MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

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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Gay Muslim Film Banned

The highly controversial and high profile documentary A Jihad for Love - the world's first feature-length film about Islam and homosexuality – has been banned by the censors from being shown at 21st Singapore International Film Festival where some 200 films will be screened.

The festival organizer told the Straits Times on Saturday that he was informed of the ban on Thursday over the phone by the Media Development Authority which oversees the censorship board.

A Jihad for Love was filmed over five years and in nine languages by India-born and raised director Parvez Sharma who traveled the world from India to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa and France to interview devout Muslims who are lesbian, gay or transgender to speak about their faith and their sexuality. In the film, a gay South African imam argues that homosexuality is not banned while another imam rebuts his view.

The paper quoted the chairperson of the board of Film Censors Amy Chua as saying that the film was “disallowed in view of the sensitive nature of the subject that features Muslim homosexuals in various countries and their struggle to reconcile religion and their lifestyle.”

About 14 percent of Singapore's 4.4 million population is Muslim.

According to traditional interpretations of the Quran, homosexuality is strictly forbidden and officially carries the death penalty in some Muslim or Muslim dominant countries including Iran, Saudi-Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Mauritania, Sudan and Nigeria.

Bishop Robinson Urges LGBT People to "Come Out Spiritually"

Bishop Gene Robinson told this story Friday night at a little reception for Integrity of Southeastern Michigan before he spoke to the whole Creating Change Conference on Saturday:

"I dropped by HRC headquarters in DC to say hi and someone announced me over the intercom, saying, "OUR Bishop is in the building if anyone wants to come say hi!" 150 or 200 people came down out of the HRC offices to see me.

"I spoke to them for a few minutes, and I asked, "How many of you are part of or regularly attend a spiritual community?" About 2/3 of them raised their hands.

"And of you, how many of you have ever shared that fact with someone else in this building?"

"THREE PEOPLE RAISED THEIR HANDS.

"In some ways, for some reason" Robinson continued, "it is almost harder to come out as a SPIRITUAL Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender person than it is to come out as LGBT!  Asking an LGBT person to go back to church - to reconnect with their spirit - is like asking an abused wife to go back to her husband.  We have to change LGBT people's PERCEPTION of spirit.

"We CANNOT relinquish the spiritual realm to those who oppose our equality.  It is more important than ever for LGBT people to come out spiritually."

CLICK HERE TO COME OUT SPIRITUALLY AT MYOUTSPIRIT.COM

Thanks to the Task Force for inviting the Bishop to give his amazing speech at Creating Change.  An excerpt:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu "would not worship a homophobic God"

Archbishop Desmond Tutu took a strong pro-Gay stand in an interview last week with the BBC's Radio 4.  The 40-minute radio program, to be aired next Tuesday, will focus on the conflict over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Church.

"Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and AIDS - a devastating pandemic - and conflict. God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another. In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality..."

"If God as they say is homophobic I wouldn't worship that God."

BBC Radio 4 will air From Calvary To Lambeth on Tuesday, Nov 27 from 8pm-8.40pm and again on Sunday, Dec 2 from 5-5.40pm on Radio 4 FM. The programme can be heard online at bbc.co.uk/radio4. 

READ THE FULL STORY ON FRIDAE.COM

Gay Bishop Gene Robinson Inspires Hong Kong

Fridae.com reports that Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson paid a surprise visit to Hong Kong last week, inspiring LGBT and Ally people alike, and responding to vitriolic questioning with grace and dignity.

He had been invited by a group of liberal Christians (the Hong Kong Christian Institute, the Hong Kong Women’s Christian Council and the [interfaith] Spiritual Seekers Society) plus the Hong Kong University’s Faculty of Education, to bring his experiences of fighting homophobia and discrimination to Hong Kong and to meet some of the local Gay Christians and hear their stories.

Attendees were warned of the "threat that ‘evangelical intransigence and intolerance’ would infect a Chinese world in which there had always been a tolerance for sexual divergence." 

At the root of his message was his belief in the absolute need for honesty, an issue, of course, which is of clear relevance to the largely closeted society of Hong Kong. “When someone will not acknowledge what I am, that hurts me,” he said. We had to work “to get to the place where we honour the choices other people make.”  Read the full story at Fridae.com

Thoughts on the passing of an anti-gay preacher

GLBT reactions to the passing of the Rev. Jerry Falwell are a fascinating study in contrasts. One of the most balanced and decent statements came from Matt Foreman, head of the NGLTF. He said:

The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.

That seems to strike just the right chord. Humane in its sentiment and yet unfliching in characterizing Falwell accurately as the "leader of America's anti-gay industry".

Queerty does a round-up of the GLBT reaction. Kudos to the blog for including this rather balanced and humble sentence: "Yes, he had his moments of insane roaring, but for the most part, the late reverend took a measured approach to his bigotry. He may not have been the most progressive figure, but he's certainly someone who should be remembered as an effective leader, intelligent politician and, most of all, someone who made the country debate some seriously heavy issues."

Other reactions were closer to pure anger and contempt, even at a sacred moment of a man's death. Gay City News does a roundup of some of the loathesome comments by gay activists who couldn't help but revel in glee.

Some members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and other far-bizarre groups (bless their souls) held mocking and irrelevant celebrations of Falwell's death. I hope the juvenile self-expression felt good to them, because I can't for the life of me think that such street theater held any other constructive purpose other than the venting of rage. Unless, of course, the purpose is to make statements by the NGLTF look measured and civilized by contrast.

Criticizing Falwell's politics and bigotry is fair, whether he's dead or alive. But allowing the worst instincts of anger and contempt to set the tone for any person's passing is simply immature at best.

Those would would dance on Falwell's grave would do well to ask themselves how their loved ones would feel were they subject to such ridicule at a time of their grief. Doing unto others as you would have them do until you is not an easy teaching of spirituality, but it seems the appropriate one in this case.

Spirituality should involve treating others with respect in moments such as the passing from life into death, even if those others haven't always treated you or your group with respect. "Love your enemies" is hard counsel to accept, but it is the calling of our better natures.

Luxuriating in Victimhood

Stephen Miller says this is "luxuriating in victimhood". I think Miller's right. Of course, identifying as a victim may be an important, positive, and healthy stage that people go through in an overall gestalt of their development. But Larry Kramer has been stuck there for a very, very long time. Thoughts?

Episcopal Church Affirms Inclusion

The leadership of the Episcopal Church has affirmed its inclusion of gay and lesbian members and has rejected the demands of conservatives for a parallel leadership structure.

Here’s the news story from The New York Times, March 22, 2007:
Episcopal Church Rejects Demands for a 2nd Leadership

From the statement issued by the church’s House of Bishops:

“We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of God.”

Stumbling on the Road to Damascus: Ted Haggard Loses out on the Opportunity of a Lifetime

Apparently Ted Haggard has been cured of his homosexuality. At least that’s what he and the people he has chosen to help him deal with his sexuality are saying.

 

What a loss for our community! (No, seriously.) I really had hoped and prayed for a different outcome, and even wrote to Mr. Haggard to encourage him to accept his sexuality, come out, and devote his faith, passion, and skills (which he clearly has when you look at the mega-church he managed to found) to working for acceptance of queers in both Christianity and society at large.

 

While Ted Haggard has caused our community much pain and damage, I saw incredible potential if he repented, came out, and began working to undo the damage he did. The whole situation seems quite similar to that of the Apostle Paul’s own journey to Christianity. Paul started his adult life as a Jewish Pharisee named Saul who persecuted the early Christian church mercilessly. Then, according to the Book of Acts, on the road to Damascus, he had a conversion experience in which Jesus appeared to and spoke to him. He changed his name to Paul and became one of the most important and influential missionaries and theologians in the history of Christianity. Unfortunately, Ted Haggard has chosen to let his similarity to Paul stop at the persecution.

 

I would still accept Ted Haggard into the community sometime down the road if he accepted himself, repented, and came out. Even if Ted Haggard isn’t gay, but has some other sexual identity outside of the neat heterosexual/homosexual dichotomy, reparative therapy, or whatever it is being called in this situation, is not the answer.

 

Of course, Ted Haggard is never going to repent or come out if the queer community is not willing to accept him. Despite his embarrassment, he can still make a place for himself in the evangelical community as a repentant sinner and a newly “cured” and ready to go hetero. If that’s the only identity we leave open to him, then of course he’ll take it. But if we keep the door open for him, he may come around eventually. Lets keep that in mind as Mr. Haggard enjoys a brief return to the media limelight.

 

Below I’m attaching a post I made to a now defunct blog during the height of the Haggard brouhaha, that more fully fleshes out my opinion on it all:

Understanding Where We Come From, but not Losing Ourselves

I don’t know how many of you have been following all the to-do about a researcher in Oregon investigating the physiological aspects of sheep sexuality, but I have been. In the first reports to come out of Dr. Roselli’s research, I was among the many queers who were very frightened about prospects of research into hormonal “cures” of homosexuality. Now, as Dr. Roselli tries to distance himself and his research from these notions, I remain worried and skeptical.

 

While I have avoided posting on this subject because I feel there is not enough solid information available, I was reminded of Dr. Roselli’s work and investigations into the causes of homosexuality by an interview I read today on Salon titled God and Gorillas. This interview is just one example of scientific investigation into the origin of religion. I find both the investigation into the causes of homosexuality and the evolutionary origins of religion to be similarly worrying on a gut level, even though I support them on an intellectual level.

 

Like many queers, I feel threatened by research into the specific causes of homosexuality because I worry that if a gene, hormone, hormone balance, etc., were found that directly caused homosexuality, some might be tempted to develop a “cure” for homosexuality (or alternatively, mothers might be tempted to abort babies simply to avoid having a gay child).  While those of us who are out and proud and our allies recognize that such a “cure” is nonsense, it would likely appeal very strongly to those struggling with their sexuality, parents of those struggling, and homophobic policy makers and lobbyists.