcourt orphanage event on the web site and named people because we wanted to prove that lesbian and gay Christians in Nigeria are not only concerned with their own campaign but are actively demonstrating Christian witness to others.

Stephen was able to join Davis Mac-Iyalla and two other leaders of Changing Attitude Nigeria as part of our team at the Lambeth Conference in July/August. Although the other two leaders participated in public events in Canterbury, we have been careful to protect their identities since both have returned to continue their work in Nigeria.

Changing Attitude has tried to maintain a fine balance between protecting lesbian and gay group members in Nigeria and providing information to the public to demonstrate the reality of lesbian and gay activity and experience. Davis Mac-Iyalla has been the public face for LGBT members of Changing Attitude Nigeria. Our inability to name individuals and publish pictures of Changing Attitude activity in Nigeria enables those opposed to us to claim that none of these things happen in reality. It is a difficult to raise the profile of LGBT people and protect them from attack at the same time.

Leaders and members of other Changing Attitude groups have had to go into hiding to avoid being threatened and attacked. A member of the group in Benin City was shot in his arm by members of a cult gang who were pursuing him because he was identified as gay. The group leader in Benin City was threatened in many phone calls by members of a cult gang. He was attacked, his wallet and identity card stolen and was threatened with exposure as gay. He went underground for safety until he was advised that it was safe to return home. Almost every member of the Benin City group reports stories of being attacked because they are gay.

In granting asylum because of their sexuality to Davis and Stephen, the UK Government accepts that Nigeria is now too dangerous as a country for any LGBT person who is actively and publicly visible. The recent public outcry against the Revd Jide Rowland Macaulay of the House of Rainbow MCC Church in Lagos, reinforces the UK Government policy. Jide was forced to return to the UK for his own safety.

Archbishop Peter Akinola said in an interview in the Nigerian Sunday Tribune published on 7 December 2008 that: “Again, we have never said that homosexuals are to be found only in England or America . They are to be found everywhere in the world. They are in America, they are in England, they are in Nigeria, Uganda, Arabia, they are in Kuwait, they are everywhere in the world.”

This is very different from the stance previously maintained by Nigerian Primates and bishops, that homosexuality is not known in Nigeria but has somehow been imported from the west.

The Archbishop also claims, in accordance with his tradition, that: “Our culture abhors [homosexuality], the order of creation abhors it. The word of God says no to it and therefore we chose not to celebrate it. In our culture, you see two men say they are homosexuals how do you relate to them, we know it is an aberration and we have always said it is an aberration…”

It is the attitude of abhorrence, aberration and judgement expressed by the Archbishop that fuels prejudice against LGBT people in Nigeria when the law is already punitive and social and religious attitudes are hostile.

He said that: “… people who suffer from this problem can always come to the church for counselling, for prayers. I tell you this, many have been delivered from this problem in America, England. But if they are so shy and they cannot come out to say this is our problem then, what do we do. But we cannot accept them. So, that they are in Nigeria doesn’t bother me. If any of them comes for help, we would help, but if they don’t come for help, they are answerable to their God who created them.”

The LGBT members of CAN do not believe that they can safely come out and reveal themselves to their priests, let alone their congregations. They fear that their own priest will not offer them counselling and prayers but will react negatively to them. The problem they would bring to their priest is in any case not the problem of their homosexuality, but the problem the church has with homosexuality. They do not want to come to church for help to be changed or healed. LGBT people know, as Archbishop Akinola does not or possibly cannot know as a heterosexual man, that we do not need healing from our innate, God-given sexual identity. We long for the church to learn “… what it is that the Lord requires of you: only to act justly, to love loyalty, to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6.8

The Reverend Colin Coward Director of Changing Attitude England