Gay, trans pastors reinstated
After the Lutherans voted to allow noncelibate, monogamous gay pastors, seven were reinstated.
Gay, trans pastors reinstated
After the Lutherans voted to allow noncelibate, monogamous gay pastors, seven were reinstated.
Mass. Archdiocese to help find school for son of lesbians
(Boston) The head of education for the Boston Archdiocese offered Thursday to help find a different Catholic school for a boy denied acceptance at a Hingham Catholic school because his parents are gay.
In a statement, superintendent Mary Grassa O’Neill said she spoke with a parent of the 8-year-old boy and “offered to help enroll her child in another Catholic school in the archdiocese.”
“We believe that every parent who wishes to send their child to a Catholic school should have the opportunity to pursue that dream,” O’Neill said.
The parent, who has remained anonymous to protect her child from publicity, called the archdiocese’s response “compassionate” and said O’Neill apologized. But the woman said she was uncertain she would enroll her son in another Catholic school because she needed to learn more about their educational programs.
She added: “I will be a little bit more guarded in my questioning so I’ll be able to have a real clear picture where they stand.”
The boy was to enter third grade at St. Paul Elementary School in the fall. But the woman said the parish priest, the Rev. James Rafferty, began asking questions about her relationship during a meeting last week.
On Monday, she learned her son’s acceptance had been rescinded during a conference call with Rafferty and the school’s principal, Cynthia Duggan. She said Rafferty said that her relationship was “in discord” with church teachings. The Catholic church believes marriage is only between a man and a woman.
Rafferty and Duggan did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The Boston archdiocese said it learned of St. Paul’s decision late Tuesday. In her statement, O’Neill said the archdiocese doesn’t bar children of same-sex parents from attending Catholic schools, and that it will develop a policy in the coming weeks to make that clear. Terry Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said local pastors have autonomy to run their parishes within basic church rules, but the archdiocese can set new policy when something needs to be clarified – as in this case – and pastors are expected to follow it.
O’Neill also said the schools expect parents to understand “that the teachings of the Church are an important component of the curriculum and are part of the students’ educational experience.”
O’Neill’s statement came as some Catholic groups criticized St. Paul’s decision.
On Thursday, the Washington-based group Catholics United said it had collected 2,500 signatures on a petition asking Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley to ensure the archdiocese’s schools would allow all children access to a Catholic education. Executive Director Chris Korzen said he welcomed O’Neill’s statement and looked forward to the release of the archdiocese’s promised new policy.
The Catholic Foundation, which is chaired by O’Malley and raises money for Catholic education, called St. Paul’s decision “at odds with our values as a foundation, the intentions of our donors, and ultimately with Gospel teaching.” The foundation said it would not fund any school that treats students and families in such a manner.
The foundation’s executive director, Michael Reardon, said the foundation did not give money to St. Paul’s.
The Massachusetts case is similar to a decision by a Catholic school in Boulder, Colo., the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which said two children of lesbian parents could not re-enroll because of their parents’ sexual orientation. The Denver Archdiocese backed the school’s decision.
Pastor who opposes homosexuality may get Chicago City Council seat
he amens in full force, the choir in full throated glory, Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus takes the pulpit at New Life Covenant Church to urge his congregation to dream big.
“Because we can change a life, we can change a community,” he preaches. “Because we can change a community, we can change a city.”
The sermon sounds like a campaign speech, fitting because De Jesus, one of Chicago’s most influential Latino pastors, is making a controversial leap into politics as the choice of outgoing Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) to be his replacement on the City Council.
But, in a complicated blending of morality and politics, the pastor’s possible appointment has drawn protests from gay activists who object to other rhetoric used in De Jesus’ church that they say is not as uplifting — messages equating homosexuality with drug addiction and other social ills.
The activists call De Jesus “homophobic.” They worry that his appointment would give him the ability to control funds for agencies that serve gay clients and a platform to shape broader debates such as same-sex marriage.
De Jesus says that he has never preached hatred of gay people and that his church’s opposition to homosexuality is rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
See Pastor who opposes homosexuality may get Chicago City Council seat …
Chicago Tribune
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Bitter loser Harry Jackson files lawsuit to force referendum against gay marriage in DC
See Harry Jackson, a Beltsville, MD preacher who is trying desperately to gain national recognition by forcing the District of Columbia’s residents to vote on the issue of same-sex marriage, and has reportedly turned to the courts to force the DCBOEE to approve his anti-gay marriage voter referendum. Based on Jackson’s repeated racially-tinged statements, he appears to believe that, because Washington is a majority African-American city, there are religiously- and culturally-based motivations for the city’s black residents to vote en masse for his socially conservative agenda. He and the pastors who speak in unity at his side have an unyielding argument that gay activists are hijacking the Civil Rights movement in an attempt to pit the interests of black community members and gay community members against one another — ignoring the obvious crossover or support that exists between them.
The DC City Council has already rebuffed Jackson and his so-called “army” of bible-waving protesters by voting twice in favor of recognizing gay and lesbian marriages that have been performed legally in other jurisdictions. The Board of Elections and Ethics also determined that that the intentions of Jackson’s referendum would not be in-line with existing ordinances. Reports indicate that Jackson and his wife, Vivian, are Maryland homeowners, but if Jackson is a legitimate tax-paying resident of DC, he has only been so for a extremely short period of time, and is possibly the roommate of another man. (No word yet on where his preacher wife is living officially.) Jackson seemed to indicate on a recent plea to Fox News, that he was the victim of computer hackers who obtained his personal residential information. His group of conservative preachers in April complained about unelected, activist judges approving of homosexual marriages, so it’s rather ironic that he is turning to the judges now to help him regain footing against the determinations made by DC elected officials and the board of elections. (Washington Post)
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Christian conservatives fight expansion of hate-crimes law
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.
“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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Bid to Block Recognition of Unions Fails In DC
The District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics rejected a proposed ballot question intended to block city recognition of same-sex marriages from other locations. Last month, the City Council voted 12 to 1 to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions, a decision widely seen as a prelude to an inevitable vote on legalizing same-sex marriages in the capital. Pastors opposing same-sex marriage sought the citywide referendum in hopes of reversing that decision, but the election board said the referendum was not allowed under the city’s 1977 Human Rights Act See Bid to Block Recognition of Unions Fails
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Black Pastors and Gay Rights: DC Becomes a Battleground
The nation’s capital is suddenly center court in America’s loud argument over gay marriage. Nothing new about that, except that this time the battle is being hashed out in the streets, churches and living rooms in working class wards of the city. While there is something poignant about both sides literally singing the same hymn (“We Shall Overcome”) at its rallies, there is also something refreshing about the debate taking place in the unofficial part of Washington, D.C: For once, it’s not partisan.That is not to say it’s not a touchy issue. Gay marriage pits race and faith together in the same combustible conversation, and does so in a community in which both are sacrosanct subjects. The black Christian church predates Emancipation by more than two centuries, and served as a bulwark against the pernicious effects of slavery, Jim Crow, alcohol and drugs, AIDS, poverty, crime, police brutality and bad schools.
In the face of all that, African-American pastors and their churches have offered up faith and love of family as twin defenses. Thus they have been an institution with a message that at its core is fundamentally conservative. And at the same time, it was from the pulpits of these very same black churches that emanated the commanding voices that demanded fundamental change to the old order. Make no mistake, the moral authority and raw political power of the civil rights movement was rooted in these self-same churches. And in that sense they were a liberating, as well as a stabilizing, force.
These contradictory forces of liberalism and conservatism have coexisted, not always easily, for centuries within the church. But gay marriage has opened a chasm in the black community, in which, to paraphrase (and modernize) Lincoln who, while speaking about the North and South during the Civil War, observed that each side reads the same bible, prays to the same God, invokes His wisdom against the other – and belongs to the same political party.
In the local politics of Washington, the true power brokers are predominately black, monolithically Democratic and tuned into the religious sensibilities of their constituents. Thus, the discussion taking place here over gay marriage is really a series of conversations; some within the black community and some within the Christian churches, and almost all of it within the Democratic Party. This is not altogether a bad thing. For starters, there’s no Republican bogeyman, and for another, the race card is played to establish one’s bona fides, not to stoke prejudice. Finally, the church-bashing rhetoric one finds in other places where this debate is taking place is muted here: Attacking the church would simply be a good way to lose the argument. And judging by the language being invoked by both sides, the stakes of this argument are high: Leaders of competing camps clearly believe that what unfolds here in unofficial Washington will be a harbinger for where this nation is heading on gay rights.
“The march towards equality is coming to this country, and you can either be a part of it or stand in the way,” David Catania, one of two openly gay D.C. Council members, declared on May 5, as the council approved his pro-gay marriage measure.
“This is the Armageddon of the marriage debate,” was the rejoinder offered by Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., and author of a petition seeking to have the question put on the ballot for every voter in Washington. “It’s a declaration of war.” See Black Pastors and Gay Rights: DC Becomes a Battleground
Politics Daily
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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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SD Evangelical Lutheran Church Synod Votes To Keep Current Policy On Gay Clergy
The South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voted today to uphold its current policy, preventing gay and lesbian clergy from being in a committed relationship while serving as pastors. The vote is only a recommendation from the South Dakota Synod. The recommendations will be taken to the ELCA national assembly in August.
Pastors and church members on both sides of the issue voiced their concerns before voting at the annual Assembly.
Nearly 800 members of the South Dakota ELCA gathered in Sioux Falls for the annual assembly. But, this years agenda included a heated debate: whether to support allowing gay and lesbian clergy to serve as pastors *and be in a committed same-sex relationship.
“I think we really need to wrestle with a new vision here,” Pastor Mindy Ehrke of Salem Lutheran Church in Mount Vernon said.
“As a Christian person, as a teacher, I need to turn to the word of God,” Pastor Daniel Ostercamp of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Webster said.
ELCA members were here to debate and vote on two resolutions: one would reject a change to the social statement and current teaching documents on sexuality, the other would reject a change in ministry policy to allow gay clergy in relationships.
One by one, church members and delegates stepped up to floor microphones to defend what they believe South Dakota should encourage.
“I think that we all need to take a step back and look at the other words that god’s taught us, love your neighbor as yourself, I think we all need to take a look at that right now,” Kristin Ackermann, member of Shalom Lutheran Church in Harrisburg, said. See SD Synod Votes To Keep Current Policy On Gay Clergy
KELOLAND TV
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