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June 28, 2007
Apology from former leaders of ex-gay ministries
Posted by Jesus Politics
Several former leaders of ex-gay ministries issued an apology this week. This is a hopeful sign that the conservative Christian church may in the near future move beyond its current anti-gay prejudice.
As former leaders of ex-gay ministries, we apologize to those individuals and families who believed our message that there is something inherently wrong with being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families. Although we acted in good faith, we have since witnessed the isolation, shame, fear, and loss of faith that this message creates. We apologize for our part in the message of broken truth we spoke on behalf of Exodus and other organizations.
We call on other former ex-gay leaders to join the healing and reconciliation process by adding their names to this apology.
We encourage current leaders of ex-gay programs to have the courage to evaluate the fruit of their programs. We ask them to consider the long-term effects of their ministry.
From Michael Bussee's statement of apology:
Thirty years ago, I helped create EXODUS International. Today, I am here to apologize. Today, I am a licensed Marriage and Family therapist, a father, a born-again, evangelical Christian—and a proud gay man. [ ]
In the midst of all of this, my own faith in the EXODUS movement was crumbling. No one was really becoming “ex-gay.” Who were we fooling? As one current EXODUS leader admitted, we were just “Christians with homosexual tendencies who would rather not have those tendencies.” By calling ourselves “ex-gay” we were lying to ourselves and to others. We were hurting people. [ ]
Since then, I have remained one of EXODUS’s most persistent critics – not because I want to “deny hope.” On the contrary, I want to affirm that God loves every person—and that God’s love and forgiveness does indeed change lives. It has certainly changed mine. It just didn’t make me straight. I have found harmony between my sexuality and my spirituality—and I am hopeful that others can do the same.
Posted by Jesus Politics at 08:34 PM | Comments (7)
June 27, 2007
Lift Your Voice Against Torture
Posted by Faithful Progressive
c/o Center for the Victims of Torture:
Take Action on UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
Dear Faithful Progressive:
The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment states unequivocally, “No act of war, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture.”
This June 26, we mark the 20th anniversary of the Convention. In the U.S. and Africa, the Center for Victims of Torture will gather with volunteers and supporters to express our support for survivors and rededicate ourselves to work for an end to torture.
We hope you will join us.
The Administration is currently drafting interrogation guidelines for the CIA. Please contact your Senators and Representative and urge them to support one interrogation standard for all U.S. personnel. Tell them torture and cruelty are a violation of U.S. law and our nation’s respect for human dignity.
Subject: Torture is un-American
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
I am writing in recognition of the 20th anniversary June 26 of the Convention Against Torture, which states, "No act of war, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture."
As your constituent, I urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that America fights terrorism while respecting the rule of law and the basic human right not to be tortured.
To eliminate any ambiguities about abusive interrogation techniques, I urge you to:
1) Support the Army Field Manual on Interrogations (FM 2-22.3) as the minimum standard for the treatment of prisoners by all U.S. personnel, including the CIA and contractors;
2) Criminalize the use of any abusive interrogation techniques by military personnel and CIA interrogators;
4) Prohibit the use of all evidence obtained through techniques that run afoul of the Army Field Manual for Interrogations.
Torture and cruelty are illegal and a violation of our nation's respect for the rule of law and human dignity.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Click here to send now.
Posted by Faithful Progressive at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2007
Steeplejacking
Posted by Jesus Politics
John Dorhauer and Sheldon Culver have written an important book, "Steeplejacking", about the Christian Right attack on mainline protestant churches. Michelle Goldberg writes in the preface:
How is it that, in a time of widespread war, swelling inequality and environmental emergency, the question of gay rights is rending American churches in a way not seen since slavery?
This is not a spontaneous phenomenon. As Sheldon Culver and John Dorhauer reveal in this essential book, it is part of a carefully orchestrated campaign meant to undermine the liberal Protestant tradition and make Christianity synonymous with right-wing fundamentalism. It's hard to tell this story without sounding like a conspiracy theorist -- it is, after all, a tale of power-seeking reactionaries enacting a plan to infiltrate and undermine established institutions. Yet Culver and Dorhauer have carefully marshaled evidence linking fights in individual congregations to larger organizations like the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which is heavily funded by right-wing foundations. [ ]
Just as planned, right-wing groups have formed parallel organizations inside mainline congregations all over the country, often attempting coups against more liberal church leadership. Few churches caught in such struggles realize that they're part of a broader campaign, which is one of the reasons Steeplejacking is so valuable -- recognizing the systematic nature of the assault is a crucial first step in organizing against it.
A Baptist preacher once told me that members of the Christian right will always cross denominational lines for political reasons, but they'll rarely cross political lines out of religious solidarity. That's because the Christian right is a political movement masquerading as a spiritual one. It seeks to harness peoples' yearning for transcendence and anxiety about a quickly changing world to a punitive, partisan program. It's about power. Much more is at stake in the battle within the mainline churches than positions on a few wedge issues. The outcome of these struggles will determine whether America's historic Protestant churches remain firm voices for social justice or become mere adjuncts of the political right. [ ]
When I published my 2006 book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, which was about the religious right in American politics, I thought I'd find an audience among my fellow Jews, secularists and civil libertarians, as well as gays and lesbians interested in the systematic way that homophobia has been used as an organizing tool. I've been both surprised and delighted by the enthusiastic reception I've found among liberal Christians. Throughout the country, such Christians have expressed despair at seeing their faith appropriated by forces utterly at odds with their interpretation of the gospels. Some have even confided that the very name "Christian" has become an embarrassment -- a heartbreaking admission. Very often, Christians ask me what they can do to reclaim their religion and stand against the right. The question usually leaves me humbled and a bit baffled, because, as a secular Jew, I'm not remotely qualified to answer it. Now, though, I know what to say: As a start, read this book.
Posted by Jesus Politics at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2007
Homosexuality, the Bible and Experience
Posted by Jesus Politics
New Testament scholar, Luke Johnson, reflects on the influence of scripture and experience when one is thinking about homosexuality and the church.
Here are the first two paragraphs, but be sure to read the whole article:
Is the present crisis in Christian denominations over homosexuality really about sex? I don’t think so. If it were, there would be no particular reason why homosexuals should be singled out for attention; there is more than enough sexual disorder among heterosexuals to fuel moral outrage. The church could devote its energies to resisting the widespread commodification of sex in our culture, the manipulation of sexual attraction in order to sell products. It could fight the exploitation of women and children caught in a vast web of international prostitution and pornography. It could correct the perceptions that enabled pedophilia to be practiced and protected among clergy. It could name the many ways that straight males enable such distorted and diseased forms of sexuality.
Instead, the relatively small set of same-sex unions gets singled out for moral condemnation, while the vast pandemic of sexual disorder goes ignored. In my view, this scapegoating of homosexuality has less to do with sex than with perceived threats to the authority of Scripture and the teaching authority of the church. For those opposed to the ordination of women priests and bishops, or of married people, deviation from the uniform and steady practice of the church (glossing over the fact that it has rarely been steady or uniform) means starting down the slippery slope toward rejecting church authority altogether. And accepting covenanted love between persons of the same sex represents the same downward spiral with regard to Scripture, since the Bible nowhere speaks positively or even neutrally about same-sex love (glossing over the relationship of Jonathan and David, see 1 Samuel 18- 2 Samuel 1). For those who think this way, the world is becoming dangerously depraved; a line must be drawn in the sand somewhere, and homosexuality seems clearly to be the place.
Posted by Jesus Politics at 06:29 PM | Comments (7)
June 07, 2007
Regulating Homeschooling
Posted by Jesus Politics
The homeschooling movement is one of the most disturbing developments associated with the rise of the Christian Right. Even though there is an increasing amount of criticism directed at the Christian Right, there have not been many energetic critics taking on the homeschooling movement. This is why it is good to see a recent paper written by Kimberly Yuracko of the Northwestern University School of Law.
Some excerpts from the introduction of her paper, "ILLIBERAL EDUCATION: CONSTITUTIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON HOMESCHOOLING:"
Homeschooling is no longer a "fringe" phenomenon. Homeschooling
was common in the United States before the Nineteenth Century, but by the early 1980s the practice was illegal in most states. Since then, homeschooling has enjoyed a dramatic rebirth. Today, homeschooling is legal in all states. Estimates of the numbers of children currently being homeschooled range from 1.1 to 2 million. The 1.1 million estimate represents 2.2 percent of the school-age population in the country. [ ]
The modern homeschool movement was originally dominated by liberals and educational progressives. These early pioneers came to homeschooling from a range of leftist causes and organizations: the women's movement, the alternative schools movement, and the La Leche League. Many believed that traditional schools were rigid and intellectually stifling. They were followers of progressive school reformer John Holt, one of the early advocates of "unschooling." [ ]
By the early 1990's, homeschooling had expanded and divided into two distinct movements: one secular and the other conservative Christian. [ ]
These two factions were not, however, of equal size and strength. The Christian homeschooling movement came to dominate its secular counterpart in size, profile and political strength. [ ]
At the heart of the Christian homeschooling movement is the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. HSLDA's commitment to ensuring parents' unfettered right to homeschool flows from two core ideological beliefs. The first is a belief in parental control, indeed ownership, of children. "Parental rights are under siege," HSLDA warns. "The basic fundamental freedom of parents to raise their children hangs in the balance. Have we forgotten whose children they are anyway? They are a God-given responsibility to parents," HSLDA proclaims. Indeed, Michael Farris, an HSLDA founder and its former president, argues that "[t]he right of parents to control the education of their children is so fundamental that it deserves the extraordinary level of protection as an absolute right." The second is a belief in the need for Christian families to separate and shield their children from harmful secular social values. [ ]
Motivated by these beliefs, HSLDA, along with the National Center for Home Educatio (NCHE)--HSLDA's service arm designed to link, inform and organize state homeschool leaders--and the Congressional Action Program (CAP)--HSLDA's lobbying organization--has become a powerful political force. For the last two decades HSLDA has opposed virtually all state oversight and regulation of homeschooling.[ ]
Surprisingly, the social and legal implications of this phenomenon have received almost no scholarly attention. For decades political theorists have worried and argued about what steps a liberal society must take to protect children being raised in illiberal communities. They have focused their attention
on the extent to which a liberal society must permit or condemn such practices as polygamy, clitoridectomy, and child marriage.
Virtually absent from the debate has been any discussion of the extent to which a liberal society should condone or constrain homeschooling, particularly as practiced by religious fundamentalist families explicitly seeking to shield their children from liberal values of sex equality, gender role fluidity and critical rationality. The notable exception among political scientists is Rob Reich. [ ]
Legal academics have been even more silent in the face of homeschooling's dramatic rise. Most articles about homeschooling have focused on the narrow question of whether public schools must permit homeschooled
students to participate in extracurricular activities. Very few have provided any critical evaluation or assessment of current homeschooling laws more generally. None have addressed the significant constitutional questions raised by state abdication of control over homeschooling. This paper seeks to begin to fill this important void. The paper explores the constitutional limits the state action doctrine puts on states' ability to delegate unfettered control over education to homeschooling parents. It argues that states must--not may or should--regulate homeschooling to ensure that parents provide their children with a basic minimum education and check rampant forms of sexism.
(Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the link)
Posted by Jesus Politics at 05:58 AM | Comments (7)
