The typical US religious congregation is comprised of six women for every four men. Women play a major role in lay organizations and church volunteer groups. As women are increasing in participation, men’s participation in religion is declining. Ever wonder if women clergy are more political or more liberal?
Continue reading "Did Newsweek forget women in religion? Etc." »
The story by Greg Hernandez in a recent issue of The Advocate tells of famed infomercial psychic Miss Cleo's coming out.
She says she’s actually not a psychic but more of a spiritual counselor or spiritual adviser.
“I’m more a shaman, an elder in a community who has visions and gives direction to people in their village. My clients and my students are my village. I take care of this community. If you sit down at my table, you have to take away a lesson and not just learn what is going to happen tomorrow. I also perform weddings—both gay and straight marriages—and house cleansings and blessings.”
Feminist, Buddhist, author and teacher. bell hooks (all lowercase) is all of these things and more. In the latest Shambhala Sun (July 2006), a lengthy interview with her explores the connection between her Buddhist understanding of dharma and her views on shifting oppressive paradigms without succumbing to an either/or, "enemy"-centered fight.
She says, "I would like to bring the work of mindfulness and awareness to everyday struggles. The most important field of activism, particularly for black people, is mental health. Activisim does not need to be some kind of organized 'against' protest. When my students say they want to change the world, I espouse an inward to outward movement. If you feel that you can't do shit about your own reality, how can you really think you could change the world? And guess what? When you're f**-d up and you lead the revolution, you are probably going to get a pretty f**-ed up revolution."
Via exgaywatch (and the Washington Blade) comes this vignette about Bishop Alfred A. Owens, Jr. having an altar call for his straight male Jesus-worshippers. Ignoring the fact that Christian salvation is a gift of grace (as is one's heterosexuality, on their same theoogy), Owens screamed out in a sermon that "it takes a real man to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior!" This, of course, excludes biological males who are gay or, presumably, effeminate: “I'm not talking about no faggot or no sissy”. He then asked the men to come to the front of the church in order to thank God for their heterosexuality.
Penn State's ladies basketball coach did discriminate against a former player because she perceived her to be a lesbian, an investigation has concluded. Here's what the university is threatning her with:
Coach Portland will be required to pay a $10,000 fine, a written reprimand will be put in her personnel file, she will be required to participate in a professional development experience devoted to diversity, and has also been informed that further violations will result in termination with cause.
Continue reading "Discrimination because of perceived orientation" »
I mentioned the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in an earlier post about the Equality Riders (who I will revisit, as I've been mulling over some of the discussion on this blog and other places). There's another high-profile challenge to the legality of this policy, by a lesbian woman, a flight nurse.
You can find the story covered in the Washington Post, as well as Reuters and other news agencies. Beth Stroud was officially defrocked today by the highest judicial council in the Methodist Church.
I'm all for religious bodies being able to discriminate within their own set of ideological principles. I may think the interpretation of their scriptures is right or wrong, but ultimately one chooses to be a member of a religious group and abide by their rules.
So I, as an outsider, may criticize their beliefs, but it does not directly impact me. So why am I ranting? The United Methodist Church has, by its own statements, specifically one released in 1996 and re-released in 2004, come out against discrimination against LGBT persons.
The Supreme Court of California recently granted a lesbian woman child support from her former partner. The court's summary reads this way:
...we conclude that a woman who agreed to raise children with her lesbian partner, supported her partner’s artificial insemination using an anonymous donor, and received the resulting twin children into her home and held hem out as her own, is the children’s parent under the Uniform Parentage Act and has an obligation to support them.
Note the emphasis in the decision:
1. The woman agreed to raise children (contractual language)
2. The woman supported artificial insemination of her partner
3. The woman held [the children] out as her own during the duration of their partnership
These are the reasons that the court agreed in favor of the woman left behind in the relationship to care for the children. They are the same reasons that a court would decide that a man who left his opposite-sex partner, after a period of cohabitation, with adopted children, could be responsible for child support. Regardless of gender, the two opposite-sex people entered into a contract and should recognize that the care of their child does not end if their romantic relationship does.
Meanwhile, the governor is planning to veto a bill designed to expand marital rights (and responsibilities, such as child support) to same-sex couples.
When conservative Christians think of "Gay Spirituality", many consider it an oxymoron at best, blasphemy at worst. This viewpoint is increasingly in the news, with this week seeing a spate of media coverage concerning ministries who work with "ex-gays" (or ex-gay wanna-bes). To many (not only conservative Christians, but Jews and Mormons, who each have their own corresponding ministry to the "struggling homosexual"), the only way that "Gay Spirituality" can be practiced is through the rigors of celibacy and self-denial.
As a lesbian who has spent some time working within that framework, even on the couch (actually, he had chairs) of relatively well-known counselor Warren Throckmorton, I have been watching the news closely.
Salon.com ran a four part series (you'll have to subscribe or watch an ad to view the articles) about "reparative therapy", even going so far as to have a straight man masquerade as a homosexual seeking conversion. I'll be honest--I was reading the coverage for any mention of lesbianism, or women who struggle with "SSA (same-sex attraction)." The coverage I've seen is disappointing, and I believe it is linked with wider religious attitudes towards women, women's sexuality and spirituality...
The United Methodist Church has decided to reinstate a lesbian minister who had been defrocked by the church for being in relationship with another woman. Here's the news story, from the ABC News site.
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