MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

Join a Global Prayer Initiative to Support Int'l Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17, 2013

{Via International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia}

Around the world, many faith communities and organizations mobilize on May 17^th to commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. These faith communities and organizations not only come together to highlight the intersections of faith and sexuality, to remember victims of homo/bi/transphobia and to stand against religiously-based homophobia and transphobia, but also, and predominantly, to raise the voices of progressive faith leaders in supporting the positive role of world religions and faith communities in shaping inclusive societies.

This year, the IDAHO Committee, together with the European Forum of LGBTQ Christian Groups, encourages individuals, organizations and faith communities to be a part of the Global Prayer Initiative - which aims to bring together different faith communities, denominations and groups to bring their voice to the IDAHO 2013 commemorations.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

One of the simplest and yet most powerful ways to be involved in the Global Prayer Initiative is to organize a vigil.  Vigils can be a powerful tool to draw attention to thoughtless acts of intolerance, and to religiously-based homophobia and transphobia. Vigils carry a certain weight that is symbolic in so many contexts, whether religious, spiritual, commemorative or memorial. Consider drawing your faith community together in commemorating the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Sparking discussions and dialogue around homophobia and transphobia is also a great way that faith communities can bring about change in their places of worship. Interfaith communities also have the opportunity to bridge the divides between communities where homophobic and transphobic sensitivities still persist. Consider promoting a dialogue between different faith communities or religious denominations in creating a new platform - such as a workshop, conference, email list or prayer network - through which to exchange information, gather together ideas and promote collective actions.

Sending a thought or prayer on the internet is another simple and effective way to show your solidarity and to help get the message out. You could do this via facebook or twitter, perhaps by using the hashtag #IDAHOprayer. You could create a youtube video, to offer your thoughts, well wishes and prayers towards those who have faced, and continue to face, stigma and discrimination within their lives.

Right Wing Lies to Leave Behind in 2012

{by Rev. Paul M. Turner, Gentle Spirit Christian Church of Atlanta}

July 2012 was the last time I wrote. Did I go on vacation? Quit writing blogs? Run out of things to write about or say?

No, No, and God knows No!

Simply put, I just got tired of having to write about the crap the religious and political right keeps lying about. How many times does one have to prove something is a lie before people begin to understand the game that is being played?

I realize one of the many reasons “stupidity” rules is because most people are like lightening. That is they take the path of least resistance. Most, (not all folks) are too lazy or too trusting to really check out information coming their way and so people who are looking to have power and control get it.  Maybe one day we will really take hold of the old sayings:  “Trust Allah … but tie up your Camel” or today's translation “Trust But Verify”.

So as we go into 2013 I thought I would do something which will allow me to write about more interesting things and to help the reader not be bored to death with repetitive stuff.

With the next couple of blogs I am going to cover the most obscene lies and un-truths the religious and political right continue to say, write, and shout out on almost a daily basis.

This way, you the reader get to read the truth, once. We deal with the fact it is a lie and why, once, and when they bring it up again I can simply refer back to this blog. Sweet!

So without further delay here are the lies listed in bold type and my answers or thoughts concerning each.

The Truly Liberated Person Frees Their Oppressor

"The first sermon in which I included gay people by name among “the least of these” for whom Jesus cared, my text was the story from Acts of Paul and Silas in prison. An earthquake frees them, and the jail keeper prepares to take his own life, thinking they have escaped. But Paul shouts out, “Do not be afraid, for we are all here.” That was my sermon title, and I explained that despite their liberation, they take time to convert the jail keeper, recognizing he too is imprisoned."

~ CHRIS GLASER, http://chrisglaser.blogspot.com/2012/08/spiritual-care-for-liberated.html

Paulo Freire, writing in Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “Although the situation of oppression is a dehumanized and dehumanizing totality affecting both the oppressors and those whom they oppress, it is the latter who must, from their stifled humanity, wage for both the struggle for a fuller humanity; the oppressor, who is himself dehumanized because he dehumanizes others, is unable to lead this struggle.”

Was Justice and Mercy Served?

{by Rev. Paul M. Turner, Gentle Spirit Christian Church of Atlanta} 

Sometimes one of the toughest parts of the job of being a pastor and to be considered a community leader is offering counsel to the community that is divided.

Recently Georgia's LGBTQIA community was faced with a deep and sharp divide.

 

February 4, 2012, a young gay man was savagely beaten as he came out of a store in his neighborhood.  This young man, Brandon White, became an instant poster child for a hate crime law in Georgia because the idiots who felt they had the right to beat him filmed it and, well, the rest is history.

On February 8, 2012 CNN reporter Moni Basu wrote the following about the crime:

“A video circulated online shows three men punching and kicking White after he stepped out of the JVC Grocery and Deli in southwest Atlanta's Pittsburgh neighborhood. The men, believed to be members of a gang called Jack City, yelled: "No faggots in Jack City."

Remembering Tyler Clementi: Gay teen driven to suicide by cyber bullies

By Kittredge Cherry (Jesus in Love)

Tyler Clementi (1992-2010) brought international attention to bullying-related suicide of LGBT youth when he jumped to his death on Sept. 22, 2010 (one year ago today). Clementi was an 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey when he died. A talented violinist, he came out to his parents as gay before leaving home for college.

Three days before his suicide, Clementi’s room mate used a webcam to secretly record Clementi kissing another man in their dorm room and streamed the video live over the Internet. In messages posted online before he took his own life, Clementi told how he complained to authorities about the cyber-bullying and asked for a new room assignment. Then he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. It took a week to find his body.

The room mate, Dharum Ravi, also 18 at the time, is charged with several crimes in connection with Clementi’s suicide, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. His accomplice, Molly Wei, avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against Ravi. He is scheduled to be back in court Oct. 20.

Anti-LGBT statements by public figures are also partly responsible for Clementi’s death. They created the hostile environment that drove Clementi to suicide. Artist Louisa Bertman emphasizes this point in her powerful ink illustration, “Tyler Clementi, JUMP!” She makes visible the hateful voices that may have been in Clementi’s mind. In her drawing, his head overflows with people urging him to jump.

They are politicians as well as the actual students who bullied him. Their names are listed in a stark statement at the bottom of the drawing: “Message brought to you by Sally Kern, Kim Meltzer, Nathan Deal, Carl Paladino, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Tom Emmer, Jeremy Walters, Rick Perry, Bob Vander Plaats, Dharun Ravi, & Molly Wei.”

Bertman, an artist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is known for her non-traditional portraits. Clementi’s highly publicized tragedy made him into a gay martyr whose untimely death put a public face on the problems of LGBT teenagers. His story sparked efforts to support LGBT youth, raise awareness of the harassment they face, and prevent suicide among queer young people. Another result is new legislation stiffening penalties for cyber harassment.

Clementi helped inspire the founding of the It Gets Better Project and Spirit Day. The It Get Better Project aims to stop suicide among LGBT teens with videos of adults assuring them that “it gets better.” Spirit Day, first observed on Oct. 20, 2010, is a day when people wear purple to show support for young LGBT victims of bullying.

Unfortunately Clementi’s experience is far from rare. Openly lesbian talk show host Ellen Degeneres spoke for many in a video message that put his suicide into context shortly after he died: “I am devastated by the death of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi….Something must be done. This month alone, there has been a shocking number of news stories about teens who have been teased and bullied and then committed suicide; like 13-year-old Seth Walsh in Tehachapi, California. Asher Brown, 13, of Cypress, Texas and 15-year-old Billy Lucas in Greensberg, Indiana. This needs to be a wake-up call to everyone: teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic in this country, and the death rate is climbing.”

Help is available right now from the Trevor Project, a 24-hour national help line for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens. Contact them at 866 4U TREVOR or their website: thetrevorproject.org.

___ Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian author who blogs on LGBT spirituality and the arts at the Jesus in Love Blog, where this is cross-posted.

Image credit: “Tyler Clementi, Jump!” by Louisa Bertman

Hunky Jesus contest: A queer way to reclaim Christ

By Kittredge Cherry, Jesus in Love

For me as a lesbian Christian, there’s a lot to love about the Hunky Jesus contest held every Easter in San Francisco by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of “queer nuns” who do street theater for charity.

First and most important, it makes me feel like Jesus is right here with us, queer or not -- living up to his name Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” 

Happy crowds attend the costume competition every year to see the sexy side of Jesus exposed by contestants with nicknames such as Stimulus Package Jesus, Gym Bunny Jesus and Victoria’s Secret Jesus.

The Hunky Jesus contest is packed with living, breathing gay Jesuses -- or “Jesi,” as they are called.  Many of Hunky Jesus photos are wonderful, and two favorites are posted here.  I put a lot of energy into promoting images of a queer Christ in order to heal the damage done by homophobes in Jesus’ name.  You can see them on this blog and in my book “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.”  The Hunky Jesi can free people who feel left out when Jesus is presented as a straight man.  Maybe they can even enlarge the way some people see God. 

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence say that the Hunky Jesus contest is a fun way to promote the ideal of a loving God who has a sense of humor.  It’s also a birthday party for their organization, which has raised more than $1 million for LGBT groups, AIDS service organizations, and other non-profits that don’t see a penny from conservative Christians.

It’s no surprise that the Hunky Jesus contest offends the religious right.  But even gay Christians are denouncing it in the news media this year.  Some LGBT Christians and our allies fear that such events could provoke a backlash.  Political commentator Andrew Sullivan, a gay Catholic, attacked it as “the tired, lame bigotry of some homosexuals” and gay Catholic priest Donal Godfrey of San Francisco called it “sacrilege” at Queerty.com.

I wouldn’t go that far, but parts of it do disturb me.  I decided against posting the recent 2011 Hunky Jesus contest video here because it includes nudity, the f-word and simulated gay sex.  A link to the video is at the end of this article. 

I’m sure that Jesus felt sexual attractions for both men and women, but the more extreme Hunky Jesus contestants express it in a hyper-sexual way that seems, well, unChristlike.  Even many progressive Christians will be offended. 

Still, the critics are wrong when they say that the hunky Jesus contest is hate speech against Christians.  As Sister Zsa Zsa wrote in her recent defense of the event, “Offending prudes and tyrants is not our purpose, but we consider it a bit of a bonus.”  In my opinion, the real purpose is reclaiming Jesus from bigots who have attacked LGBT people in Christ’s name.  We are the body of Christ, ALL of us, of every sexual orientation and gender identity. The contest is also about healing the split between sexuality and spirituality.  And that can get messy, very messy. 

Let’s not forget that Jesus himself was accused of blasphemy.  It was one of the charges leading to his crucifixion.  He broke rules, hung out with prostitutes and other “sinners,” taught that God loved everybody, and got killed for it.  The Christ who appears at the Hunky Jesus contest is not an object of worship, but he does remind me of the Jesus who angered the Pharisees by eating and drinking with “sinners.”  In the Bible, Jesus is always trying to demystify God, comparing God to some ordinary, even vulgar thing like yeast or a poor woman desperate to find a lost coin.

Founded in 1979, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have a vision statement that says, “We believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and we use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.”

Surely Jesus, hunky or otherwise, is with them.
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Here are additional resources on the Hunky Jesus contest:

Video of the 2011 Hunky Jesus contest
(Warning: contains profanity, male nudity and simulated gay sex.)

More photos! The photos here by Xero Britt come from the following sets:
2008    2009    2011

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Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author and art historian who blogs about LGBT spirituality and the arts at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Photo credits: Brokeback Mountain Jesus and Hunky Jesus contestant by Xero Britt

"God Hates Fags" or "Being Gay is a Gift from God?" Which Story will Win?

{by Clayton Gibson, GodLovesGays.org}

Have you ever heard someone say "God hates fags?"

Maybe you've read that homosexuality is an abomination?

Maybe you just feel like there's something dirty or naughty (or sinful) about two men or two women together?

Well if you haven't heard those things, I'm moving to wherever you're from! They're a regular part of the conversation here in the United States. In fact, two out of three Americans agree that gay people suffer discrimination and violence and die from suicide at least partly because of anti-gay messages coming out of churches and other places of worship.

It's time for that to change. 

It's time for us to work together to lift up the voices of the thousands of LGBT-affirming spiritual communities in the USA and speak truth to power in one thundering voice, "God Loves Gays."

One small church in Toledo, Ohio, is leading the way.

Central United Methodist Church has purchased a billboard that boldly states, "Being Gay is a Gift from God." [pictured above, obviously]

The Rev. Bill Barnard, Central’s part-time pastor, tells the Toledo Blade that the billboard message will be linked to a four-week sermon series, and the overall campaign goal is “to make a leap beyond tolerance.”

“Members of the congregation have experienced places and times where being lesbian or gay was tolerated — kind of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell, I know God forgives you,’” Barnard says. “We’re saying, ‘This is the way God created you. There’s nothing to forgive.’"

In an email to MyOutSpirit.com, Central UMC Lead Team Chair Lynn Braun explains, "Central UMC has been actively and openly inclusive of the LGBT community for over 25 years but we felt it was important to make an even bigger statement so that LGBT folks hear messages from religious groups that tell them that they are loved, just the way they are."

We are organizing welcoming faith communities to proclaim love at BringYourGayTeenToChurch.com!

Our plan is for EVERY LGBTQ-AFFIRMING SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY IN THE COUNTRY to celebrate "Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day" during their services on June 25 or 26, 2011. 

We are raising money at GodLovesGays.org to help the churches pay to promote this interfaith event so that:

Every LGBTQ youth will know that when times are tough, they have a spiritual home to turn to that celebrates their gender identity or sexual orientation (as opposed to churches that would try to change it). 

LGBTQ youth, and their parents, families and classmates, will hear from spiritual leaders that God loves transgender, bisexual, lesbian and gay people just as they are - that "Gay is a Gift from God," and not an abomination, a choice, or a sin.

Every LGBTQ teen will know that someone believes they are sacred, whole, valuable, and perfect as they are.

I don't know if we'll raise enough money to buy every LGBTQ-affirming church a "Gay is a Gift from God" billboard, but wouldn't it be nice? 

It's up to us. Which story will win: "God Hates Fags" or "Being Gay is a Gift from God?"

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Please donate at GodLovesGays.org so we can spread the love - even if it's just a $1 - and use the "Share" tools on that page to tell all your friends about the event!

You can also find us at http://www.facebook.com/GodLovesGays and BringYourGayTeenToChurch.com.

"Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day" will Announce that "God Loves Gays"

After an exciting start in Houston in February 2011, MyOutSpirit.com is working with organizations in Austin, Texas, and around the country to launch "Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day," June 25-26, 2011.

"We hope this interfaith event connecting LGBTQ teens with open-and-affirming faith communities will help prevent LGBTQ youth deaths by suicide," says MyOutSpirit.com founder, Clayton Gibson. "Thousands of churches, temples, synagogues and other spiritual communities are LGBTQ-affirming, and this event will help them get the word out. For once it's not about politics, not about equality. This time, it's about serving the spiritual needs of LGBTQ teens and their families."

 

As the crowd-funding campaign page for "Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day" explains:

As LGBTQ-affirming clergy,

Spiritual teachers,

People of faith, and 

Parents, friends and family members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning youth,

We were all alarmed by the spike in LGBTQ youth deaths by suicide last fall. An April 2011 study found that roughly 20% of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had made a suicide attempt, versus 4% of straight kids. 

Young people who live in areas with a more negative cultural climate towards LGBTQ issues are at an increased risk. Some 70% of calls to The Trevor Project's suicide hotline come from the southern and central regions of the United States.

Two out of three Americans agree with us that gay people suffer discrimination and violence and die from suicide at least partly because of anti-gay messages coming out of churches and other places of worship. We wondered:

What can WE do to help prevent gay teen suicide? 

We believe that LGBTQ-affirming spiritual guidance and community can help lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning youth who are in crisis. 

We know from personal experience that deep community and spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, mindfulness, forgiveness and yoga help human beings weather hard times. Bringing an LGBTQ teen to a certified welcoming church, synagogue, temple, sangha or other spiritual community can help empower them to "Make It Better" starting today.

That's why we invite your donation to support "Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day."

We want to change the cultural mindset by making it common knowledge that many spiritual communities would love to welcome, support and inspire LGBTQ young people, without trying to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

 

We can replace the incorrect assumption that LGBTQ people are "an abomination"

with our message that "God Loves Gays." 

Most importantly, we want every LGBTQ youth to hear that they are sacred, whole, valuable and loved, just as they are. And we want their parents, families and classmates to hear it, too!

Is Gay Spirituality Better...?

“Gay spirituality is better than any other” - the reporter desperately wanted me to endorse his belief.  I wasn’t going there. Righteous spiritual segregation is antithetical to the idea of a spiritual journey. So where does spirituality for LGBTQ people connect with the human family and the Holy?

Our normative story usually includes experiencing bullying, fear of coming out, rejection by family when we do, the Holy used by religion to condemn.  We might even be the victims of violence or discrimination. Our journey also contains another story line. It is about courage and love birthed in us. 

A more spacious invitation than the reporter’s belief invites us in. Spirituality in not about a theory, it is discovered in the reality of who we are. I’ve discovered that in the spiritual journey of immigrants, women, people of color and other minorities my own journey is inspired. Many of us fall into several self identifying categories.  

The question is not whether your spirituality or mine is “belter.”  It’s how does your journey create empathy with others?  How does your spirituality get fed by the wisdom of those who are different from you? How does it connect you to oneness with others?

Unlike the belief of that reporter my spirituality is not celebrated as a “better” treasure. I discover a much richer inclusive path in three pathways to celebrate and share the gift that is my life. 

Whoever and whatever tries to define you wants to confine you. It creates an enclosure keeping you from the Holy discovered in your life. In accepting an enclosure you become cut-off from the unique gifts that only you have to offer.  You deprive yourself and the world of them. Allowing yourself to be enclosed can happen subtly over time. The good news is that we have a choice to break out of the enclosure.

When we discover our voice and claim it as an LGBTQ person we are on sacred ground. Instead of listening to the bad advice of those who do not want you to claim your voice, you discover that in the Holy is present in it. Not outside “there” somewhere, but in you.  You begin to be free of a narrow consciousness. Claiming your voice is a spiritual practice taking you to a field of feasting with others.

The Universe needs your story as much as that of anyone else. As you tell your story you discover self-compassion. In the telling you become awake to the sacred in you as an LGBTQ person. As you settle in and celebrate your voice you begin to listen to the stories and voices of others with new attentiveness. They become connecting stories. Through them your appreciation and love for yourself and others deepens. You discover a new way of being alive. 

These three pathways of moving beyond enclosures, discovering and trusting your voice and connecting stories are markers of your authentic experience of being gay.

Love is the only thing that matters on our spiritual quest. Everything else pales in comparison. I am loved by the Holy for all of who I am. It’s a struggle for many to know and believe it every day. When I love myself and know that I am loved life becomes more radiant. I become more fully human, more alive as I am.

It takes courage to journey through the three pathways. The root word for courage means love. To be grounded in love we cannot avoid being courageous about who we are. Not the lonely isolated warrior courage, but the courage discovered in trusted people to call on along the journey. It’s all part of our spiritual positioning system.

When I’m grounded in these three pathways my encounters with others become sacred ground. Like the Hindu greeting Namaste the light me honors the light in you.

The three pathways are not just for GLBTQ people. Love and courage are not confined to GLBTQ spirituality. They’re each part of our common journey to become fully human -  as we are. We bring to the journey the only gift we can – ourselves.

So what are the markers of your spirituality?

Robert V. Taylor is a speaker, blogger and author. He is Chair of the Desmond Tutu Peace Fonudation in New York.  Visit him at www.wakeupforlife.com or www.robertvtaylor.com

Black Church Leaders Ask Forgiveness From the LGBT Community

{From TheRoot.com}

A rather unusual event recently took place in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fort Washington, Md. Several ministers of black churches met with members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community -- and formally apologized for what the organizers described as the church's judgmental attitude toward individuals who experience same-sex attraction and their loved ones.

Although a sincere apology is often the first step to restoring a fractured relationship, our culture has made public apologies into a performance art, characterized by carefully scripted PR creations and only token acknowledgments of actually having done wrong.

It was with this skepticism that I attended the forum at Carolina Missionary Baptist Church on Feb. 19, billed as an opportunity for people to express their thoughts and feelings in a safe environment. Anthony E. Moore, pastor of Carolina, moderated the dialogue and stated up front that the forum was not intended to be one in which the church took a theological position on homosexuality. My pastor, Keith Battle, attended on behalf of Zion Church, and other sponsoring churches included Pilgrim Baptist Church in D.C. and New Vision Church in Bowie, Md.

When I arrived, someone was recounting what it has been like to be born a man while feeling, and ultimately living, like a woman. The speaker explained that she turned to prostitution and drugs after experiencing rejection from members of her family and church. She said that eventually she came back to church, committed her life to Christ and started to translate her pain into purpose.

There were similar stories throughout the two-hour forum, all with one common theme: The church, the one place that should represent the epitome of love, was often the most uncaring and unsafe place for these individuals when they were at their most vulnerable. Bishop Kwabena Rainey Cheeks, the openly gay pastor of Inner Light Ministries, a nondenominational church in Washington, bluntly declared that "the most dangerous place for a gay and lesbian person is the black church." 

KEEP READING AT http://www.theroot.com/views/black-church-and-lgbt-community

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