MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

Interfaith Celebration of CA Marriage Ruling in LA TONIGHT!

You are invited to attend an Interfaith Celebration of     Thanksgiving with the Los Angeles plaintiffs in the California Supreme     Court marriage case, The Reverend Dr. Troy Perry and his spouse,     Phillip Ray De Blieck, and long-time activist Robin Tyler, and her partner,     Diane Olson -- whom the LA Weekly referred to as "the LA four who     stated all the trouble." 

 

The brief celebration will take place at 6 PM at     Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles on Thursday, May     15th.

   

The Los Angeles interfaith event will be led by Rabbi     Lisa Edwards of Beth Chayim Chadashim and Rev. Neil Thomas, senior     pastor of MCC Los Angeles.

   

An open press conference will follow. 

   

The event is open to the public.

   

All are welcome.

        

In 1969, Rev.     Dr. Troy Perry officiated at the first public same-sex wedding     ceremony in the United States -- in Huntington Park, California. In     January of 1970, Rev. Perry filed the first U.S. lawsuit seeking legal     recognition of same-gender marriages. The case was dismissed before it was     heard, but it launched the marriage equality movement. Rev. Perry was the     first openly-gay member of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and     was a delegate to the White House Conference on AIDS and the White House     Conference on Hate Crimes. Each year the denomination of Metropolitan     Community Churches (MCC), founded by Rev. Perry, performs more than 5000 same-gender marriages.

‘Art That Dares’ named Lammy finalist

Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More by Kittredge Cherry has been named a finalist for the 20th annual Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the Lammies.

Kitt also participated in a reading by Lammy finalists in West Hollywood on May 8.  See the video or click here for more info on the reading. 

Lammy winners will be announced May 29 at a gala ceremony in West Hollywood, CA.  The glamorous event is the queer literary version of the Academy Awards.

The awards recognize excellence in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature.  They are considered to be the highest honor for a book from the GLBT community

More than 80 judges -- writers, journalists, booksellers, librarians, professors -- chose 107 finalists in 21 categories this year.  Finalists were chosen from 463 books nominated by 190 publishers.

Art That Dares is one of five finalists in the LGBT Arts and Culture category.  It’s up against Harvard University Press among others -- quite an accomplishment for a small start-up queer press. 

Three legendary figures of the LGBT literary community will receive Pioneer Awards at this year’s ceremony.  They are Ann Bannon, author of the Beebo Brinker lesbian fiction series;
Mark Thompson, author of Gay Soul; and Malcolm Boyd, Episcopal priest and author of Are You Running With Me, Jesus?

Art That Dares is packed with color illustrations by 11 contemporary artists from the U.S. and Europe.  Art that dares to show Jesus as gay or female has been censored or destroyed.  Cherry gathered these beautiful, liberating, sometimes shocking images into a book to ensure that they would be available.  In the book, the artists tell the stories behind the images and the introduction puts them into political and historical context, exploring issues of blasphemy and artistic freedom.

For tickets and more info, visit LambdaLiterary.org.

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Kittredge Cherry blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog and edits the Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts.  She offers GLBT and progressive spiritual resources at JesusInLove.org. 

Is Mike Myers Film "The Love Guru" Laughing WITH or AT Spiritual Self-Help?

The movie doesn't open until June 20, 2008, but people are already talking about THE LOVE GURU and Mike Myers' latest outrageous character, Guru Pitka, "the 2nd Best Guru in India."

As you can see in the trailer below, the movie will be laugh-out-loud funny - that just goes with the territory in a Mike Myers film - but will it be helpful?

Oprah caught so much grief in the 90's when she had a segment on her show called "Remember Your Spirit," but she continued to inspire the world, most recently in partnership with Eckhart Tolle (read about it here in O Magazine).  Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Louise Hay and others have achieved incredible success by helping people improve their lives, but many people still scoff at their work.  I have my own problems with "The Secret," but it's still helped millions of people feel more confident and focused and optimistic.

There are definitely ways to differentiate between what is helpful and what is not - for me, laid out most clearly in Ken Wilber's GRACE AND GRIT - and I would advocate that such discrimination is important.  THE LOVE GURU seems to point out the worst excesses of spiritual self-help, and maybe in that way will help people discriminate between what is actually useful and what is sugary slop!

Will Myers' horny guru do anything to help people in the real world or do you think the movie's mockery will take the spiritual self-help movement backward? 

How much can we laugh at ourselves?  Do we take spirituality too seriously?  THE LOVE GURU will be giving us the chance to hold it lightly!  Will you see the movie?  Does hearing that the movie is officially partnered with Deepak Chopra and Beliefnet (and that they asked MyOutSpirit for our input) change how you feel? 

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Presbyterian Highest Court Clears Spahr of Censure

Tiburon, CA – Today the Presbyterian’s General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) reversed the two-year-old Synod decision to censure Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr for her role in marrying same-gender couples. Today’s decision held that the Presbyterian constitution contains no prohibition against marrying same-gender couples.

“I am grateful that the Commission let stand the Presbytery’s original ruling which affirmed my ministry,” said Rev. Spahr. “The Church is a place of welcome and hospitality in which I will continue to honor relationships of love and commitment, regardless of sexual orientation.”

Surprisingly, by a bare majority, the decision – while clearing Spahr – attempted to set forth language that could be interpreted to preclude such marriages in the future. 

In a dissent signed by five Commission members – a significant minority – the members stated, “It is not the place of this Commission to go any farther and step into the legislative realm…In rendering it’s decision, the majority has taken the liberty of legislating in the guise of interpreting inconsistencies” within the constitution and current case law.

“We are deeply troubled by the majority’s insistence on reading any language into the constitution that renders these marriages anything less than fully equal.” said, Sara Taylor, Rev. Spahr’s attorney.  “By this act, the majority exceeded its judicial authority with respect to marriage in this denomination.”

“I will continue to honor my calling to perform marriages for all couples who love one another and are committed to one another,” said Spahr. “To not perform these marriages would go against my faith, my conscience and most importantly, against God.”

The Judicial Commission’s ruling marks the end of a four-year legal journey for Spahr that began in 2004, when she was charged by her local Presbytery for performing same-gender weddings. The ruling by the Redwoods Presbytery Permanent Judicial Commission originally affirmed Reverend Spahr, ruling that performing same-gender weddings was not “outside of, or contrary to, the essentials of the Reformed faith as understood by the Presbytery of the Redwoods.”  That historic decision was appealed and sent to the next highest church court, the Synod Permanent Judicial Commission, which ruled against the Redwoods Presbytery's affirmation of Janie's Ministry. That decision was appealed and this past Friday was heard by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, which is the church’s highest court.

“Our marriage affirms that no matter whom you love, you still have complete access to God,” said Sherrill Figuera and Annie Senecahl, a couple married by Spahr and named in the disciplinary case.

 

A lesbian Christian visits Israel

When a Christian lesbian makes her first trip to Israel, her experiences are sure to be different from the usual Holy Land travelogues.

I was touched and I laughed out loud -- sometimes both at the same time -- when I read Rev. Nancy Wilson’s account of her recent tour of Israel. Nancy is moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches and a leader in the GLBT Christian movement.  She gave me permission to share some highlights on the Jesus in Love Blog.  Click here for highlights from her amazing queer spiritual journey.

Who are the 50 Most Influential LGBT Spiritual Resources?

MyOutSpirit.com is looking for the 50 most influential Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender body/ mind/ spirit resources in the world!

Who would YOU include in that list?  Who has had the biggest impact on your life?  Who is doing the most important work for our community?

Nominate YOUR favorites and inspirations!  Just leave one comment on this post per nomination!

This Earth Day, Go "Bright Green"

It's EARTH DAY, 2008, so please take the time to be inspired by a new environmentalism that I find very exciting:  THE BRIGHT GREENS.

What is Enlightenment magazine Associate Editor Ross Robertson writes in  A Brighter Shade of Green: Rebooting Environmentalism for the 21st Century, "Bright green environmentalism is less about the problems and limitations we need to overcome than the “tools, models, and ideas” that already exist for overcoming them. It forgoes the bleakness of protest and dissent for the energizing confidence of constructive solutions." [click here to order the whole back issue - highly recommended; it's beautiful!]

The Bright Green movement has an incredible book and blog, both called WORLDCHANGING.  Executive Editor Alex Steffen writes, “We need, in the next twenty-five years or so, to do something never before done.  We need to consciously redesign the entire material basis of our civilization. The model we replace it with must be dramatically more ecologically sustainable, offer large increases in prosperity for everyone on the planet, and not only function in areas of chaos and corruption, but also help transform them. That alone is a task of heroic magnitude, but there’s an additional complication: we only get one shot. Change takes time, and time is what we don’t have. . . . Fail to act boldly enough and we may fail completely.”

The Bright Greens give me hope, and for more than the health of our world.  Their's is an empowering way to look at any concern (and may I suggest the spiritual health and evolution of LGBT people?).  Remember Philip K. Dick's famous dictum that "To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement... Whoever defeats the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus... thereby it becomes its enemies."

 

Instead, as Buckminster Fuller said, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

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Popular Christian Tv Host Comes Out

Azariah Southworth, host of The Remix, a popular Christian youth show, announced this week in an interview in Nashville's Out & About newspaper that he is a Gay Christian.

“This has been a long time coming. I’m in a place where I’m at peace with my faith, friends, family and more importantly myself. I know this will end my career in Christian television, but I must now live my life openly and honestly with everyone. This is my reason for doing this,” Southworth says.

Southworth has been hosting and producing the popular Christian TV show, The Remix for a year and a half. It is in syndication and can be seen in more than 128 million homes worldwide. It averages more than 200,000 viewers weekly.

“I know I will be cut off from many within the Christian community, and if so, then they didn’t get the point of the life of Christ. I believe by me living my life honestly and authentically now, I am able to be a better person and a better Christian."

Read a longer interview with Azariah on NathanExposed.  Azariah posted this video thanking his fans for their outpouring of support:

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American Family Outing: LGBTA Families Attempt to Connect with Conservative Christians

[source: Soulforce.org]  Recently supporters of the Family Research Council received an envelope stamped with the words "EXPOSED: Radicals' plan to attack churches!" What was the nature of the "plot" that had FRC in such frenzy? Well, in December of 2007, Soulforce, COLAGE, the National Black Justice Coalition, and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches sent letters to:

• Rev. Joel Osteen and the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas
• Bishop T.D. Jakes and The Potter's House in Dallas, Texas
• Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. and Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland
• Bishop Eddie Long and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia
• Rev. Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois
• Dr. Rick Warren and Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California

In these letters we expressed a desire to share a meal with leaders and families in their congregations on a designated weekend between Mother's Day and Father's Day 2008 (see complete schedule at www.soulforce.org/afo). Our goal is simply to traverse any division and try to find common ground, despite our differences on the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

We seek first to understand, and then to be understood, as we engage these congregations -- all with pastors who have been ranked by Christian organizations as among the 50 most influential Christian leaders in America. These churches have large memberships, some exceeding tens of thousands, and each leader has an enormous influence on American culture through speaking engagements as well as best-selling books, radio and television programs that reach millions of homes each week.

In January of 2008, Jay Bakker, son of Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner, followed our initial letter by writing to Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, and Joel Osteen...

Ex-Gays Speak in CURE FOR LOVE, TV Premiere Saturday, April 12, 2008

Cure For Love is a new documentary about the "ex-gay" movement - a religious network whose goal is to help their members renounce homosexuality. The ex-gay movement now encompasses 120 ministries in the US and Canada and is active in 56 countries world wide.

The film follows two men who have experienced the ex-gay movement in different ways. One gets married, though he admits he is still attracted to men, and another struggles to embrace his homosexuality. The film premieres on Canada's Global Television, at 7pm Saturday April 12.

With startling honesty, the men tell their stories of struggle to reconcile their sexual orientation with their Christian values.

The film was written and co-directed by Christina Willings and Francine Pelletier. Christina is an Alberta-based writer and filmmaker and last week, Matt Forsythe of the National Film Board of Canada asked her a few questions about making the film.

It seemed painful for the Christian subjects to discuss their sexuality at times. What was the hardest part about interviewing these people?

I took myself outside between interviews and cried. Does that about cover it?

Seriously, the process was emotionally exhausting and wonderful at the same time. It was completely perfect that some of the subjects found the process of interviewing very healing.

This is the best possible scenario for me as a filmmaker. The hardest part was interviewing the 'practised Chrisitians' - it's very difficult to cut through the rehearsed testimonies and make authentic connections with people who are used to proselytising and/or defending their positions to people they are in the habit of mistrusting (non-Christians).

It was also difficult to see how little people value their own happiness, and their own right to sexual enjoyment/connection. Heartbreaking really. Evangelical Christianity seems to have as its underpinning, shame and chronic self-criticism - whether in the arena of sexual identity or not. After all...if we don't need redemption form our own sinful natures, then no one needs to die for us, and the bottom falls out of the whole thing.

The level of engagement that some Christian communities are taking with their gay members is suprising. What were the roots of Christian ex-gay organizations like Exodus and New Direction?

Christian communities are actually not engaging much with gay people. They have engaged with the 'threat' of same sex marriage and other progressive legislation initiatives in the past 10 years and have felt increasingly forced to deal with homosexuality - motivated primarily by the desire to "defend their turf". What this has meant for gay people within the church is that there is an opening of interest for them to stick their toe into and perhaps begin to engage people on a human level.

This actually mirrors the development of Exodus and New Direction [an ex-gay ministry] as both were originally organizations of a bunch of tortured gay people toiling away in obscurity before Focus on the Family identified the "homosexual agenda" as it's next big campaign and began to pump money into Exodus.

On the "left of the Christian right" are people like Brian and Anna - they work in the Canadian context where the battle is largely seen as having been lost. 

The key is that they are welcome as long as they are still seeking healing from their orientation.

The film shows two couples: one couple has “renounced” their sexuality and is apparently happily married and another couple has ceased questioning their gayness and accepted it. How did you find these subjects for your film?

Researcher Arlene Moskovitch found Brian and Ana through New Direction in Toronto. I found John and Darren and Ricky at Brian and Ana's wedding.

Are these religious therapy groups exclusive to Christianity or do we see these in other religions as well?

I have come across [similar] groups for Mormons and Orthodox Jews.
 

Cure for Love premieres on Global Television's "Global Currents," Saturday, April 12 at 7pm

The film will be released on DVDs and at festivals later this year. 

Cure For Love is produced by Earth to Sky Pictures Inc. in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada.