MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

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...

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.

Gay Mohammad art censored

Gay Mohammad images on video and in photos were censored recently from a Dutch art exhibit. The artist was forced into hiding by death threats from Muslim extremists.

Iranian-born artist Sooreh Hera says that her images are an artistic expose of Islamic hypocrisy on homosexuality.

She photographed gay men in masks of Mohammad and his son-in-law Ali. Her video mixes photos of gay men and Muslim clerics, Islamic chants and the hard rock of “Gay Bar” by Electric Six. 

The municipal museum in the Hague backed out of its plan to exhibit the photos from Hera’s “Adam and Ewald” series and a related video, according to recent news reports. Wim van Krimpen, director of the Gemeentemuseum, announced that the images were removed because “certain people in our society might perceive it as offensive.”

Hera, 34, accused the museum of caving in to pressure from Islamists, who also sent her death threats. Hera withdrew the rest of her photos from the show in protest, and another Dutch museum in Gouda has agreed to exhibit them in the future.

Her video “Allah ho Gaybar” was on YouTube for a few hours before it was removed for its provocative content. It is now available at a Dutch site.

A gallery of gay Mohammad photos can be viewed on Hera’s website. “Religion always wants to control human sexuality, most prominently with a compelling taboo on homosexuality,” she says in a statement on her site. “I have tried to show a recognisable beauty of homosexuals, but also an alienating beauty that to many may be unimagined, or dishonorable.”

In media interviews, Hera repeatedly criticizes countries such as Iran for imposing the death penalty for homosexual conduct.

The gay Mohammad controversy is especially interesting to me as a lesbian Christian art historian. I get many negative comments from Christian conservatives who are offended by the gay Jesus images in my websites and book Art That Dares. They often say that nobody would dare make a picture of a gay Mohammad because Islamic fundamentalists fight blasphemy with violence. Sometimes the Christian right sounds almost envious, as if they wished they could use violence instead of Christ’s command to “love your enemy.”

Well, the Christian right was wrong. Artists ARE making gay Mohammad images. As long as there is religious hypocrisy over homosexuality, artists will be making queer religious images that expose the truth. Society is enriched by the brave, powerful artistry of truth tellers like Sooreh Hera.

News reports about Hera and other artists addressing religion and homosexuality are included in the monthly Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts. I edit the newsletter and blog at the Jesus in Love Blog. Visit JesusInLove.org for more progressive spiritual resources.

(Photo above is from Adam and Ewald by Sooreh Hera)

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

Tele-Seminar: Spiritual Self Defense for GLBT Christians

"God hates fags!"

"Homosexuality is an abomination!"

"Turn or burn!"

Sticks and stones can indeed break bones, but words hurt, too. These are words and phrases hurled like sticks and stones at GLBT people and they are meant to injure us and they do - deeply. These words, repeated in pulpits, yelled at us from street-corners and often said by family in our own homes as we grew up, harm our self-esteem and make us ashamed of living authentically as God created us. Instead of feeling empowered as GLBT Christians, these words of hatred and condemnation disable us, making GLBT people feel abandoned by family, friends and most of all, God.

How do you defend yourself? How do you deflect the slings and arrows of persecution that constantly bombard GLBT people? How do you answer these kinds of attacks and reclaim your life as a beloved child of God who was also created as a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person?      

Get the answer to these questions and more as Whosoever hosts its first ever tele-seminar: Spiritual Self-Defense for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Christians.

Homophobia: A Problem of Moral and Spiritual Development

By Joe Perez

Homophobia is no myth. Over the past weekend, several news stories highlight the prevalence of homophobic hatred throughout the world. Clearly a large proportion of the world's population builds their worldview based on antipathy towards and hatred of gays:

In Hungary, "skinheads and right-wing activists" greeted participants in a gay-rights parade with rotten eggs and smoke bombs. When Budapest police tried to disperse several of the protesters, some of them threw beer bottles at the officers, says another AP report.

In the Croatian capital of Zagreb, about 20 people in a gay-rights parade were hurt by anti-gay attackers carrying weapons appearing to be Molotov cocktails, and two required hospitalization for their wounds. Vile hatred of gays takes aim at marchers advocating for equal rights, tolerance, and acceptance.

In the Sacramento area, a group of Slavic men on a picnic noticed that a man did not have a female date and danced with both women and men in his party. They tossed racist and anti-gay slurs at Satendar Singh, and later one of the men struck Satendar and hurled bottles at his party. Satendar died on July 5th from the wounds inflicted by the attackers.

A man in Massachusetts seeks nearly $10 million in damages because he failed the bar exam. He told the Associated Press that the reason he failed is that he refused to answer a question about the rights of two married lesbians and their children (presumably he had no problem answering questions about murderers, rapists, and divorced heterosexuals).

Because Stephen Dunne found the grounds for the bar exam's question "morally repugnant and patently offensive," he believes he is justified in not answering the question. So he sues. This particular attack against gays is not with Molotov cocktails or beer bottles, but with inflammatory language, insulting argument, and frivolous lawsuits that could distract the attention of gay activists.

Just about any weekend turns up dark or odd stories like this, as you are well aware if you follow news about gay-rights. The stories serve as a cautionary reminder that hatred of gays is alive and well and can't be ignored.

Read the stories and you will see that the methods of anti-gay attack vary. The motivations and tactics range from overt violence to subtly worded position papers. The attacks wound physically, psychologically, and spiritually. But there is a common thread that unites all homophobes.

Recommended Reading: Equality Ride Blogs

I’d like to recommend the Soulforce Equality Ride Blog to those of you who enjoy keeping up on developments in the world of queer faith issues. Its an interesting mix of writing and video, documenting both the actions of the riders and their reflections on the actions. I just discovered it a few days ago, but I find it inspiring to read about these people’s experiences.

 

For those of you who don’t know about the Soulforce Equality Ride, here’s some of the official information:

 

The Equality Ride is two months of sustained activism inspired by the Freedom Rides of the civil rights era. It is a journey by bus to initiate discussion about faith and sexuality in communities where it is most controversial. An unfortunate number of Christian colleges and universities blatantly condemn certain aspects of human diversity. In fact, in many schools, identifying as or affirming a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender person is a violation of policy. Participants in the Equality Ride share a message of hope and healing with students suffering under such doctrinal prejudice. For seven weeks they travel to places to encourage compassionate inclusion and loving acceptance, values upon which Christianity is founded. Honest exchange around these topics, which belongs at academic institutions, creates a mutual learning experience that breeds genuine understanding. (keep reading about the Equality Rides…)

 

In general, I think the Equality Rides are a great example of queers of faith being proactively working for change. I have some reservations about how easily Soulforce seems to have co-opted an iconic aspect of the Civil Rights Movement. While queers are engaged in a civil rights movement of their own, I am worried by the ease with which the queer community appropriates aspects of the Black Civil Rights Movement without engaging the issues of how the queer and Black civil rights movements are similar and dissimilar.

 

I’m still working through my thoughts on this specific example - expect a post on in the next few weeks. But for now, read the blog and see if it inspires you, too!

Changing the Way We Talk About "Gays with Guns"

A few weeks ago, I was blown away at the fear and violence that was being vented on in the discussion under the Joe’s post “Gays with Guns.” I don’t deny that physical assault is a real danger faced by many queer people, both because of their queer identity and because all people face a statistical threat of physical violence. However, I question the usefulness of guns, ostensibly for self defense, as a reaction to this danger. I firmly believe that the prevalence of guns in the marketplace only perpetuates an arms race between potential victims and potential attackers. We only drift into a situation where large numbers of people are carrying lethal weapons. These weapons tend to cancel each other out in terms of effectiveness for attacker and defender, which only encourages both sides to seek more powerful guns. The arms race becomes a vicious cycle, driven by the fear of potential victims and the desire of attackers to overpower their victims. Meanwhile, with little increase in safety, we see huge increases in the danger of collateral damage, i.e. people who were not even initially targets of violence becoming victims of the range and lethality of the bullets.

 

In his post, Joe mentions several responses to the danger of physical assault that are good alternatives to guns and that would allow us to break the arms race cycle. However, his most useful suggestions are ignored by those caught up in the arms race, who instead prefer to point out that within the context of the arms race cycle, taking a self defense class is not as good a solution as I high-powered, easy to carry sidearm. In this post, I’d like to move away from the discussion under “Gays with Guns,” which has become trapped in the rhetoric of the arms race cycle, and instead introduce the language, understanding, and techniques of non-violence into the discussion.

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.